Was Richard III Really Britain's Worst Tyrant King? | Richard III: Fact Or Fiction | Timeline

this is a murder mystery here in the Tower of London 500 years ago a crime was committed that was so vile it continues to haunt us even to this day the murder of two young boys aged nine and twelve we know them as the princes in the town to the truck and the killer has always been assumed was their evil uncle the hunchback Richard the third murdered them in order to seize the throne for himself it's one of the most famous murders in English history even today Richard the third is seen as the arch villain of English kings but I'm here to ask one simple question did he really do it because behind the cardboard cutout villain there's a much more complex and fascinating character piecing together a murder mystery 500 years on is a tall order made harder by having to sift the facts from state propaganda details of the murder were only released twenty years after the event this story condemned richard with a potent mixture of rumor character assassination and alleged confession the official version is the Richard ordered his servant James Turrell to kill them they were smothered in their sleep then Terrell had them buried in the tower it's a version that was given some credence when in 1674 two skeletons were discovered here at the base of the tower in the 1930s they were scientifically analyzed but the study showed only that they were the bones of children and even if modern DNA conclusively proves they were the princess bones [Music] so there's no smoking gun instead we have to lose the balance of probability judging original opportunity character and motive [Music] the most well-known source is very clear about one but we learn this not from a historian [Music] Shakespeare's Richard is an unforgettable a bitter psychopath lurching from murder to murder wife brother as well as the princes the same for Shakespeare the motivation was simple Richard was a oh my brother mocks both you and me because the time little like a new [Applause] Richard's hunchback and with noticeable thing about [Music] but Shakespeare was writing over a hundred years after the event and we have to remember who he was writing for Queen Elizabeth the first the granddaughter of Henry the seventh the man who finally over true and killed Richard here had the Society of Antiquaries there are clues that Shakespeare's portrait of Richard is deeply flawed right down to the humpback [Applause] there was a a dreadful belief at the time that wickedness did show itself in deformity and we all know Thomas Moore made a lot of it and what about Shakespeare what he made of it this is the best-known portrait of Richard it clearly shows his right shoulder to be higher than his left but Pamela to dacraic spurt on the art of Richard's period has made an extraordinary discovery the hump has been painted in there's this one here this one here the originally normal back was raised only a matter of half an inch or so some subsequent date probably very soon after was painted and another link of the chain of his collar was added very badly to suggest that he was unequal and it's just enough because this shoulder is very slipping down that way huh it it does make it unevenness is it just me or do his eyes look a bit mean and his jaw looks a bit tense absolutely and the x-ray that's been made of this which showed that those shoulder has been raised also shared that the eyes were not originally so narrow and the mouths not originally quite suited treat the evidence has been tampered with Richard has been stitched up in those days if you wanted a copy you had to paint it again and as copies of this painting were made the hump got bigger and bigger and to prove the point here at the Society of Antiquaries we have a second earlier portrait one which clearly shows he doesn't have a hump this one hasn't been doctored the Tudors never got at this one it was in the Country Inn in Norfolk and picked up in the 18th century and that's how it got here but did Richard have simpler motives that any detective would recognize greed jealousy or lust for power [Music] Kasturi [Applause] Richards eldest brother in windfall seized the throne in 1461 Richard was just due to bluster according to Shakespeare Richard was James and schemed the power from the start even before the princes were born once again Shakespeare since we've got it completely wrong because there's no evidence whatsoever to suggest the prior to Edward's death Richard was anything other than the most loyal and devoted younger brother there was a traitor in the family but it wasn't Richard it was his big brother George Duke of Clarence in 1469 Clarence rose up against and wood was forced the tree to the low comes with he took a boat from here at King's Lynn it said that he left in such a hurry he was forced to hand over his fur gown in order to pay the captain he left with just a small band of followers but it included the 18 year old Richard it looked like the end of the road friendly a new regimes in power this was the moment when anyone wanted to promote their own interests to the jump and change I don't think he was a scheming villain right from the start I think he's most characteristic feature before 1483 is his loyalty to his brother Edward before brothers winter in the time with Richard fighting bravely decide Edward smashed the rebels he was king of England and the House of York was united once more but Edward never forgot the behavior of his two brothers during that dark winter they say drink can kill an inn clarity's case this was literally true eight years after the failed coup of 1470 Clarence was again found guilty of treason and this time Edward was in no mood to show any mercy nevertheless as a favor to his mother he allowed Clarence to choose his method of execution this is momsie wine what nowadays we call Madeira and rather than face being hung drawn and quartered Clarence chose to be suspended