Richard III's new burial place in Leicester Cathedral.
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Richard - who? where?
Richard's remains were found in a car park in Leicester, England. Who was the skeleton? Richard, they speculated. They hoped.Nah, said the nay-sayers. Wishful thinking.
However, DNA from his relative's descendants proved it was really Richard III! Amazing. So somebody today can say, Richard III was a member of my family - and my DNA proved it.
Picture shared in Wikipedia.
You can drive to Leicester or take the train, then drive a tank at the tank museum in summer. Next the tourist can move to car parks and see Richard III's grave in Leicester Cathedral - all year. Leicester is a lovely, lively area, if you like action and modern or ancient history.
Richard III's Effect On Our World
If your history is hazy, it's a quick way to catch up. To sum it up, Richard was the last of the Plantaganets, who ended the Wars of the Roses, when he lost the Battle of Bosworth to Henry VII.
Why did Richard lose the battle? Some say it was because soldiers under Stanley, supposedly supporting Richard who had more men, were held back until it was clear which side was winning. Seeing Richard run towards Henry in the hope of killing him, being surrounded, Stanleys men quickly joined what loooked like the winning side.
Another theory is that the absence of the Princes in the Tower, and rumours that Richard had killed them, meant that outraged leaders of the nobility withheld their support.
But where were the bodies? Who knew?
The Princes in the Tower. Portraits depicted by Millais, much later.
This pivotal event led to the Tudor takeover. The Tudor takeover led to Henry VIII's important reign which affects people worldwide today. Who is affected? The Church of England, Protestants, Anglicans, students of Shakespeare for A level or simply schoolchildren, and actors of Shakespeare's plays, and lovers of quotations, and even pub goers answering quizzes.
Henry VIII had to divorce his wife to try to get a son and heir, but the Pope did not give permission, so Henry VIII made himself head of the Church of England, which is in England. Other churches worldwide following the British Protestant system, without the pope, not Roman Catholics, are called Anglican. If Richard had won that battle, who knows how different the kings and queens and churches would have been.
William Shakespeare.
How did Shakespeare manage to so successfully encapsulate the desperation of the man about to die and lose the battle, in less than ten memorable words? Why is that sentence so memorable? The start is a repetition: a horse, a horse. For a moment, it seems an exaggeration, absurd, to give your entire kingdom for just a horse. On second thoughts, after some investigation and enlightenment, you realise that without the horse, he had lost the battle, his kingdom, his life.
The night before my drive home from my holiday in the Midlands to London, a lady from Leicester kept me and a group of others entranced until midnight on the last night of Writer's Summer School at the Hayes Conference Centre near Derby, with her story of how William Shakespeare had unfairly blackened the character of Richard III. "Richard," she insisted, "was not the baddie, which William Shakespeare portrayed."
Why did Shakespeare tell such lies? At very least, half truths. Our hero, Shakespeare! Shakespeare was a diplomat. Shakespeare had no choice. He was writing for his patrons, the Tudor royalty, and the audience who had to be persuaded, or convinced, that Richard, who the Tudors killed in battle, had deserved to die.
Richard III! That man who had killed the two little boys in the Tower of London. His imprisoned nephews, heirs to the throne. Tut, tut. Dreadful man, Richard III.
She assured us, "There was no evidence that Richard killed his nephews, the princes in the tower." ("Yes," we assured our Canadian visitor, "the famous Tower of London, which everybody knows.")
The Tower of London has many towers. The tower where the boys were imprisoned was actually the regular place for a prince to reside prior to his coronation. But, of course, the coronation never took place. After that, the tower was known as the Bloody Tower.
If you go to London, you can visit the Tower of London, which competes with Madame Tussaud's as London's most visited attraction.
A portrait of Henry VII is in the National Portrait Gallery on London's Trafalgar Square.
Portrait of Henry VII in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
We listened politely, to the animated lady who was acting as unpaid PR for local hero, Richard III of Leicester, but we speculated sceptically.
"So what killed the boys?"
"Maybe the boys killed themselves."
"Or each other?"
"Or were killed by Aliens?"
The Princes in the Tower of London.
