In Act IV of William Shakespeare`s Richard III, Richard has finally achieved his goal of becoming king, and this gives him more power, and thus more scope for acting openly to crush his rivals rather than working exclusively covertly. Richard has also become over-confident at this point, e.g. first trying to use Buckingham for killing the princes and then denying him an earldom. Richard`s malice has become so apparent that he is even denounced by his own mother, the old Duchess of York. Richard has also alienated Lord Stanley. The main change that happens to Richard is that he becomes less cautious, sowing the seeds of his own downfall, and in other characters, that even previous allies can no longer give him the benefit of the doubt and start to work against him.