The New Murrey and Blue blog

There has been a lot of publicity about the splendid The Lost King, but until happening upon this article I hadn’t read anything about the thoughts of the writer, Jeff Pope.

What had his opinion of Richard III been before the advent of Philippa Langley and her almost miraculous discovery of Richard’s remains?

One of Mr Pope’s responses was: “….The thing that really surprised me was the principle in English lore of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ was established by Richard III. So much came from that because you think ‘That doesn’t sound like a despot’. That doesn’t sound like an evil person — in the modern day, a dictator, effectively. You know, a Stalin or a Hitler; the last thing they wanted was fair trials. Yes, that was the most fascinating thing that we discovered….”

The blame for Richard’s vile reputation was laid fairly and squarely at the feet of the Tudors, and rightly so.

Nor was Mr Pope impressed by Leicester University’s attitude and actions before, during and since the finding and rescuing of Richard’s remains. He does not paint a flattering picture.

He is full of praise for everyone else involved in the astonishing find that took the entire world by storm. In The Lost King he sets the record straight in so many ways, not least that Richard was NOT a murderous 50-year-old goblin who was so evil the entire kingdom welcomed Henry Tudor and sighed with relief when Richard was hacked to death. (My words, not Mr Pope’s. But why is Richard always portrayed as being far older than his thirty-two years at death?)

So I recommend the reading of this fascinating interview, which paints a picture of the Richard we on this blog have always known was fact!