For Shakespeare's audiences, as dastardly as Richard's crimes against individual victims are, his larger crime is that Richard of Gloucester's reign led to a resurgence of what they still feared worst a century later, civil war. Following the conflicts between the houses of Lancaster and York as dramatized by Shakespeare in the three parts of Henry VI, England could have been at peace: as his opening speech denotes, it is only because of Richard's villainy that civil war breaks out again. In Act II, scene iii, in which the common citizens discuss the tide of events, they realize the danger associated with Richard of Gloucester, and that danger is a return to bloody, internecine strife that will reach down into the lives of the common man. On being branded a traitor by Richard and sentenced to death in Act III, scene iv, Hastings cries out, "Woe, woe for England! not a whit for me;" and prophesies that a "fearful time" lies ahead for "miserable England."

In the midst of his acclamation scene (III.vii), Richard projects a false humility and says, "I am unfit for state and majesty" (205). This is of course true, but it is only in Act V that we are given an alternative view of an individual who is fit to rule England in the person of Richmond. Here we see the contrast drawn sharply in the parallel speeches of Richmond and Richard to their respective armies on the eve of battle (V.iii.236-70, 314-41). Richmond speaks of God's justice and urges his men to fight against the foes of their country: Richard tries to embolden his troops by saying that their foes are "A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways / A scum of Britains, and base lackey peasants," who will ravish the daughters of his listeners. Richmond appeals to what is best in Englishmen, Richard to what is worst. In the end, Richmond triumphs and speaks the words that all Englishmen longed to hear in 1485 and still relished a hundred years later.

We will unite the White Rose and the Red:
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That long hath frown'd upon their enmity!
What traitor hears me, and says not amen?
England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;
The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire:
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided in their dire division,
O, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!
And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so.
Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days!
(V.v.19-34)

This is the conclusion not only of Richard III, but of the entire minor tetralogy. Civil strife would arise in England again after the death of Henry VIII in 1547; but by Shakespeare's time, with a new Queen Elizabeth on the throne, the realm was enjoying the fruits of internal peace, widespread prosperity, and a marvelous outburst of creative energy spearheaded by the play's author.