The Disability of Richard III

 

King Richard III, panel by an unknown artist. Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-III-king-of-England#/media/1/502498/85002

 

Welcome to another entry in my series on historical figures with disabilities. This week I will be looking at King Richard III of England (1452-1485). He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. I must admit, that before I researched this, all I knew about Richard III was that Shakespeare portrayed him as the ‘Hunchback King’. It turns out, things are a tad bit more complicated than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, the show must go on!

Shakespeare’s Richard III

Richard III is perhaps best known from William Shakespeare’s 1592/1593 play, aptly named, Richard III. In this, Richard is depicted as ugly and deformed, being described as a “poisonous bunch-backed toad”, amongst other things. From the very start of the play, it is made clear that there is something different about Richard. His monologue to open the play contains the following lines:

‘But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up’.

The lines ‘unfinish'd, sent before my time/Into this breathing world, scarce half made up’ are reminiscent of the way Claudius was described, as discussed in a previous post. Disabled people being described as ‘unfinished’ may have been a common theme that ran throughout history.

It was not only in his appearance that Shakespeare’s Richard was monstrous. His actions also made him the villain of the piece. One of the most malicious actions he takes is murdering several of his family members to become king.  When the play was written, people believed that deformity was an outward expression of inner moral corruption. Therefore, deformity and being a bad person would usually go together. However, it is worth noting that Shakespeare was writing under Tudor rule, so it was beneficial to discredit their predecessor.

 

Peter Dinklage as Richard III, 2004. New York Magazine.

Richard III and Attitudes Towards Disability

Some scholars such as Allison Hobgood no longer see Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III’s disability in a wholly negative light. In fact, she believes it displays signs of a medical model of disability which was beginning to emerge at that time. If you are confused as to what I mean by medical model, you can read my post entitled ‘The History of Disability Terminology’.

Anyway, where was I? Hobgood believes that the play was released at a time of transition. You see, in the Medieval Period (5^th – 15^th Century) people believed in monsters and that those who were deformed were also monsters. Don’t worry, the topic of disability and monstrosity will definitely feature in at least one blog post. In the Early Modern Period which followed the Medieval Period, a more ‘scientific’ approach was taken to disability. People began to study deformities to find material causes and cures, rather than placing responsibility on God. As such, Shakespeare may have included Richard’s deformities in such detail, so that his audience could analyse and reflect on his deformed body.

The Real Richard III

I was excited to learn more about the manipulative and deformed Richard III, only to discover that in reality, he was hardly even disabled. Archaeologists uncovered his remains from underneath a Leicester carpark in 2012. After analysing his skeleton, researchers from the University of Leicester determined that it was in fact Richard III and he did indeed have a deformed spine. However, his impairments were incredibly mild compared to Shakespeare’s portrayal of him. It is now believed that Richard III lived with idiopathic adolescent onset scoliosis. This meant he had a curve in his spine, resulting in his right shoulder being higher than his left. This, however, would not have caused a hunched back. Researchers also believe that the scoliosis happened sometime after he turned 10 years old. While painful, it would not have greatly restricted daily activity. Channel 4 even showed it was possible for someone with the same condition to ride a horse into battle while wearing customised armour. This meant that Richard was able to ride into the Battle of Bosworth Field against Henry Tudor in 1485, where Richard ultimately died. This battle saw the end of the War of the Roses, between the houses of York and Lancaster. Interestingly, this war also inspired the series Game of Thrones.

 

 

 

I think the moral of the story is, don’t believe everything that a playwright wrote about his monarch’s old rival 400 years ago.

Next week I will examine the disability of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Luckily, there was no family rivalry there….

                                                                                                                         The Wheelchair Historian

 

 

Further Reading

BBC ‘Richard III: Team rebuilds 'most famous spine' 30 May 2014 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-27610788 Accessed: 21 August 2020.

Bryner, Jeanna, ‘Did King Richard III Undergo Painful Scoliosis Treatment?’ April 19, 2013 https://www.livescience.com/28867-did-richard-iii-undergo-scoliosis-treatment.html Accessed: 21 August 2020.

Duffin, Claire, ‘Richard III, the 'hunchback king’, really could have been a formidable warrior . . . and his body double can prove it’ 17 Aug 2014 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11038600/Richard-III-the-hunchback-king-really-could-have-been-a-formidable-warrior-...-and-his-body-double-can-prove-it.html Accessed: 21 August 2020.

Hobgood, Allison, ‘Teeth Before Eyes: Impairment and Invisibility in Shakespeare’s Richard III’ in Disability, Health and Happiness in the Shakespearean Body, ed. by Sujata Iyengar (London and New York: Routledge, 2014).

Pappas, Stephanie, ‘Did Richard III Really Have a Friendly Face?’ February 08, 2013 https://www.livescience.com/26959-richard-iii-friendly-face.html Accessed: 21 August 2020.

