The Richard III Society Essay Prize 2024

It is pleasing to report that this year’s essay competition saw a resurgence in entries after last year’s lull. The higher numbers are down to the ongoing success of the Schools Conference, as outlined by Iain Farrell (Education Officer) on page 28 of the June 2024 Richard Bulletin. This year’s essay prize money was paid out of the surplus generated.

The majority of the essays received were by A level students in English schools. Also, we had a few submissions from younger students, who bravely sent in their writing in the face of such stiff competition. Roughly half of the work was sent in from girls; it was good to see an equal gender balance. Also, the participants were drawn from a wide variety of educational settings, which included privately educated, state school and home-schooled, well-reflecting the spread of students who study medieval history at A level. What was unusual about this year’s competition was the widest geographical spread of entrants that we had seen so far. We received essays from Belgium, Canada, Kenya and the USA, showing how far the interest in the essay competition and Richard III’s life and times has spread.

As usual, the open-ended nature of the competition, which calls for essays on “The Life and Times of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Richard III, 1452-1485”, resulted in a wide range of topics researched. This year, the conventional themes written about included: Richard’s rule as a duke in the North and later as king, the impact on his life of Henry VI, Edward IV and the Woodvilles, and his reputation. It was good to see the topics expanded to cover portrayals of fifteenth-century queens and propaganda in Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays. It is to be noted that many of these essays are written under the regulations of one of the three English A level Examination Boards: AQA, Edexcel and OCR. In this context, we are unable to disclose the full titles of each piece of the work. It was good to see the extensive use of medieval sources and modern writers for analysis, evaluation and interpretation in essays. However, we are mindful of the extent to which the exam rubrics restrict the work of students in their choice of primary materials and historians studied.

Assessing the high standard of work from such a dedicated group of young people is always a challenging task. I am grateful to Iain Farrell (Education Officer) and Joanna Laynesmith (Editor of the Ricardian) for their invaluable assistance in this process. Their expertise and dedication have been instrumental in ensuring a fair and thorough evaluation of the essays. Also, thank you to Susan Ollier (Society Secretary) for updating the prize winners’ certificates.

We are pleased to announce the following results.

First prize of £200 for this year’s best essay to Miles Cobourne of Eltham College, London, for his essay “Noble Leader or Manipulative Villain: How was Richard III viewed during his lifetime?”.

Second prize of £100 to Ben Kirk of Beauchamp City Sixth Form, Leicester, for his essay ” To what extent did Richard III provide good governance for his subjects as ‘Lord of the North’ and king between 1471 and 1485?”.

In view of the high standard we had this year, two third prizes of £50 were awarded.

Joint third prize to Freya Wilson of Tormead School, Guildford, for her essay “Assess the accuracy of the view that Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s usurpation of power in 1483 is best explained by his fear of the Woodvilles”.

Joint third prize to Natasha Moore for her essay “The Legacy of Queenship: Portraits of the Queens of the Wars of the Roses”.

Well done to all our young participants this year! Thank you to all teachers, tutors and parents who have helped to facilitate the essay writing and encouraged our entrants to apply for the competition. We look forward to receiving even more essays next year.

Julie Bungey

Essay Competition Co-ordinator

The 2025 Essay Competitiion

The Richard III Society is offering a prize of £200 for the best essay on a topic relevant to

The Life and Times of Richard, duke of Gloucester, Richard III, 1452-1485

There will be second prize of £100 and a third prize of £50.

We are open to receiving entries in the format of NEAs, EPQs, IB EEs or closely similar, well-researched and referenced essays of between 3,000 and 5,000 words by a student under the age of 19 on 31st August 2025.

The broad topic may be interpreted to include discussion of questions about the political influence of contemporaneous individuals; social conditions in England in the second half of the 15th century; international relationships with European powers under either Yorkist king; marriage policies of monarchs and the nobility and so on. Other suggestions may be found within this website.

Send your essay as a pdf to essay@richardiii.net

Deadline for entries is 31st May 2025.

Include the name of your school, your History teacher and their contact email.

Iain Farrell

Education Officer

Richard III Society