Character Analysis
William, Lord Hastings
The chamberlain to Edward IV and loyal adherent of the Yorkist cause is also among those deluded by Richard. Because he was a victim of the machinations of the Woodvilles, he understandably first sided with Gloucester, whose protestations of innocence he accepted readily. Hastings long remains supremely confident, blithely ignoring portents of catastrophe. No one could have been more surprised than he when Richard ordered that he be seized and put to death. The one debit in his account is that he exults when he learns that members of the queen's faction have been executed. To that extent, he invites his own downfall. But as a devoted Yorkist, he also shares in the doom of that noble house.