The release of Stephen Frears’ film The Lost King once more focuses attention on one of the most controversial figures in English history: King Richard III. The film is a compelling account of the struggle of a woman called Philippa Langley to find the grave of the 15th-century king, which was eventually discovered under a car park in Leicester.
Why does a king who died more than half a millennium ago continue to attract such interest? And why does this story of an (extra)ordinary woman’s quest to recover his remains – overcoming the massed battalions of academic orthodoxy on the way – hold such a fascination for us? To understand, we need to know something of late medieval history and more about modern Britain.
Richard III sat on the throne for just two years, but it was a controversial reign which remains fixed in the public consciousness for one main reason: he seized the crown from his young nephew Edward V. Denounced as illegitimate shortly after coming to the throne in 1483, Edward and his brother Richard – the “princes in the tower” – disappeared soon afterwards.
