Shortly after Richard III usurped the throne he faced a series of rebellions, the majority of which coming from the south of England. Many people call these rebellions after the Duke of Buckingham but in fact most of the rebellions took place before he switched sides and he himself on backed a few of the rebellions. In these rebellions (Kent, Sussex and Surrey being the biggest ones) Richard needed to rely on his loyal over mighty Lords to crush the rebellions and bring stability back to his reign as King of England.
Richard had been rumoured to of done many terrible atrocities while trying to usurp the throne, and the majority of these crimes were over watched by the Duke of Buckingham who encourage Richard to seize the throne to benefit his wealth and power. This leads to the conversation between Buckingham and John Morton (a prisoner in Brecknock castle) where Morton persuaded Buckingham of the fact that Richard was an infanticide and regicide. The fact that Morton showed him the other side of Richard and the potential of more wealth and power, which was not going to be granted to him by Richard, taunted Buckingham and ultimately made him join the other side.
Historians are not sure whether Buckingham wanted the throne for himself as he had a claim to the throne himself, or in fact he saw himself as a Kingmaker and wanted to bring over Henry Tudor who was in exile in France to become King, as he considered Henry as easy to manipulate which in Buckingham’s mind meant he could get whatever he wanted. Buckingham preferred to back Henry rather than Richard, because he would not gain any more land or power under Richard’s reign, as he was very strong and experienced and didn’t want too many over mighty lords.
Richard was not aware of the fact that Buckingham was not 100% loyal, and because of this Richard made the mistake of setting Buckingham in charge of stopping the rebellions in the south, and because