The Daughter Of Time

Grant switches to the fictionalized biography of Richard’s mother. He believes that “if you could not find out about a man, the next best way to arrive at an estimate of him was to find out about his mother” (59). He discovers that Richard’s mother, Cicely Neville, was happily married and notes that the “York family, even before tribulations, was a united one” (61).

Grant tries to hunt out passages that focus on Richard, but there are few. One of these descriptions depicts Richard as a black sheep: “Well, that might be fiction, but it was an illuminating glimpse of Richard. The dark one in a blond family. The one who ‘looked like a visitor. The ‘changeling’” (63).

Beyond that, Richard is in the background for much of the book. Only a few facts can be inferred. His loyalty to his brother Edward is steadfast even during the crisis over Edward’s marriage to a Woodville and his cousin Warwick’s revolt.

When Warwick launches an invasion to try to unseat Edward, it is Richard who outfits the English fleet even though he’s only 18 at the time. Richard is also the one responsible for negotiating an alliance between Edward and his turncoat brother George.

Richard’s loyalty to his family betrays no hint of the monster he is commonly believed to be.

The next morning, Marta sends over a library copy of Thomas More’s account of Richard. Grant dives in eagerly but is immediately repelled by More’s backstairs gossip about the king, lamenting, “The murderer seemed of greater stature than the man who was writing of him. Which was all wrong” (71).

Grant compares More’s account to listening to a witness in court whose testimony seems accurate even though Grant’s instincts sense a flaw somewhere.

More states that Richard accused his own mother of adultery, stating that his two elder brothers were illegitimate and that he was the only rightful heir to the throne. Grant doesn’t find this account credible either: “This was so unlikely, so inherently absurd, that Grant went back and read it over again. […] Well, Sir Thomas More said it. And if anyone should know it would be Thomas More” (72).

More also provides some additional details about the murder of the young princes. His account states that Richard arranged to be away from London when Tyrrel carried out the order to kill the boys.

Grant’s reading is interrupted by the Midget, who brings his lunch. Grant finds himself wondering what could have changed so fundamentally in Richard’s character in so short a time. He turns to the fictional biography of Richard’s mother, hoping to find some insight. He’s disappointed because the biographer fails to cover the later years of Richard’s reign. Instead, she ends the book at a high point in the family’s fortunes.

Just as he’s falling asleep that night, a new thought pops into Grant’s head: “Thomas More was Henry the Eighth” (80). Grant explains that he needs to associate historians with the rulers under whom they lived. Thomas More lived during the reign of Henry the Eighth. He was only a child during Richard’s reign, so his chronicle is based entirely on hearsay. This revelation disappoints Grant: “[He] had dealt too long with the human intelligence to accept as truth someone’s report of someone’s report of what that someone remembered to have seen or been told. He was disgusted” (81).

Grant knows that Thomas More is regarded as a Great Mind, but this fact carries little weight with him; “[h]e, Alan Grant, had known Great Minds so uncritical that they would believe a story that would make a con man blush for shame” (81).

Grant is determined to find a contemporary account of events during Richard’s reign. When Marta shows up to visit, he’s still fuming about not finding the information he needs. She puts him in touch with a young researcher she describes as a “wooly lamb” (86).

Grant admits the resemblance to a wooly lamb when Brent Carradine presents himself the next evening. Brent is an American staying in London. He’s trying to escape a tyrannical father who wants to put him to work in the family furniture business. Brent eagerly accepts a research job for Grant and promises to return with a contemporary account of Richard’s reign.