Hey so I'm here at the Bosworth heritage centre in Warwickershire for the annual
Battle of Bosworth event and I'm here pose a question - Richard the third
great king bad guy? Richard the third's reign lasted for just two years but his
kingship was fraught with unrest, rivalry and ultimately with his death here at
Bosworth exactly 532 years ago today. Accused of tyranny and being a child
murderer he was also an effective legislator who was a popular king with
his subjects in the north. We asked some of the reenactors here what they thought
of Richard. I think he was the last King to die in combat and he nearly took the day
so you know the end of day he was a good guy. Acknowledged as a good king, denigrated
after his death by vested interests
there is no evidence from the time that he was a bad guy he was a standard politician and
a political figure from the time who's no better no worse than anybody else.
He was an effective medieval ruler if you look at how he behaved in the north
where he ruled for quite a long time did you know he invaded Scotland by the way
where he ruled for quite a long time they were sad when he died it's in the
annals of York that show quite clearly that despite the fact that there was it
was a tumultuous time in England they would gent they took the time to record
their sadness at his passing so I think that shows that he was an effective and
fair ruler as well because one of the things that he did when he was in the
north was he tried to enforce a rule of law and obviously this made him
unpopular with other Nobles which maybe part of the reason why when we get to
Bosworth he loses. He reigned for such a short period of time
it's very very difficult to judge anybody for that there is obviously
awful lot of controversy how it became king in the first place whether it was true
or not we just don't know and well he got
beaten at Bosworth so again didn't really have a chance to make his mark
one way or another the fact that he reigns in such a short period of time
and the fact that I think people are still so interested in him
does say an awful lot for what he was as a personality. I'm not sure that he
was a great king he liked battle he liked to go to battle but he wasn't
necessarily that interested in the rest of it he wants to fight we didn't like peace.
So Richard the Third's reputation has been badly damaged by a Tudor propaganda
campaign and a Shakespeare play that portrayed him as a murderous hunchback
but you can't ignore the fact that on the 13th of June 1483 during a council
meeting he had Lord Hastings dragged outside and summarily executed oh and
the thing about the Princes in the tower. It's one of the problems of history
isn't it that we try to judge the actions of people who lived hundreds of
years ago by the morals of today it was a different time people just think
differently and I don't think we should judge him for either dispatching
Hastings or indeed the princes in the tower just because that's when he lived
He killed his nephews or had his nephews killed anyways if not by his own hands
by his accomplices and I don't care what people say
everybody's entitled to their opinion and my opinion is he is a child murderer. Really
don't think he would have killed his brother's children he loved his brother
and he was always there for him he was always there for him in battle so no I
really don't think that he did it. He was very badly treated I don't think I mean
we don't really know a lot of that what happened but I think that he
certainly wasn't this bad man that he's been painted. so the good people of
Bosworth have spoken and in their view Richard the 3rd was merely a product of
his time the psychologist professor Mark Lansdale
in his study of Richard the third decided that he probably wasn't a psychopath.
Henry Tudor hmm now there's another story thanks for watching.