Prince in the Tower ‘died a bricklayer’ or Did He?!?
David Baldwin of the University of Leicester has written a book that claims that the Princes in the Tower were not strangled by Richard the Third. The news story on this is short of details but apparently the theory hinges on Henry the Seventh visiting Colchester. I would like to offer up two counter theory, one is the little darlings were strangled on orders from their Uncle. I has the advantage of being by far the most obvious course of action for a known ruthless powermonger. Plus the bodies and all that. My other theory is that the Princes were snatched into space by the Martians. Henry the Seventh is know to have looked up at the night sky far more than he stared at the ground, thus exonerating the Morlocks.
May 25th, 2007 at 4:49 am
Another one who’s swallowed the Tudor propaganda about Richard III. No doubt you were mainly influenced, as are most people, by the Tudors’ spin doctor in chief Will Shakespeare, who certainly knew which side his bread was buttered on when it came to depicting the royal family’s erstwhile rivals to the throne.
I think you’ll find most serious historians now rate Richard as an enlightened guy, for his time, who did a fair bit of good and was most likely not responsible for murdering anyone in any tower.
Mark in Suffolk
May 25th, 2007 at 4:57 am
Yep, Shakespeare is my only source, not the countless examples of other men who seized power in similar circumstances*. We see these sorts of people all over the world today and throughout history, they have laid a clear path of behaviors that seem to be much more human than a fantasied perfect knight. Richard may have been an enlightened guy for his time, that doesn’t preclude him from being a murderer by any means. I am of course suspicious of the slanders of Shakespeare, but I am equally nervous of the sugar coating that some Richard fans want to paint their hero with.
* I have been reminded that the internet doesn’t convey sarcasm well. That is sarcasm.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:30 am
I though it was Col. Mustard, in the conservatory, with a mackerel.
May 25th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Sorry, that’s wrong. I have the mackerel card right here.
June 1st, 2007 at 11:29 am
Is that the Holy Mackerel of Antioch?
June 1st, 2007 at 11:41 am
FWIW, I’ll toss in that Josephine Tey’s “The Daughter of Time” is an interesting read on the subject of the guilt of Richard III