London: according to contemporaries, Richard, supported by the Duke of Buckingham, accused Hastings and two other council members of having committed high treason by conspiring against his life with the Woodvilles. The contemporary (1483) account of Domenico Mancini records Richard's claim that those who were arrested "had come with concealed weapons so that they could be the first to unleash a violent attack"; this was later confirmed in a public proclamation. While the other alleged conspirators were imprisoned, Hastings was beheaded. The timing of his execution is disputed, although Charles Ross, in his biography of Richard III, argued for the traditional date of 13 June. The summary execution of the popular Hastings was controversial among contemporaries and has been interpreted differently by historians and other authors. The traditional account, harking back to authors of the Tudor period, including William Shakespeare, considered the conspiracy charge invented and merely a convenient excuse to remove Lord Hastings, who was known for his loyalty to the dead King Edward IV and his heirs, as while he remained alive he would have been too formidable an obstacle to Richard's own plans to seize the throne. Others have been more open to the possibility that such a conspiracy did in fact exist and that Richard may have reacted to secure his own position. Clements R. Markham argues that Hastings was executed one week after his arrest on 20 June 1483, and after a trial. Several witnesses were present, hence a treason trial could have been conducted at an ad hoc Court of Chivalry convened by Richard as High Constable of England. Despite the accusation of treason, no attainder was issued against Lord Hastings which again suggests a trial by the Court of Chivalry which had no power to attaint. Hence, his wife and sons were allowed to inherit his lands and properties. Hastings was buried in the north aisle of St George's Chapel, Windsor, next to his friend King Edward IV. In literature He is portrayed in two of Shakespeare's plays: Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III. In Al Pacino's documentary Looking for Richard, Lord Hastings is played by actor Kevin Conway. Family Hastings married, before 6 February 1462, Katherine Neville, sister of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known as "Warwick the Kingmaker," and widow of William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington, slain at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, by whom he had