So it turns out that “King Richard III” last seen alive in 1485 is ….dead. This qualifies as News.
I am a Republican and I dont understand Monarchy.
Clearly, the body found buried in a car park in the city of Leicester is that of Richard. Contemporary History states that after being brutally killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, his body was stripped of all clothing and thrown over a horse and led into Leicester by a Yorkist herald.
Accounts say that his head banged off the castle walls and that it was subject to some indignity.
Well, a Channel Four documentary last night followed the story of the post-mortem and the DNA shows it to be Richard. As it turns out, he had multiple wounds but killed by a blow to the head. The post-death wounds included a stab wound in his arse….which is perhaps one of the indignities that the history references.
But…..the whole “burial of a king” thing….the gun carriage, the military going thru Leicester and Bosworth. …was it all necessary?
Well yes and no. Richard was a king or a usurper. They all were kings or usurpers. And for the purposes of English tradition and continuity, it is important that “official” English History records him as a Usurper.
Thats how English History works. The “continuity” of Monarchy does not actually exist. It changes to suit the needs of the time. Thus Williamof Orange is NOT a Usurper and neither is George I and the Hanoverian Dynasty. But Usurpers who become Legitimate need Legitimate monarchs to become “Pretenders”…..Old and Young, James II, his son James and Bonnie Prince Charlie.
But what was today all about? However absurd, Monarchy needs a narrative. And it needs an involement of the Terminally Gullible….the crowds that lined the route.
Once again, the Establishment needs something….whether its James Bond meeting Elizabeth Windsor and saving the Olympic Games in London….and “royal” marriages, “royal” births, “royal” funerals.
If there isnt one…..make one up.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Which Plantagenet do you like the best?
Strange thing.
The first history text book I ever picked up by O’Faolain ….I was 11 in 1963. …was approved by Irish Christian Brothers.
It was about “English” History ….a chapter on each Tudor monarch and a sub section on the Irish Dimension.
It began with the Battle of Bosworth Field 1485 which ended the Wars of The Roses.
I think I am or was a Red Rose man. Red being nicer than White.
And Red being the colour of Lancashire….and by extension Manchester United, Coronation Street and the Beatles, Hollies, Hermans Hermits.
Essentially I am a Granada TV Land person.
Yorkshire was the county of “Dirty Leeds” and later Emmerdale Farm so, Yorkshire was always mour “dour”.
The bizarre thing is that I would love to get my hands on that book again, if only to re-live how I would have felt as an 11 year old….and the personalities involved in the 1500s…..Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas More, John Fisher (referred to as a Saint in the book), Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth, Silken Thomas, Lambert Simnel and the rest.
Learning Irish or Reformation History is not a neutral experience so that when the O Level course ended with the defeat of Nazis….in 1968….five years of 1485-1945….there are choices which we made…pro Napoleon, pro Washington etc.
(Thats why I would resist any attempt at Integrated Education…..we would lose our sense of resentment).
But with a course over five years, I never had any incentive to look backwards as to the origins of the Wars of The Roses.
Why is that?
Well I think Bosworth Field marks an end of an Age.
1485…Tudors. 1492….Columbus and ….later Martin Luther.
I do have a couple of books about the Wars of The Roses and I keep thinking I should read them.
But really I have spent 50 years learning more about the History I like……Jacobites and/or American Civil War.
My late father referred to it as “learning more and more about less and less”.
England at that time sounds as though it was run by a loyalist murder gang involved in feud.
And the Red Rose and White Rose factions seemed to have killed a lot more innocent people.
The most successful war lords rose to the top.