The New Murrey and Blue blog

Richard III has been damned by history and Tudor apologists as a deformed monster with a hunched back, withered arm and the mind of a psychopath. So entrenched was this that Richard’s ability to fight fiercely like the warrior he was didn’t seem to occur to those who revelled in maligning him.

If he was so deformed, would he really have been able to lead that famous final charge that so very nearly saw the end of his quaking foe, Henry Tudor? Would he even have been able to ride in battle at all, wearing armour and wielding a weapon if he only had one arm and a cruelly bent back? Of course he wouldn’t, but that’s always glossed over by the endless drivel shouted by bellwether Tudor historians followed by a docile herd of journalistic sheep. To this day, even though his remains have been found, proving their version to belies, they’re still at it! They get around this undeniable physical evidence by saying the remains aren’t his. Oh dear, how pathetic. Baaaaaa!

It seems a very long time ago now since all the excitement of finding Richard III’s remains which revealed him to have suffered from scoliosis (a sideways curvature of his spine, not a hunched back, which is called kyphosis) and to have had two perfectly normal arms. Then there was further excitement of finding a young man named Dominic Smee, who had the same curvature of his spine as Richard III.

It’s very rare to find anyone today whose scoliosis hasn’t for whatever reason been attended to by modern techniques, so it was fascinating to meet Dominic. Through him we could see that Richard would have appeared as straight and upright as anyone else and was perfectly capable of fighting like the talented warrior he was. Dominic, who prefers to be called Dom, was bravely prepared to wear armour and be taught to ride and fight as Richard III had at Bosworth.

I have just happened upon an article in which Dom tells all about his experiences, and how he went through the same difficulties and obstacles as Richard. The article is very detailed and interesting, and I recommend you read it. The image below shows Dom riding “….the now sadly deceased Frisian-cob crossbreed Hawthorn….” to whom he will always be grateful for her experience and understanding.

The main article that prompted this post can be found here: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/blog/time-richard-iii-life-afterwards/