I can’t remember the name of the history teacher, I just remember her Year 7 class of which I was a member. She was a rather uninspiring person. Short, pudgy, thick glasses which sat on a pumpkin like face. Not a particularly attractive woman, not that I thought about such things in those days and she may not have been as aged as I remember. The older I get the younger people in my recollections seem to be. Her delivery was monotone, merely getting out the information required to the disinterested cohort before her. To 13 year olds, English history was about as interesting as talking about rocks on the moon!
But at one moment, on one particular day, she taught me something which has fascinated me ever since and has a particular resonance at the moment. She spoke of the Battle of Bosworth Field.
Now English history is still, for most people akin to what is was when they were 13. Boring! But it is something as Australians we should take at least a passing interest in. English history is our history. The story of how Australia came to be and the culture we have become is inextricably linked to the history of the United Kingdom. They made us what we are. The medieval English kings contributed as much to our Australian way of life as they did to the British. They are fascinating men from fascinating times. At least in my mind.
The Battle of Bosworth Field was fought on an English summers day in August, 1485. The royal army of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet monarch, decimated by desertions and doomed by treachery, was defeated by an army of French mercenaries and ragged Welshman under the nominal command of Henry Tudor, the last Lancastrian claimant of the throne, soon to become Henry VII, founder of a legendary dynasty. He was the father of Henry VIII and grandfather of Elizabeth I, sovereigns who might be more accessible to the ears of the average punter not attuned with the political scene of 15th and 16th century England.
Richard had usurped the throne of his 12 year old nephew, hoisted him into the Tower of London with his even younger brother, from whence they disappeared, lost forever in the annals of history. No one knows exactly what happened to them although I can hazard a pretty good guess!
Richard, his smashed body stripped bare in the mud and blood of Bosworth Field, hanged in the square at Leicester so all could see the tyrant in death, lest anyone with a heavy heart, desiring to return the previous king to the throne, have ideas of a new rebellion. Richard III was dead. A new regime was in power. The tenuous claim of Henry Tudor to the throne was confirmed and a new era began in English history. Oh how the fate of history hangs on treachery and a desperate cavalry charge!
Now I won’t bore you to death rambling on about the War of the Roses and how Richard found himself a little short of allies that day and how the extra 6000 men lead by Lord Stanley that he was expecting to fight for him suddenly threw their lot in with the other side, condemning Richard to his fate. It’s suffice to say that old Dicky upset a few people when he lunged for the crown and killing off your 12 your old nephew who is actually the rightful king plus his younger brother didn’t endear you to many people, even in the 15th century. Of course it’s never been proven that Richard committed this crime and he has his defenders, most notably the Richard III Society but it is hard to see any other fate for the “Princes in the Tower”, other than the one which Richard probably found for them.
He had been unscrupulous in business dealings all his life and during the reign of his brother, Edward IV, had built up such large holdings in the north that the king made him lord of that part of the country and he was particularly popular in the city of York and remains so to this day.
So it’s rather fascinating that this pariah, doomed by the Tudor propaganda machine to a reputation of villainy is actually regarded as a very able administrator, who, during his 24 month reign ruled very much for the common man. He introduced “Presumption of Innocence” in courts of law and was the monarch who instituted the practice of bail for those awaiting trial, procedures we still hold dear in our own courts today.
But the list of victims who were dispatched on his orders is long and no heir to the throne has been named Richard since!
Of course Richard is in the news today primarily because his remains have presumably been found under a car park in the city of Leicester!
The remains of a well to do man with a smashed skull, an arrowhead in his vertabrae, and scoliosis of the spine (Richard was demonised by Shakespeare who portrayed him as a hunchback) have been found after an archaeological dig where the old Greyfriars Church in Leicester had once stood. Ironically, it had been destroyed by Henry VIII but the chroniclers appear to have been right when they first recorded Richard’s final burial place and he was found exactly where the archeologists expected him to be. Weeks of DNA testing will soon reveal if it is the last king of England to die on the battlefield.
I have stood on the field of Bosworth and tried to take in the landscape and imagine Richard’s last cavalry charge. I have stood where his royal standard still flies, on the spot where he fell “fighting manfully in the heaviest press of his enemies”. He may have got it very wrong during his short reign but he still died a king and died hard and gallantly. We ask no more of our medieval monarchs than that. And Richard has gone to a higher place to answer for his alleged crimes. He was a pious man and took such things seriously. I wonder if he feared retribution from the ultimate power?
