I who am laid beneath this marble stone,
Richard the Third, possessed the British throne.
My Country’s guardian in my nephew’s claim,
By trust betray’d I to the kingdom came.

Two years and sixty days, save two, I reign’d;
And bravely strove in fight; but, unsustain’d
My English left me in the luckless field,
Where I to Henry’s arms was forc’d to yield.

Yet at his cost my corse this tomb obtains,
Who piously interr’d me, and ordains
That regal honours wait a king’s remains.

Th’year thirteen hundred ‘twas and eighty
The twenty-first of August, when its power
And all its rights I did to the Red Rose restore.

Reader, whoe’er thou art, thy prayers bestow,
T’atone my crimes and ease my pains below.