Pappas, Stephanie, ‘Dead King Richard III a Control Freak, Psychologists Say’ March 05, 2013 https://www.livescience.com/27625-king-richard-iii-control-freak.html Accessed: 21 August 2020.

Pappas, Stephanie, ‘How Twisted Was King Richard III's Spine? New Models Reveal His Condition’ May 29, 2014 https://www.livescience.com/45974-model-twisted-richard-iii-spine.html Accessed: 21 August 2020.

Schaap Williams, Katherine, ‘Enabling Richard: The Rhetoric of Disability in Richard III’, Disability Studies Quarterly 29.4 (2009). http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/997/1181 Accessed: 21 August 2020.

University of Leicester, ‘Spine’ https://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/spine.html Accessed: 21 August 2020.

 

Was Claudius a Good Emperor?

By Montarde - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16936276

 

As I showed in my previous post, the Roman Emperor Claudius had several impairments which would be considered disabilities today. However, did they negatively impact on his daily life and his role as emperor? This is what I hope to find out.

Attitude of Family

It is fair to say that Claudius’ family were not his biggest fans. On top of his mother calling him “a monster of a man”, his grandmother Augusta hated him and refused to speak to him directly. Instead, she would send messengers, or short harsh letters. Charming! Furthermore, when his sister Livilla discovered that he would become emperor, ‘she openly and loudly prayed that the Roman people might be spared so cruel and undeserved a fortune’.  Whether his disability was wholly responsible for these reactions is hard to say. It at least had some role to play.

Caesar Augustus was the step-grandfather of Claudius (It’s a very complicated family tree). Augustus did not hate Claudius, but he certainly did not like him. He was concerned with upholding the family image and therefore attempted to keep Claudius’ condition concealed. This is apparent when he reached manhood. Instead of the regular ceremony, ‘he was taken in a litter to the Capitol about midnight without the usual escort’. It was important to keep his disability hidden as the people of Rome were known for mocking disability.  In a letter to his wife, Augustus states

‘we must not furnish the means of ridiculing both him and us to a public which is wont to scoff at and deride such things. Surely we shall always be in a stew, if we deliberate about each separate occasion and do not make up our minds in advance whether we think he can hold public offices or not’.

It could be argued that he pitied Claudius and wanted to protect him as best he could.

Cowering Like a Girl 

Detail from the painting A Roman Emperor 41AD
by Lawrence Alma-Tadema [Public Domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

There are several aspects of Claudius’ time as emperor which were seen as negatives. The first grievance that people had was the way that he came to power. His predecessor Caligula was assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard on 24 January, 41 C.E. He had not been a particularly good ruler and many people wanted him dead. The Praetorian Guard then headed to the palace to kill Caligula’s family. It was here that they discovered Claudius cowering on a balcony (the way any strong leader should). Gratus, the guardsman who found him, proclaimed him to be ‘the new ‘Caesar’ and the new ‘Augustus’’. The Praetorian Guard most likely chose Claudius because he was weak. He also appeared to be a coward. They probably thought that the military would have greater power with such a feeble emperor. As he was put into power by way of a military coup, many believed that Claudius did not deserve to rule. From the very moment Claudius gained power, he was fighting an uphill battle. To maintain control, he removed political opponents and diluted the power of the Senate, gaining the reputation of being a ruthless killer.

Good Aspects of His Rule

There are a couple of incidents which show Claudius’ reign in a good light. These mostly relate to how he dealt with the peripheries of his empire. The first of these is the annexation of Britain. The Romans first established their presence on the island of Britain in 55 B.C.E. with the invasion of Julius Caesar. However, almost a century had passed by the time Claudius conquered the area in 43 C.E. It is impressive that Claudius was able to achieve this feat, especially considering Augustus, who felt that he would amount to nothing, did not. A second good aspect of his rule is a letter from Claudius addressing tensions in Egypt. There had been an ‘outbreak of violence between the Jewish and Greek populations’ of Alexandria. In his response Claudius criticises both the Jews and the Gentiles. This would suggest that he was a strong ruler.

While it is blatantly obvious that Claudius was disliked and openly mocked, this may not have been due to his disability. Even if it was, he managed to stay in power and rule effectively. Overall, his impairment did not negatively impact him. 

Next week I will continue my disabled historical figures series by examining Richard III’s alleged deformities.

 

                                                                                                              The Wheelchair Historian

   

Further Reading

Idris Bell, Harold, 1924. Jews and Christians in Egypt: the Jewish troubles in Alexandria and the Athanasian controversy (British Museum).

Levick, Barbara, 2015. Claudius, 2nd edition (1st edition 1990) (London: Taylor and Francis). Accessed through ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trinitycollege/detail.action?docID=2046490

Momigliano, Arnaldo, (1934). Claudius, the emperor, and his achievement, Translated by W.D. Hogarth (Oxford).

Osgood, Josiah, 2011. Claudius Caesar: Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Scullard, Howard Hayes, 2013. From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome 133 BC to AD 68, reprinted fifth edition (1982; first published 1959) (London and New York: Routledge).

Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Claudius, Translated by J.C. Rolfe (January 1914). http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html Accessed: 14 August 2020. 

The Roman Emperor Claudius

Bust of Claudius Photo By Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011), CC BY 2.5

Welcome to the first entry of my series on disabled historical figures. Over the coming weeks, I hope to explore historical figures who also happened to be disabled. I will start with the Roman Emperor Claudius and move forward chronologically from there. Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was born on 1^st August, 10 BCE in Lugdunum, Roman Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France). He was the Roman Emperor from 41 CE until his death in 54 CE.

What Disability did Claudius have?

There have been some conflicting ideas concerning the nature of Claudius’ condition. In the period surrounding the Second World War it was widely accepted that Claudius had poliomyelitis (‘infantile paralysis’); however, in more recent times a diagnosis of cerebral palsy seems more likely. The interpretation of the condition has changed depending on what disability is prevalent at the time of the historian. This means that there is still some speculation as to what Claudius’ condition may have been. For instance, Josiah Osgood believes that he suffered from a nervous disorder known as dystonia. The reason that he draws this conclusion is that some of Claudius’ symptoms include ‘irregular motor movements, a stammer and drooling’.

However, dystonia is not the only possibility. For example, Christian Laes states that some people now believe that Claudius could be diagnosed with spastic diplegia, also known as Little’s Disease. This condition could either be caused by brain damage at birth or be congenital. The symptoms of this condition include weak muscles, spastic twitches, slowness of speech and motor problems. Unlike other disabilities, it may not be immediately obvious and only becomes apparent later. The fact that the symptoms do not appear immediately may explain why Claudius survived for as long as he did. Spastic diplegia is a form of cerebral palsy which predominantly impacts the legs, but the arms may also feel its effects. Therefore, those who suspect cerebral palsy as the culprit would still be correct. This gives an idea of just how many possibilities there are when it comes to identifying the disability. Putting a label on what condition afflicted Claudius is not a priority. The important thing to note is that a disability was present.

Derek Jacobi as Claudius in the 1976 BBC series I, Claudius

 

Primary Source Evidence

Evidence that Claudius had a physical disability can be found in several sources. According to Cassius Dio, Claudius ‘was sickly in body, so that his head and hands shook slightly' and as a result he had a faltering voice. However, he notes that his mental abilities were unaffected, and Claudius even wrote on history. Dio also states that Claudius delivered his speeches sitting down, as though speaking while standing required too much effort.

Apocolocyntosis, a work written by Seneca the Younger to mock Claudius, gives several examples of his impairments. When he dies Claudius is brought in front of the gods. They are confused as to who he is as ‘he seemed to be threatening something, for he wagged his head ceaselessly’, and dragged his right foot. When they asked where he was from, he answered with a mumbled voice, in a language they did not understand. If the gods can’t understand you, then you know you’re in trouble!! Jupiter therefore summoned Hercules, who had journeyed across the world, and would know all the countries and languages in existence. However, he too failed in comprehending Claudius. In fact, he mistook Claudius for a monster and felt that ‘his thirteenth labour had come upon him’. This is not the only time in history when disabled people have been compared to monsters. That topic could occupy several blog posts by itself.

Several references are made, not only to Claudius’ impairments, but also his ill health. According to the Roman historian Suetonius (born 69 CE), Claudius’ mother, Antonia referred to him as “a monster of a man, not finished but merely begun by Dame Nature”. I doubt she would win any mother of the year awards! Her comments suggest that he was never a healthy individual. Seneca accentuates this point. At the beginning of Apocolocyntosis, the god Mercury questions the Fates as to why they kept Claudius alive for so long. He states that ‘four and sixty years it is now since he began to pant for breath’. Apparently, Claudius suffered his entire life and nobody felt that his life was worth living.

On that cheery note, I will conclude this post. Seeing as Claudius is a rather large topic, I have decided to divide him in two (not literally though, as I think he already has enough problems). In next week’s post, I will examine what impact Claudius’ disability had on his ability to rule.

                                                                                                             The Wheelchair Historian

 

Further Reading

Dio, Cassius, Roman History, Books 56-60, Translated by Earnest Cary, Herbert B. Foster, (January 1924), http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/60*.html Accessed: 6 August 2020. 

Laes, Christian, 2018. Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World: A Social and Cultural History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Levick, Barbara, 2015. Claudius, 2nd edition (1st edition 1990) (London: Taylor and Francis). Accessed through ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/trinitycollege/detail.action?docID=2046490

Osgood, Josiah, 2007. ‘The Vox and Verba of an Emperor: Claudius, Seneca and Le Prince Ideal’, The Classical Journal, 102: 329-353 http://www.jstor.org/stable/30037929 Accessed: 6 August 2020.

Seneca the Younger, Apocolocyntosis, Translated by Michael Heseltine, W. H. D. Rouse. Revised by E. H. Warmington (January 1913).

Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, Claudius, Translated by J.C. Rolfe (January 1914).