And somewhere out there is an anonymous old history teacher who will never know that she instilled in at least one of her young students many years ago a lust for learning about English history. I thank her for that.
Have a nice day.
But at one moment, on one particular day, she taught me something which has fascinated me ever since and has a particular resonance at the moment. She spoke of the Battle of Bosworth Field.
Now English history is still, for most people akin to what is was when they were 13. Boring! But it is something as Australians we should take at least a passing interest in. English history is our history. The story of how Australia came to be and the culture we have become is inextricably linked to the history of the United Kingdom. They made us what we are. The medieval English kings contributed as much to our Australian way of life as they did to the British. They are fascinating men from fascinating times. At least in my mind.
The Battle of Bosworth Field was fought on an English summers day in August, 1485. The royal army of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet monarch, decimated by desertions and doomed by treachery, was defeated by an army of French mercenaries and ragged Welshman under the nominal command of Henry Tudor, the last Lancastrian claimant of the throne, soon to become Henry VII, founder of a legendary dynasty. He was the father of Henry VIII and grandfather of Elizabeth I, sovereigns who might be more accessible to the ears of the average punter not attuned with the political scene of 15th and 16th century England.
Richard had usurped the throne of his 12 year old nephew, hoisted him into the Tower of London with his even younger brother, from whence they disappeared, lost forever in the annals of history. No one knows exactly what happened to them although I can hazard a pretty good guess!
Richard, his smashed body stripped bare in the mud and blood of Bosworth Field, hanged in the square at Leicester so all could see the tyrant in death, lest anyone with a heavy heart, desiring to return the previous king to the throne, have ideas of a new rebellion. Richard III was dead. A new regime was in power. The tenuous claim of Henry Tudor to the throne was confirmed and a new era began in English history. Oh how the fate of history hangs on treachery and a desperate cavalry charge!
Now I won’t bore you to death rambling on about the War of the Roses and how Richard found himself a little short of allies that day and how the extra 6000 men lead by Lord Stanley that he was expecting to fight for him suddenly threw their lot in with the other side, condemning Richard to his fate. It’s suffice to say that old Dicky upset a few people when he lunged for the crown and killing off your 12 your old nephew who is actually the rightful king plus his younger brother didn’t endear you to many people, even in the 15th century. Of course it’s never been proven that Richard committed this crime and he has his defenders, most notably the Richard III Society but it is hard to see any other fate for the “Princes in the Tower”, other than the one which Richard probably found for them.
He had been unscrupulous in business dealings all his life and during the reign of his brother, Edward IV, had built up such large holdings in the north that the king made him lord of that part of the country and he was particularly popular in the city of York and remains so to this day.
So it’s rather fascinating that this pariah, doomed by the Tudor propaganda machine to a reputation of villainy is actually regarded as a very able administrator, who, during his 24 month reign ruled very much for the common man. He introduced “Presumption of Innocence” in courts of law and was the monarch who instituted the practice of bail for those awaiting trial, procedures we still hold dear in our own courts today.
But the list of victims who were dispatched on his orders is long and no heir to the throne has been named Richard since!
Of course Richard is in the news today primarily because his remains have presumably been found under a car park in the city of Leicester!
The remains of a well to do man with a smashed skull, an arrowhead in his vertabrae, and scoliosis of the spine (Richard was demonised by Shakespeare who portrayed him as a hunchback) have been found after an archaeological dig where the old Greyfriars Church in Leicester had once stood. Ironically, it had been destroyed by Henry VIII but the chroniclers appear to have been right when they first recorded Richard’s final burial place and he was found exactly where the archeologists expected him to be. Weeks of DNA testing will soon reveal if it is the last king of England to die on the battlefield.
I have stood on the field of Bosworth and tried to take in the landscape and imagine Richard’s last cavalry charge. I have stood where his royal standard still flies, on the spot where he fell “fighting manfully in the heaviest press of his enemies”. He may have got it very wrong during his short reign but he still died a king and died hard and gallantly. We ask no more of our medieval monarchs than that. And Richard has gone to a higher place to answer for his alleged crimes. He was a pious man and took such things seriously. I wonder if he feared retribution from the ultimate power?
And somewhere out there is an anonymous old history teacher who will never know that she instilled in at least one of her young students many years ago a lust for learning about English history. I thank her for that.
Have a nice day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 