We Need Neither The Bard Nor The Prince

White Lily’s “Richard III: The Murderous Machiavel?” post, here in Murray & Blue on 31 January 2015, is beautifully presented and argued, with the subject deserving extensive research and multiple books on its own. But I think we’re playing into anti-Ricardian hands if we set Richard III beside Machiavelli’s The Prince. There is another way.…

Richard III: The Murderous Machiavel?

In various discussions, on- and off-line, a Ricardian often times finds herself confronted with a particular type of debate about Richard III. Sometimes it is phrased in the context of the “brutality of the times” or the “scheming nature of a royal court” or the “rough and aggressive nature of lords and nobles in the…

A vist to Canterbury

One of our members visited Canterbury Cathedral and its environs recently. He found statues and tombs to the likes of Henry IV and Edward the Black Prince but he couldn’t find the remains of (Cardinal) John Morton. How ironic that, just as Richard III’s remains have been identified beyond reasonable doubt despite the lurid stories…

Richard III’s ‘Broken Sword’ portrait….

There is one portrait of Richard that is not seen very often, perhaps because it is not straightforward…or well painted. For instance, why the broken sword? As a symbol of his defeat and broken monarchy? It is also rather dark and presumably in need of a good clean, presents him with a malformed left hand,…

Richard III’s portraits reveal his (lack of) deformity….

Here is an interesting article about the various alterations that have been made to Richard’s portraits. No, not the alterations of which I have been guilty, but the sneakier “Tudor” activities to blacken Richard’s character and appearance. The article is from 2009, with the then knowledge of whether or not Richard was the monster as…

Parliament

Yesterday, Friday 23 January *, is the 531st anniversary of the first sitting of Richard III’s Parliament. It lasted for four weeks and transacted various business, including a codification of the petitition that asked him to become King as “Titulus Regius”. Interestingly, it is only three days from the anniversary of the first (or second)…

Richard III and the sauce bottle….

Another twiddle of a famous portrait of Richard III, this time the one held by the Society of Antiquaries. I tweaked it before, to give him a little smile rather than the scowl in the original, but now I have gone to work a little more. To me, the original portrait looks as if his…

Maybe Thomas & William Stanley, Margaret Beaufort, Bishop Morton, Reginald Bray, John De Vere, Northumberland, and Henry Tydder Were Just Jealous

by Merlyn MacLeod In the midst of reading an old book from 1965 called The Art of Creative Writing by Lajos Egri, I came across the following. My mind immediately went to the attitudes and actions of certain antagonists in the years, months, and days leading up to the Battle of Bosworth. “I am speaking…

More on “The Accidental Traitor”

Last year, we posted an essay about the life and death of Arthur Capell, Baron Hadham. Now, thanks to Anna Belfrage of EHA, we can add two portraits (above); one of Hadham alone, and one with his family.

Codpieces by the expert

(Dr. Lucy Worsley that is): “… I wrote for a newspaper this week.  Hope you enjoy! ‘There is no hidden codpiece memo.’ So says Colin Callendar, executive producer of the upcoming BBC Two drama series Wolf Hall, denying claims that the size of his stars’ codpieces were reduced beyond the point of historical accuracy to avoid offending or baffling an American…