Shadow King: the Life and Death of Henry VI

 Helen Rae Rants! Shadow King: The Life and Death of Henry VI by Lauren Johnson Head of Zeus Publications, 2020, paperback, 700 pages, £12.00 ISBN 978-1784-979645 <img class=”i-amphtml-intrinsic-sizer” style=”max-width: 100%; display: block !important;” role=”presentation” src=”data:;base64,” alt=”” aria-hidden=”true” /> Henry VI has gone down in history as one of England’s worst kings. Not for being cruel…

Richard III: Bound by Loyalty?

via Richard III: Bound by Loyalty?

Sad Days at Sandal Castle

Late September saw some dramatic developments at Wakefield’s important Wars of the Roses and English Civil War site, Sandal Castle. It’s been making the news for all the wrong reasons: increasing levels of abuse and misuse from littering to anti-social behaviour, joyriding, and damage to the monument culminating in a load of horrible graffiti in…

Richard III and ‘King Power’!

Being totally uninterested in football, it’s not like me to wait on tenterhooks for a match result – but that’s what happened last week, and now I’m absolutely delighted that Leicester City have just become champions of the Premier League. Five years ago, news that the football team of an obscure Midlands city had beaten…

Richard, Duke of Gloucester: the Man Who Wouldn’t be King

Anti-Ricardians often partly justify their dislike of Richard III on account of his unattractive crown-hunger, claiming that he was always desperate to be king, spent his life plotting to this end and ruthlessly eliminating anyone who stood in his way, and cite as proof the prompt “usurpation” of his nephew Edward V in 1483. I’ve…

Not Hating Henry

I admit it: when I first fell for Richard III and through him, the House of York and Wars of the Roses history in general, I hated Henry VII. (I also hated his mother Margaret Beaufort, the perfidious Stanleys, the late queen Margaret of Anjou, and anyone else I could blame for bringing harm upon…

King Richard III’s Funeral: Cry, ‘Usurper’ and cancel the plans?

So now we know. The funeral of Richard III will take place from 22nd to 27th March, 2015, beginning with a procession of his remains through villages on the return route from the site of his death to the Cathedral in Leicester. There he will lie in state for three days prior to the reburial…

Richard III at Bosworth (2): The Final Moments

On this date in 1485, the last Plantagenet king of England died on Bosworth Field defending his crown from Henry Tudor. Today, thanks to archaeological investigations on the battlefield, we know whereabouts the combat took place and that at least one side (probably the king’s) deployed artillery. The question of exactly how Richard III came…

Richard III’s ‘Armour’ at the New Leicester Visitor Centre

I haven’t seen this for myself yet – but I’ve seen plenty of photographs and a good deal of huffing and puffing over the replica of Richard III’s suit of armour at the recently-opened Visitor Centre in Leicester. The bone of contention, (apart from the replica’s authenticity, on which I don’t feel qualified to comment),…

Richard III at Bosworth (1): Dressed for Battle

Amid the wide-ranging (and often wildly raging) debates that have taken place since the unearthing of his remains in Leicester in September 2012, I have seen it suggested that Richard III may have been unable to wear armour on account of his severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine). I find this unlikely for several reasons.…