The New Murrey and Blue blog

Well, as Ricardians we all know what supposedly happened in the Tower of London in 1483. Everyone else knows about it too, usually the wrong version. As a result Richard III gets the blame for the “murders” of his child nephews. Never mind that there’s no evidence they died before their time at all. You can forget the urn, which dates to the reign of Charles II because the bones were unearthed in 1674. The details of its contents’ discovery are too ridiculous for words. Buried overnight deep under a solid stone staircase without anyone hearing a thing? Animal bones added too? Shall we just say that if found under such a staircase, any human bones which do happen to be in the urn are more likely to be Roman or earlier than the late 15th century.

Thanks to the likes of Shakespeare and the sainted Sir Thomas More, history has damned Richard as being the evil uncle wot dunnit and anyone who questioned that was regarded as rather deranged. Some enlightened historians dared to step out of line, of course, and in the 20^th century came the formation of the Richard III Society, dedicated to clearing Richard’s name. But the battle is still an uphill struggle.

Of course, the discovery of Richard’s remains in September 2012 caused a great stir. To begin with it showed that he had been buried, not chucked into the River Soar. And that he wasn’t a hunchback (afflicted by kyphosis), but suffered from scoliosis. Nor did he have a withered arm, etc. etc. Then a model of his head revealed him to have been a rather good-looking young man….not a middle-aged monster.

More recently, of course, we’ve had the evidence uncovered by Philippa Langley & Co, which goes a long way to proving Richard hadn’t killed his nephews but they’d been sent away to safety in Europe. At the same time as her investigations over there, another investigation was going on closer to home, at the village of Coldridge in Devon. Evidence is being uncovered that Richard’s elder nephew, the one-time Edward V, had actually lived there safely as one John Evans. A beautiful stained-glass window in the local church almost certainly depicts him.

So there’s a groundswell of change where Richard III is concerned, although television stations are often inclined to cling to the old version of the king. Philippa Langley has been hugely influential in changing everything, but my heart still sinks when I read of the commissioning of a new television series of “specials” that will include delving into what happened to the “Princes in the Tower”.

The series itself is about the history of the Tower of London and has been commissioned by Channel 5. It will be fronted by actor Jason Watkins (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Watkins) and you can read about it here: Jason Watkins investigates Tower of London for C5 – Televisual.

I wasn’t encouraged when I read the words “….With the help of historical expert Tracy Borman….” Oh dear. A Tudor historian! Is that not a little like inviting a fox into the henhouse? I can’t imagine that, evidence/proof or not, a dedicated Tudor supporter will let Richard off the hook that was hammered in place by the Tudors, can you? I may be doing her an injustice. I certainly hope so.

“….The Tower of London strand begins with Jason Watkins and The 9 Day Queen (w/t) set to air on Channel 5 & My5 this winter….”

So now we wait to see.

In the meantime here are some interesting links to be going on with: https://murreyandblue.org/2023/11/10/the-links-that-bind-reappraisals-richard-iii-edward-v-the-heralds-memoir-coldridge-john-evans-sir-henry-bodrugan-thomas-grey-and-gleaston-castle/ and here https://churchmonumentssociety.org/2022/01/05/an-update-on-the-coldridge-effigy-and-stained-glass. You can read about the urn in Westminster abbey here https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/royals/edward-v-richard-duke-of-york.

And if you would like a strictly fictional version of how “John Evans” arrived at Coldridge, I have written a story about it here: https://murreyandblue.org/2023/11/02/the-boy-who-had-been-king-edward-v/