Richard III

I watch spell bound with disbelief  as one of the nastiest rulers this country has had  is given a heroes burial in Leicester Cathedral.

The facts are simple, Richard Duke of York was entrusted by his brother with the care of his children. He totally abused this trust in spades. First he, together it must be said with a fair few of Edward's closet friends and allies, conspired to wrest control of Edward's sons from his wife, the Queen, and her family, the Woodvilles, who most of the Yorkist nobility hated and regarded regarded as upstarts.

This they achieved swiftly. Richard had Lord Rivers, the boy king's uncle, lord Richard Grey his half brother and Sir Thomas Vaughan his chamberlain arrested and sent North to grim Pontefract where later he had them executed. Now with the king in his possession he advanced on London but within a month he had, in a rage, had Lord Hastings, one of his principal allies in his coup d'etat hauled out of the council Chamber and executed there and then on a old log. Meanwhile he spread rumours about the legality of his brother's marriage and thus he moved towards declaring his brother's children bastards and locking them up in the Tower. All evidence points to him ordering the killing of his brother's children.Now this is the monster who is being lauded every where by the 'great and good ( or rather the completely fucking ignorant).

Within five months of Richard assuming supreme rule first as Lord Protector and then as king  the Yorkist nobility, who at first welcomed his coup against the hated Woodvilles  woke up to the monster within their midst and rose up in rebellion.  This, known as Buckingham's rebellion. failed but within two years Henry Tudor, a man with only the slightest claim to the throne, had landed at Milford Haven and marched unopposed, with men of all classes flocking to his standard - why? Because virtually the whole country knew Richard for the monster that  he was and so he died at Bosworth rightly reviled by Shakespear and historians down the century

I will be fascinated to see what historical morans turn up at his funeral service to pay respect to a child murderer and I will be- probably - violently sick as I read the eulogies these ignoramuses write and say about a king who while he may not have been bent in body as Shakespear represented him was most certainly bent in mind .