In this scenario, Albus Dumbledore plays the role of none other than Richard III, the king so maligned by the Bard.
For those who need to brush up, not just on their Shakespeare, but on some basic British history, the Wars of the Roses were fought mostly between 1455 and 1485 between two houses of the Plantaganet dynasty, Lancaster and York, represented by red and white roses, respectively.
This scenario matches up characters from the books with members of the British royal family of the day, according to Miami University professor emerita, Nancy Nicholson. The Tudors are a parallel with the Black family, she says. Draco Malfoy is Henry VII who kills Richard III (Albus Dumbledore) and Voldemort is a “distant, starving cousin" named John Mowbray.
At the heart of the drama is Harry himself, she says, “the boy who lived,” meaning one of the two young princes who were said to have died in the Tower of London. “It was long rumored that one of them lived, though never proved,” she says.
As proof of Rowling’s allusion, she points to the image on the Marauder’s Map (a critical tool for Harry as he navigates life in Hogwarts Castle). “It is the Tower of London, including the White tower where the princes were kept.”
