Finding Richard III

My Kingdom for a Horse

I owe it to my sister who recommended I watch the movie, The Lost King. Although I was aware of it, on my long list of ‘to watch’ movies, and certainly aware of the growing controversy surrounding the medieval king as to whether he was as evil as he’d been depicted over the past five hundred years, I had failed to give him, or the movie, that much attention.

Which is a shame. As the movie is excellent. Not only does it chronicle the detective story, one of discovering the mortal remains of Richard III in a social services car park in Leicester, it shows how the drive to unearth his bones was not from any professional historian or archaeologist but, a total amateur, Philippa Langley. Without her vision and energy he would still remain undiscovered. The film also shows the arrogance of some of the professionals towards her, and their sudden zeal to grab the limelight once he’d been discovered despite their initial reluctance, bordering on contempt, to be part of it when the project was first pitched.

But what is equally interesting is the ongoing debate regarding the man himself. Was he the usurper who had murdered his way to the throne or was he, as some primary sources indicate, a good and just king? The question remains, was he Richard III or Richard the turd?