King Richard IV of England was a fictional character in the first series of the BBC comedy series The Black Adder, played by Brian Blessed. The character is loosely based on Prince Richard, Duke of York (1473-1483?), son of Edward IV, brother to Edward V, who was, it is believed, murdered upon the command of his uncle, Richard III in 1483.

Richard has two sons. The eldest is Harry, Prince of Wales, Prince Regent, Captain of the Guard, Grand Warden of the Northern and Eastern Marches, Chief Lunatic of the Duchy of Gloucester, Viceroy of Wales, Sheriff of Nottingham, Marquis of the Midlands, Lord Hoe-Maker in Ordinary, Harbinger of the Doomed Rat (1460–1498), of whom the king is extremely proud. The younger, or 'slimey' son is Prince Edmund, of whom the king is oblivious. The king is not at all interested in the life of his younger son who he largely ignores. On the few occasions he does recognise his son, he calls him by the wrong name, be it Edgar, Enid, Edward or simply 'The other one'. He is married to Queen Gertrude of Flanders.

According to the series, Richard came to the throne in 1485 after his uncle, Richard III was accidentally killed by Edmund. He was actually similar to Henry VIII with his large red beard, desire to dissestablish the church and his massive appetite (at one point he is seen to eat the back end of a horse). He revels in crusades and once defeated an entire Turkish horde armed only with a small knife used for peeling fruit. Clearly, he despises the Turkish people and once quoted the Bible as saying "Love thy neighbour as thyself. Unless he's Turkish, in which case, kill the bastard!". He once caught the bubonic plague, and went temporarily insane, attacking everyone he saw, believing them to be Turks. He had to be locked in his room for some time. He was known to shout "Chiswick! Fresh horses!"

According to the series, Richard, along with the rest of his court, were accidentally poisoned in 1498. At this point, Henry Tudor usurped the throne and re-wrote history so that he would be declared the victor of the Battle of Bosworth Field, and the reign of King Richard IV of England would be eradicated from history.

In what was otherwise an average, perhaps overly ambitious show, Blessed's perfomance as the loud, violent, crude, slightly insane king stood out as probably the most amusing and imaginative role in the first Blackadder series. Sadly, the character was lost in an overhaul which resulted in Ben Elton joining the writing staff and the second series of Blackadder becoming the sucess it is recognised as today.