I never seem to shut up about this guy, do I?538Please respect copyright.PENANA91a0VvTvlH
I don't quite know why, but I literally cannot get him out of my head. This year I have visited York, a city he loved himself and a place where he was loved by the people. I have also visited Leicester, the site of his burial. I have visited the tiny museum dedicated to him in York's Micklegate Bar, the gate to the city he once rode through with his wife by his side. York Minster, where a window is dedicated to him and where his son was invested as Prince of Wales. I have also in the past visited Sandal Castle, the site of the battle where Richard lost both his father and elder brother.538Please respect copyright.PENANAuSt7fi7H84
Where most people see evil tyrant, I see simply this: a man. Not a king, or even a duke. Just a man.538Please respect copyright.PENANAnMXfgTMid8
An honest, loyal brother and a devoted husband. A caring father and a steadfast friend.538Please respect copyright.PENANAgRe9zsxnY4
How do I know this for sure? Well, I don't. Of course I don't. I have no possible way to know for sure if Richard was a nice guy. I have no possible way to know for sure that Richard didn't kill those boys in the Tower, or that he was as loyal and honest as the pre-1485 sources say. So many times I have been told that I just cannot know. 538Please respect copyright.PENANAuSyBfIZLMH
I know I will never know his true personality. But I have looked into his face (albiet a reconstruction but his face nonetheless). I looked into his face and found it incredibly difficult to ever imagine Shakespeare's villain in those eyes.538Please respect copyright.PENANAJfJLWQJW8S
This man speaks to me. There are some characters that you feel connected with, some that seem to reach out through the pages of history and touch your very soul, despite the separation of space and time. I have three such characters: Leonardo da Vinci, Anne Boleyn and Richard III. The first two are not nearly so controversial as the last, and it pains me so. How can we remain so ignorant of the man before Bosworth? The man that had proven himself to be kind, honest, unwaveringly loyal. The young boy of eighteen that led armies in support of his brother or the small child that lost his father in a most brutal manner? The man that lost his only son and yet still remained faithful to his wife? The man that grieved publicly upon the death of his sweet, beloved Anne?
All I see when I look upon the face of Richard III is a man. A simple man that was forced to endure warfare from the moment he could walk. Just a man, that was neither saint nor villain, but a man that was dealt a harsh hand by history. A man whose memory is not honoured as it should be.538Please respect copyright.PENANA0vePg3YpE7
A good king and an honest man, and what, really, is so wrong with that?538Please respect copyright.PENANAhwTPNHKUfS