Sneaking up on Richard III ……………..

So, given his dark reputation who wouldn’t chose to sneak up on that personification of evil who dispatched his brother, his nephews and heaps of other political rivals?

After all Richard described himself as that man “Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time, Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them.”*

But of course that is to believe William Shakespeare, the man who was writing for Queen Elizabeth I whose granddad had defeated Richard at the battle of Bosworth and then let his soldiers mutilate the King's dead body.

I suspect that even if Shakespeare had not considered the prevailing politics, portraying Richard as a monster and a villain made for good drama.

For me almost as long as I can remember I was on Richard’s side, having picked up on all those historians who argued that he was the victim of Tudor propaganda fuelled by Thomas More and a plethora of Victorian writers.

So when we were in Leicester this weekend it was inevitable that we should go to the Richard III visitor's centre to see the story of how he was found in a disused car park and the investigation into proving he was the last Plantagenet King.

Added to which I was interested in how Leicester managed to hold onto him when I rather thought his final resting place should be York.

All of which seems a double whammy, first the Tudors steal his reputation and then Leicester his body.

But then I am biased, and such an outburst will get me in the naughty corner when we return to Leicester.

And that might be why the Richard III visitors centre was closed when we were in the city.

Location; Leicester

Pictures; Sneaking up on Richard III, and Standing up to Richard, Leicester, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

* "Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York;" Richard III, Act 1 Scene 1, William Shakespeare

Silly history ...... part one ..... Richard III Rebothered ..... on the wireless

Now silly history comes in many forms. 

There are books like 1066 And All That, to films which purport to be serious and accurate but make so many howlers that they are laughable, of which Brave Heart is judged to be one of the best.

And then there are the deliberate dramas which can be a clever take on an event or a historical figure mixing humour with just enough facts to be something entertaining and offer an alternative interpretation.

Which is pretty much what you get with  Richard III Rebothered, where "The Penny Dreadfuls, combine history and laughs as they explore the life of much maligned 'hunchback king' Richard III". 

I missed it first time when it was broadcast in 2020 and I have every intention of listening in to the others.**.

Picture;  Portrait of Richard III of England, painted c. 1520 (approximate date from tree-rings on panel), after a lost original, for the Paston family, owned by the Society of Antiquaries, London, since 1828, from Richard III of England, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England

*Richard III Rebothered, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000h8gk

**The Curse of the Beagle, A comedic exploration of a young Charles Darwin's adventures aboard the HMS Beagle. The Odyssey, Comedy trio Penny Dreadfuls transport us to ancient Greece. Robert Webb stars as Odysseus, Macbeth Rebothered, An alternative spin on the tale of this noble king. Greg McHugh stars. Hereward The Wake, Revolution, Guy Fawkes, Perceus and Lucius Faversham, The comedy trio's swashbuckling tale of Victorian Britain's great twin industrialists.

Finding Richard III ......The Reunion ...... today on the wireless

Now, I have always had a fascination for the story of Richard III, the man who made a power grab for the throne in 1483 and along the way may have murdered his two nephews, and sundry other people, including a brother  and close political allies.

Richard III, circa 1520

This is less because I am fixated by the history of kings and queens, but because from a very early age it offered up a set of mysteries, and challenges to conventional history.

More so because of the suggestion that here was a late Medievial King who was villified by the dark arts of his Tudor successors.

The counter story caught the imagination of a fourteen year old, and was matured by academic biographies, and that excellent novel, "The Daughter of Time", by Josephine Tey.*

So I shall be listening to Finding Richard III from that excellent Radio 4 series, The Reunion.**

And today "Kirsty Wark reunites the archaeologists, scientists, a religious leader and a distant relative involved in the remarkable search for, identification, and reburial of the last Plantagenet king.

Richard III was the last English king to die in battle and the first to have his genome sequenced. The discovery and identification of his remains is one of the greatest archaeological detective stories ever told.

After his death on Bosworth Battle Field in 1485, Richard's body was hastily buried in a Friary in Leicester. But over the years, rumours spread that his bones had been dug up and flung into a nearby river.

Others believed that his body could still be in its original burial place, now under a council car park. Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society wanted to know for sure.

The dig started on 25th August 2012 and, within hours, bones had been found. Dr Richard Buckley lead the University of Leicester's archaeological team and confesses that no-one really believed they would find him. But as osteologist Dr Jo Appleby uncovered more of the remains, she discovered he had a curved spine and serious head wounds.

Richard III and Ann Neville, 1483

More research was needed to be sure they had got their man. Professor Turi King, an expert in DNA, and Jo Appleby explain the painstaking process to identify the remains and to match the DNA with relative Michael Ibsen, and how they found out more about the way the King lived.

David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, became embroiled in a legal battle over where the remains should be re-interred – York or Leicester – as some distant relatives of the King challenged how the University had looked after the remains.

As well as giving a DNA sample, Michael Ibsen was also a carpenter and reveals how he ended up making his first ever coffin – fit for a medieval king.

Historian and writer Thomas Penn explains the impact of this momentous discovery on our understanding of history and of the man himself.

Producer: Karen Pirie

Series Producer: David Prest

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4"**

Pictures; Portrait of Richard III of England, painted c. 1520, after a lost original, for the Paston family, owned by the Society of Antiquaries, London, since 1828, source Richard III Society website via English Wikipedia and detail from the Rous Roll showing King Richard III in the centre with his wife Anne Neville on the left and his son Edward, Prince of Wales on the right. Showing his various heraldic crests  and his white boar badge, with the Warwick bear of his wife, 1483, digitized image, Add MS 48976, British Library, John Rous

*The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, 1951

**Finding Richard III, The Reunion, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tvgf