The Richard III Society

Our speaker today was John Sheehan of the Richard III Society,a group of enthusiasts whose main aim is to rehabilitate the reputation of the 15th. Century King of England. Long considered as "Richard Crookback" the evil usurper of the throne, murderer of the Princes in the Tower who met his just end at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

John,  a retired solicitor spent much of his talk debunking and explaining the various myths which surrounded this much maligned character, a great deal of which were the result of one William Shakespeare's work as a Tudor propagandist, writing during the last years of the reign of Elizabeth I. His aim seemed to be to show in his Histories plays how wrong it was to rebel against a legitimate ruler and how the original Tudor monarch, Henry VII was the hero of the hour at Bosworth saving England from the disaster of Richard's rule.

John took us through the many 'alleged' crimes of Richard and basically explained the lack of evidence for any of the supposed wrongs he committed, brining us right up to date with some discussion about Philippa Langley who initiated the search to find King Richard's remains  under a car park in Leicester and the film 'The Lost King' which dramatised the story of the discovery.

A fascination topic well told - thank you John !