Today we were in Leicester. We've been there several times, but not made it to the exhibition about Richard III before. As some of you may know his remains were lost for hundreds of years after he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field. They were found in 2012 under a carpark in Leicester city centre that was the site of an old church. The archaeologists were able to be pretty certain it was him by comparing DNA to people with common ancestors and from the fact that his spine was twisted as had often been mentioned in historical descriptions. He wasn't the hunchback that was sometimes portrayed and he was able to fight in battle.
There's an group of people who have tried to get his reputation restored as he has been portrayed as one of history's villains. I can understand people want to get these things right, but I wonder why there is such loyalty to someone who died over 500 years ago.
The exhibit tells the story of what happened to Richard and how his remains came to be found. It doesn't have too much in the way of artefacts. It's basically a lot of reading, but there are videos and various replica weapons. They also have a 3d printed model of his skeleton and a model recreating what he may have actually looked like as there are not many portraits from his lifetime.
You can see the actual site of his grave. It's under thick glass and you cannot walk over the grave itself as that may be considered disrespectful.
His current tomb is in the neighbouring cathedral. We didn't get to see that as there was a service going on, but we're likely to be back again some time.
I can't say I'd rate the exhibition as an essential unless you are really into the history. It's about £9 for an adult to get in. You can read most of the information online and in history books. I think you can visit the new tomb for free.
This stone is in the exhibition.
We've also been the battle site a few years ago. There's not too much to see, but we had an interesting guided tour. It seems a lot is still uncertain about exactly what happened and exactly where he died. History tends to be written by the victors and they will adjust it to fit their purposes. Shakespeare wrote his play about the king to suit Queen Elizabeth who was descended from Henry VII who defeated Richard to claim the throne.
I'm no royalist and it seems ridiculous to me that countries were rules based on what family the ruler happened to be born into and who else they could get out of the way. It was definitely a cutthroat business back then. That doesn't mean I can't be interested in the history. That's already happened and we can learn from it.
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