Susan (The Kingmaker)
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Susan was, according to one account, the second-born child of King Edward IV. She was briefly King of England as Edward V but her uncle Richard discovered his brother's deception and stopped her from being properly crowned, with him becoming Richard III in her place. After William Shakespeare inadvertently replaced the doomed Richard at the Battle of Bosworth, Susan and her sister Judith, with the help of the Fifth Doctor, took their places in history as Shakespeare's daughters alongside Richard as Shakespeare.
Biography
Early life
Born fourteen years prior to mid-1485, Susan was the second child of King Edward IV and his consort Elizabeth of York, after their daughter Elizabeth of York. In the midst of the Wars of the Roses, Edward knew it was important for the stability of crown and country to continue his line with a son, the ascension of a queen not being feasible as England was "stuffed with power-hungry knobs with their own private armies just waiting for their chance to make it their own do-it-yourself monarchy". He panicked when his second-born turned out to be a girl and chose to lie about the identity of the child, announcing to the world that Susan was a boy in order to "stop the jitters going through the kingdom". When his third-born was another girl, Edward carried on the pretense to have two, "one for the succession and one for a spare".
Birth certificates were created for the two boys and they received an education as if they were princes. Only a small number of people knew the truth, including Hastings, a loyal friend of the King.
On 9 April 1483, Edward IV suddenly died of a chill, paving the way for "Edward" to be crowned as Edward V, scheduled to occur in London on 24 June that year. Earl Rivers, a materal uncle, was sent to bring the King back to London under close escort so the Woodville family could keep him under their control. However, Richard, who had previously been assigned as the young King's Lord Protector, intercepted the convoy on their journey and negotiated a compromise that they would both accompany "Edward" to London. While staying the night at a Stony Stratford inn, Susan escaped out a window but was knocked unconscious as she ran through a nearby forest. She was found by Peri Brown and Erimem, who carried him back to the inn. Peri and Erimem subsequently agreed with Richard to tend to Edward's injuries but they fled after Peri discovered a detatched metal part on him and concluded he had been replaced by a robot. Upon being told of the disappearance of the women, Richard momentarily suspected them of being Woodville spies come to help the Princes escape, but found "Edward" and his brother still in their bedroom after rushing there. However, he noticed the loose metal Peri had abandoned on the floor, which was really a codpiece, and worked out that Edward and Richard were both girls merely posing as boys.
As noted by Henry Stafford, Richard became "twitchy and troubled, almost addled in his mind" after his discovery and went "completely loopy" when the escort arrived in London. In fact, he was systemically rounding up and executing everyone who knew the truth about the Princes. He then bribed their mother Elizabeth Woodville to keep quiet about the whole affair, who was as petrified about the truth coming out as Richard himself. After that, Richard declared the "boys" bastards by voiding the marriage of their parents, allowing him to legally crown himself king as the next in line. Richard later said that exposing the lies of the "beloved and dearly departed king [...] would have torn the whole kingdom apart".
For the first six months of Richard's reign, Susan and Judith stayed in the Tower of London. However, when "all the murder and kidnap plots started buzzing", he sent them to live with their Uncle Clarrie, who was already lying low, at the Kingmaker tavern, where they also worked as serving wenches. Richard forced Peri and Erimem to regularly pretend to be the Princes in their stead, with whom he had recently been reacquainted. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)
Meeting the Doctor
With the help of the Fifth Doctor, Richard went on to take the place of William Shakespeare in 1597. His nieces pretended to be Shakespeare's daughters. (AUDIO: The Kingmaker)
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