Gairdner writes in the Preface that: …I must record my impression that a minute study of the facts of Richard’s life has tended more and more to convince me of the general fidelity of the portrait, with which we have been made familiar by Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More. The contents of this work include: Richard’s Career as Duke of Gloucester until the Death of Edward IV; Acts of Richard as Protector; Termination of the Protectorship; Murder of the Princes and Rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham; Richard’s Government, his Parliament and his relations with Foreign Powers; Invasion of Richmond: Defeat and Death of Richard; and The Story of Perkin Warbeck.