The author argues that although accused of a variety of crimes, Richard III was also very religious, an austere practitioner of chivalric code of ethics, a public benefactor and protector of the Church, a founder of chantries, one who in his public pronouncements upheld a strict puritanical code of sexual morality in marked contrast to many of his fellow courtiers. In his private life this unscrutable man can be considered a man of piety, a practitioner of the mixed life to rank with his mother, Cicely Neville and his sister, Margaret, Duchess of York and Burgundy.