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One of the things that happened while we at Crutch were on our little hiatus was that the University of Leicester in England announced that they had found and identified the skeleton of King Richard III, who was killed fighting the invading Henry (VII) Tudor in 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth. It was the final bloody episode in the dynastic Wars of the Roses. He had been lying buried for 527 years under what had become a municipal parking lot.
527 years. That’s before Christopher Columbus, people.
I can’t get enough of this. I’ve read a ton of the history, a bunch of biographies, and of course all the “historical” Shakespeare, which was anything but. I come down firmly on the side of the Ricardians, whose position is that Richard was the victim of a post-mortem smear campaign by the Tudors, who justified their usurpation of Richard’s usurpation by painting him as a deceitful, murderous hunchback.
Turns out the hunchback part may have been correct, though. Check out the spine of his skeleton. Scoliosis, big-time.
The story of the excavation and discovery is more suspenseful and exciting than 99% of the movies coming out of Hollywood these days. And I even have a tiny personal connection to it, because I donated some money to the project. If you watch the documentary linked below, at the beginning they talk about an emergency appeal for funds needed to keep the project alive. I was one of those donors. I’ve exchanged email with the woman involved, Philippa Langley. I still boggle about this, and that it all came true. Best money I ever spent.
In honor of this odds-shattering royal success, I’m celebrating with a couple of tracks by three Canadians who are also royalty in my book. Two very different styles on display here. When you’ve been playing music together for as long as these guys have, your sound goes through some changes. But there’s a constancy as well – we always know we’re listening to Rush. The band is finally going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, by the way. Only 30 years overdue. They were buried by their critics even deeper than Richard was, but at last they’re finally getting their time in the sunlight too.
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Rush | A Farewell to Kings – 1977
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Rush | Roll The Bones – 1991
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Richard III: The King In The Car Park (documentary, running time 1 hr 14 min)
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What a great post. I do agree that Richard was the victim of a smear campaign as is so often the case even if he did possibly murder the 2 princes but that sort of stuff happened all the time at one level or another. I remember visiting many of the places in the wars and some were fairer to Richard than others but I suspect lots of guidebook and audio-guides are being re-recorded before the summer season
I don’t remember off-hand but Simon Schama’s “A History of Britain” is likely to contain a historical documentary of this period. It covers everything 4,000 years of history up to 1965. It is in 15 parts so each period is dealt with quite well for a TV show.
I also agree about The History Channel, it used to be my favourite channel but now it is just trash tv. It should be closed down or re-branded as it must be illegal to claim that stuff is history. Like buying a pizza and find inside the box is an apple.
Thanks, Stephen.
It’s a very abbreviated version of the massive tome I could have written on this subject, haha. I agree that there will be lots of re-evaluation of the boilerplate tour guide speeches this year. About time!
I have the DVDs to Schama’s HoB series. (This should not be a surprise to you, even in our short acquaintance.) They’re excellent, I love his take on things.
Why am I not surprised about owning the dvds
You really are a historian and an Anglophile. Good for you !
Hahaha. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. My motto.
(PS. I MISSED THIS BLOG. AND I AM SO HAPPEH ITS BACK)
This entry makes me squeal with glee.
I too am not over the find of Richard III but as far as Shakespearean Kings go, Hal/Henry V has to be my favorite. Henry IV was probably the least historically accurate, as Hal was not the wild child that the play leads at. But I learned that in Henry V, Shakespeare pretty much plaugerized history texts for the Battle of Agincourt which was an amazing feat looking at the odds against him. Henry was a tactical genius.
I wish BBC wouldve included Richard III with their Hollow Crown series. Their casting was phenomenal.
Ive also seen clips of Andrew Scott from Sherlock doing Richard III. Talk. About. Perfect.
I’m hoping that all this R3 hoopla will get someone on one side of the pond or the other to do an HBO-like, high-production-value, multi-season series about the Wars of the Roses. It’s my dream show. At least from the point where H5 dies and 9-month-old H6 assumes the crown, then turns out to be a simpleton subject to long bouts of catatonia, thus sparking the whole who-should-rule dilemma that took until Bosworth to get resolved. Or MAYBE even go back to R2 and his overthrow by H4 … hell, go back to William the Conqueror, I’d watch the whole bunch!
Go on youtube and look up BBC Hollow Crown Richard II. Its there, in its entirety and theres also Henry IV and Henry V in there too. All Hollow Crown production. They casted Wishaw (Q in Skyfall) as RII and Rory Kinear (William in Skyfall) as Henry Bollingbroke. Its absolutely excellent. Lots of big stars in Henry IV like Jeremy Irons and Simon Russle Beale and Tom Hiddleston, as well as Henry V. All on youtube. Check them out if you get some time.
I will, for sure. Are those Shakespeare, or original writing? My comment above concerns my wish for new scripts entirely, and not the normal Tudor-propaganda line either. Time the other side had a chance at bat to tell this story. After half a millennium!
I have an older series of the history plays on DVD, they’re black & white, from 1960, called An Age Of Kings. They’re on Netflix to rent (not stream though). Different generation of actors – Sean Connery has an early role as Hotspur, and Prince Hal was played by David Hardy, who later was Robert Dudley in Glenda Jackson’s Elizabeth R series. Anyway, I’ll definitely check yours out, thanks.
They are the Shakespeare works. I was kind of mad that they cut a lot out of Henry V, but still compare it to Branaghs, its totally different. Ive heard audio of Sean Connery do Hotspur and he is not Hotspur, he is 1970s pornstar. Hahaha.
Yeah I think an actual documentary of all that would be stellar, but alas, we must watch American Pickers instead. *ragequit*
I think I prefer my history with music. Though I’m missing my fix of Swampers, Bigfoot and all the other crap the History Channel churns out these days. Thanks fer tha learnin.
I can’t think of much that isn’t better with music alongside. Yer welcome.
The History Channel and the Biography Channel used to be go-tos for me, but it’s been a long time since I even stopped to look. This documentary above, now THAT’s reality television. Not that other ‘reality’ garbage that does nothing but kill brain cells and waste electricity. No thanks.
I really dislike pawn stars and pickers and big foot and ax men and all that other garbage. I feel that WW2 is way overplayed and Id love to see some documentaries about way older stuff like this way more often.