Richard 3rd Duke of York is frequently used to recall the colours of the rainbow with the mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain' wrongly believed to be the Grand Old Duke of York who had 10000 men or mistaken for his youngest son Richard III The son of a traitor he inherited a dukedom aged four became the wealthiest man in England at thirteen & later rebelled against his king & if he is remembered it is as a man who ignited the Wars of the Roses Further eclipsed by two of his sons who would become the mighty warrior Edward IV & the recently rediscovered Richard III he is an ancestor of the Tudor monarchs & fifteenth great-grandfather to Queen Elizabeth II yet the man himself is obscured from view Matthew Lewis pushes aside the veils of myth & legend to challenge the image of Richard as a man whose insatiable ambition dragged a nation into civil war revealing a complex family man with unparalleled power & responsibilities The first person ever recorded to use the Plantagenet name he pushed the political establishment to its limits dared to fight back & was forced to do the unimaginable