# "Richard III" nitpick: Why does Gloucester want to marry Anne?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-iii-nitpick-why-does-gloucester-want-to-marry-anne/589816>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 21, 2011, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-iii-nitpick-why-does-gloucester-want-to-marry-anne/589816 "2011-07-21T05:10:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-iii-nitpick-why-does-gloucester-want-to-marry-anne/589816/21 "2011-07-21T22:55:39Z")

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> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> “Richard III” nitpick: Why does Gloucester want to marry Anne?

Because she was played by Kristin Scott Thomas?

No, that wouldn’t be it, since Gloucester was played by Ian McKellen. He’d prefer Rivers (Robert Downey Jr.).

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-iii-nitpick-why-does-gloucester-want-to-marry-anne/589816/22 "2011-07-21T23:09:11Z")

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> [@Captain\_Amazing](#):
>
> Right…Shakespeare uses the stories that make Richard seem worse or more villainous.

Shakespeare’s whole Henriad-plus-Wars-of-the-Roses series was apparently intended to present national propaganda – **Tudor** propaganda – in the story arc. When Henry Bolingbroke (Henry IV) forces his incompetent cousin Richard II off the throne, he commits an Original Sin that rots the state worse with every generation, until Henry Tudor finally restores the proper order of things and brings peace and stability.

Which is approximately what **did** happen, from the POV of the common Englishman (and overlooking all the Protestant-Catholic tension under the Tudors).

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-iii-nitpick-why-does-gloucester-want-to-marry-anne/589816/23 "2011-07-23T04:25:14Z")

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> [@dropzone](#):
>
> Because she was played by Kristin Scott Thomas?
> 
> No, that wouldn’t be it, since Gloucester was played by Ian McKellen. He’d prefer Rivers (Robert Downey Jr.).

Yes, that would be [a different take on the character . . .](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goodbye_Girl)

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