Richard III Society is serious about accuracy

IN LAST week’s Hinckley Times John Payne wrote that “Richard III was probably a psychopath”. I disagree.

Mr Payne stated that the Richard III Society ignores the historical record - actually the society is a serious historical organisation which is actively engaged in accurate research. Undoubtedly the most wellknown achievement of the society to date was the Leicester Greyfriars dig and discovery which made world headlines. It was the society and its branches and members that provided the majority of the money needed. All the Looking for Richard Project members are members of the society.

When I moved to Leicestershire in 1974 many people told me that an angry mob threw King Richard’s bones in the river. When the 2012 Greyfriars dig was taking place several people questioned what we were doing but the results proved we were right and the story of the bones in the river was untrue. A lot more is now known because of the society’s quest for facts. We now know that Richard had no withered arm and although he suffered from scoliosis he was not a hunchback.

Shakespeare is certainly the greatest writer in English literature but he was neither a historian nor trying to be. Sadly the only version of the past many people know whether it is Macbeth, Henry V or Richard III are the plays written by Shakespeare or more likely the movie adaptations of them. One example from the many inaccuracies must suffice for reasons of space. In Henry VI Part 2 Shakespeare has Richard kill the Duke of Somerset at the first battle of St Albans. Somerset was killed in that battle in 1455 but certainly not by Richard who was not even three years old at that time!

Mr Payne writes that Shakespeare was writing “three generations on” when memories of Richard were still fresh. This is debatable. Historians continue to question the popular myths and caricatures of the Great War three generations on.

Mr Payne speculates on Richard’s early life experiences as having “drained him of the milk of human kindness” and probably turning him into a “psychopath”. Certainly Rich- ard’s early life saw some dramatic upheavals of his family fortunes but no one knows what effects they had on his character.

In two places in his letter Mr Payne mentions Hitler and infers that King Richard was a similar example of evil - that is not the case. In 1483 Richard had several people executed and at Bosworth it is estimated that a thousand men were slain. Of course even one death is a tragedy but it is ludicrous to place Richard on the scale of Hitler whose wars killed millions and who also perpetuated genocide.

For most people the big question is the disappearance of the two princes in the tower. At the moment we do not know what happened to them for cer- tain as there is insufficient evidence for anyone to prove what happened. That is a debate and investigation that the society will continue.

Readers of the Hinckley Times might like to look at the website of the Richard III Society www.richardiii.net which has a great amount of reliable historical detail, and the local Leicestershire branch has a site as well www.richardiiileics.net . Hinckley Library has a good collection of books about King Richard and Bosworth and so forth in a separate section upstairs in Local Studies which will allow people to study and make their own mind up about it all.

Richard Smith, Chairman of the Leicestershire Branch

Richard III Society.