Loyaulte me lie.

With City away at Wimbledon an opportunity arose to give the good lady a shopping opportunity and myself a chance to see the Richard III exhibition which arose following the discovery of the last English King to die in battle, his resting place unheralded and ignominiously under a car park in the centre of Leicester.

It wasn’t quite as bad as it seemed. The Kings mutilated body was hurriedly interred in the choir of Greyfriars Church Leicester having been carried to the city after his death. The new King, Henry VII did later order a tomb of sorts to be erected over the grave but the whole lot was lost in Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries which probably suited the Tudors whose claim to the throne of England was possibly shakier than that of the last Plantagenet King, Richard III.

They say the victors write the history books and boy did this last of the Plantagenets get a bad press. He did have a form of misalignment of the spine and this was woven into the sort of character assassination our modern day newspapers would be proud of perpetrated chiefly by England’s greatest playwright, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was a great and beautiful writer but he knew which way the wind was blowing and there was no advancement of his career to be had in glorifying the reign of Richard.

They say modern politics is a rough trade but it’s positively genteel when compared to medieval affairs of state. We learned at school the names and dates of the various battles and death in such circumstances is reduced to bloodless takeovers. It wasn’t like that at all. The nobility at the top of society had impeccable manners and a thuggish attitude to warfare. Basically anything goes.

So Richard met his end at Bosworth heroically defending his crown. The reality was that he was cornered by overwhelming opposing forces loyal to Henry Tudor and had his head smashed in. Even after death some kind fellow ran his sword up the body’s rear and the King was stripped naked and carried to Leicester on the back of a horse, his guffawing victors no doubt having a jolly good laugh at the deposed Kings expense. Henry VII hurredly had himself crowned before anyone got any other ideas.

All this is informatively brought to life in the displays. You can even see the empty grave now covered over with a glass floor. The Monarchs new resting place is a rather more dignified tomb in Leicester Cathedral just over the road. If you’re at all interested in history or perhaps saw the tale of the discovery of the body I’d recommend it.

Oh, perhaps should have given you a translation, it means loyalty binds me. Quite appropriate for an Imp.