In the UK, they have discovered the remains of the last English King who died in battle.
English slang for a ‘poo’ is ‘Richard the Third’ …’turd’. Put in the context, “I’m going for a Richard”. But funnily enough, the reason the car park (where Richard the 3rd’s remains were discovered) was being dug up, is because they were going to build a public toilet…that’s quite ironic.
Richard the Third, the son of York, was killed as his men deserted and changed sides. Henry Tudor won the battle, and Lancashire defeated Yorkshire in the final Battle of the Roses. The last Plantagenet was followed by the Tudors.
In 1485, Richard’s body, hacked and bespoiled, was taken away by monks to be buried in their monastery ground and hidden away from body snatchers.
It is ironic that the next Tudor King, the famous Henry the Eighth, destroyed the monasteries…especially the grounds in which Richard’s remains had been interred. They laid hidden until 525 years later they were found under a car park.
A small, slender man of 32 years was brave in battle and liberal in his reign.
Richard the Third was NOT a hunchback and DID NOT have a club foot, as led to believe by William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare made him out to have a hunch-back and club foot in his play, but this was only to please the monarch at the time, Queen Elizabeth the First…otherwise, she may have chopped his head off. And let’s be honest, be-heading was in her blood (look up Henry the 8th, if you don’t already know).
The Princes in the tower story is not proved, and perhaps unwise to label Richard a child murderer.
Where will he be buried? My suggestion is in Westminster Abbey with the other kings of England.
by Professor P.T. Brown
