The New Murrey and Blue blog

“….Richard II is one of the Bard’s history plays, the others being Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V….” (From https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-weekend-witness-south-africa-9we6/20250726/281646786186296)

Wot, no Richard III! 😮And this glaring omission when heading the given list of leading actors in these plays is Benedict Cumberbatch, who played—ta-ra!—Richard III!

Well, the Pressreader writer of the above link claims to be a student of British history, but certainly isn’t a student of Shakespeare. The Bard actually wrote ten of his so-called history plays (which are mostly fiction not history). The ten are: King John, Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, Henry VI Parts 1 to 3, Richard III and Henry VIII.

But I suppose the plays the Pressreader author does list are just the ones in the version of The Hollow Crown being staged this time. There has been more than one production under the same general title but containing different plays. You can read more about them all here: https://nosweatshakespeare.com/plays/types/history/

I think Our Will would be slightly miffed to have so many of his history plays overlooked.