Richard III
"Furthermore," she insisted, "Richard III did not have a hunchback. He had a curved spine."
Conspiracy theorists have all sorts of ideas about what never happened. People have claimed Richard could not have ridden into battle with a curved spine. However, a modern man with the same condition was persuaded to don a suit of armour, which he apparently gladly did for his moment of fame and climbed onto a horse. Far from impeding and hurting him, the armour acted like a giant corset. It helped to support the spine.
If he had lived in modern times, perhaps dear Richard would have said, "A tank, a tank, my kingdom for a tank." But he didn't.
Richard, with or without his horse, was killed at the battle of Bosworth. The throne was taken by Henry VII, leading to Henry VIII, who is regarded with much more enthusiasm, although there is no doubt that Henry VIII married six times, and executed two wives.
Compare Henry VII and Richard. Richard, we suspect, killed his two nephews. They were heirs to the throne.
Henry VII killed Richard on the battlefield. A fair fight. (Not exactly. Richard was not taken prisoner. He did not surrender nor live to tell the tale. But he fought to the death. According to one historian, Richard said that he wished to live and die as a king.)
Copare villain Henry with hero Henry VIII. We could also find fault with Henry. Killed his next of kin. Henry was also overweight, extremely so, even for his era. An old man with two wives who were much younger. in his own era, Henry divorcing his longstanding, middle-aged, menopausal wife who could no longer bear children, in favour of her lady in waiting, young, sexy, flirtatious, Anne Boleyn, did not appeal.
Divorced, not a popular move in his era. And had VD (venereal disease) which probably infected his wives and killed his children by damaging their health and resilience in an unsanitary age. But Shakespeare and portrait painters made Henry the hero and the popular villain, whilst Richard III was depicted as horrid, deformed, outside and inside. Richard a man who was handicapped in life, resentful, and killed children.
Richard III is now due for a makeover. But the more mystery and controversy the better.
When I visited Leicester to stay with a friend our main activity was visiting the local branch of Dunelm Mill, one of my favourite stores for affordable but smart furnishings. Dunelm was founded in Leicester.
Duneldm in Bradford.
Richard III is now re-buried in Leicester Cathedral under a solid white slab. His character is now whitewashed.
Disappointingly, the Wikipedia article on the play reveals that Richard was offered a horse and turned it down, preferring to continue on foot. In that case, all the more credit to Shakespeare for improving on the story and creating a memorable line to fit the new, invented scenario.
Go and find out for yourself. If you read Richard III at school, what a spine-tingling moment to see Richard III's grave. If you never read Richard III, a chance to learn visually a bit of history, literature, controversy. A great subject for debate, perhaps in a Tudor style historic pub.
If you are too far away to visit now, and live in the USA, you might be interested in the Wiki article on the play Richard III which gives accounts of the performances of the play in the USA, with photos of playbills of dramatic performances.
To sum up:
TRAVEL TRAIL & TRIP TIPS
1 Richard III grave in cathedral
2 Richard III centre.
3 Bosworth Field centre (shop and more).
Optional extras:
Bosworth medieval Festival:
Bosworth Medieval Festival: 2019
Saturday 17th August - Sunday 18th August, 10:00 am - 5:30 pm.
Tank Museum.
Pub lunch - at pub where you can buy furniture.
Stay in cheap affordable Ibis, cheap hotel at motorway service station, or smarter historical and/or modern hotel.
Practical Information For Travellers
Richard III Museum
Southfields Farm
Husbands Bosworth,
Lutterworth,
Leicestershire LE17 6NW
Tel: 01858 880239.
Useful Websites
www.armourgeddon.co.uk.
www.militarymuseum.uk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_E.28/39
Richard III Visitor Centre (the mysterious letters in the web address are abbreviations for king richard iii all lower case)
https://kriii.com Richard III Visitor Centre
Leicester Tourism
https://www.visitleicester.info/good-to-know/visit-leicester-information-centre
Leicester Cathedral
https://leicestercathedral.org/visiting-king-richards-tomb/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_(play)#cite_note-jones-53
https://www.dunelm.com/stores
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
text and pictures in progress
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