upside down in a barrel of this until he drowned Richard's fate was very different he was rewarded with vast estates but at when he was 23 the richest most powerful Noble in the land and King's right-hand when Edward was blessed with the birth of two small boys the future of the House of York looked secure England had found stability at last and Richard had shown not the slightest sign of wanting the throne for himself we're beginning to get a sense that history may have done Richard the third an injustice he wasn't a hunchback he didn't betray his brother at the moment he certainly doesn't look like the kind of man who would murder his nephews and I'm not the only person to think that incredibly 500 years on he's the only King of England with his own fan club this is the Richard the third Society each year it gathers at this small country church close to the sea [Music] mission to resurrect dead Kings relatives [Music] [Applause] it's because there's a mystery people get fascinated by that and then it it goes on from there and once you start investigating it you find he's really a rather nice person it's perhaps a sense of justice a desire to right a wrong that standard somebody I can't bear people who say there are being objective but in fact are very cleverly putting in adjectives to make Richard sound bad Richard was in control of the north of England for 12 years following Clarence rebellion it is positive achievements here that his supporters put forward as evidence in his favor first he was a brave and fearless soldier he'd shown personal courage fighting with Edward in 1482 he led a successful invasion of Scotland the town of ferry [Music] next in an age of corruption and lawlessness he was fair and just putting an end to the petty feuding of local Nobles the North had been very disturbed since they at least the mid 14 fifties I think Richard does be bring a degree of stability and peace to the north that he hadn't seen for years he uses his counsel as a means of arbitration in disputes that's not new lots of other labels did it but he did it very effectively and he continued that as king he seems to have developed a particular dislike for the bad administrator how we wish we had Richard the third now these don't seem to be the actions of a morally bankrupt man and there's more character evidence to balance the picture of a monster we've been given by Shakespeare the records show that he endowed universities gave generously to the church and paid for masses to be said for the souls of fallen comrades and it wasn't just a matter of fall a pious man who read complex works of theology the remnants of his personal collection are still held in the British Library [Music] for most 15th century no those books were just displayed a simple lavishly illustrated works purely for show [Music] but Bridget's books a rather different [Music] for a start many of them a secondhand take a look at this one it's plain its unadorned its well-thumbed which is even written in it see that there it says our Gloucester we support these books for himself and he bought them to read not just a stick up on a shelf none of the evidence so far about Richards motivation fits with him being the prime suspect in our murder mystery it was a model brother to the king and as far as his nephews were concerned a model uncle then in April 1483 the King caught a chill after going boating within a few days he was dead suddenly everything changed so who were the princes in the town well in the spring 1483 Richard's brother King Edward the fourth died unexpectedly he was just 40 the crown part of thematically to his eldest son Kenneth he was only 12 years old his brother just 9 had the same name as his uncle Richard who's we've already seen had been a model second-in-command to his older daughter suddenly everything was up in the air it's from this moment the clock begins ticking the death to Prince's Edward's death provided Richard with an opportunity and a motive and he suddenly seems to have undergone a radical change because immediately he threw off his role as loyal leftenant and moved center stage and would son the uncrowned Edward v was travelling from Wales to London for his coronation and Richard immediately rushed south to intercept him here on Northampton we've had 12 years of relative peace and stability and read with the force and I everything's thrown into the melting pot again and I think people are really scared anyway when you get a miner inheriting the throne and because that obviously opens up the possibility for political intrigue and factionalism even if you don't have an uncle who decides to go fur throne himself it's now that the evidence starts to mount up the only proof of is his conduct over the next ten weeks he met first with the young kings Guardian Earl rivers it was the Queen's brother Richard Tom rivers he wished simply to join the Kings party on its progress to London to add to the magnificence of its entry into the capital they drank until late into the night but his bedchamber and arrested he and other senior advisors to the King were immediately hauled off to Richard's castle at Pontefract in northern England it was the sort of bold and decisive move which as we'll see was about to become Richards trademark with rivers and the others now under arrest he raced down what's now the a5 to the village of Stony Stratford this house used to be the Rose and Crown and there's a well-established legend that it's here that the king himself was staying the king was told that rivers had been arrested because he and the rest of the Queen's family were plotting to assassinate Richard the young king just 12 years old protested their innocence Earl rivers he said was a loyal subject but it was no use politely but firmly Richard told the King he would now be traveling down to London under his protection [Music] the two now set off together for the capital we've got a poignant memento if you and it may even date for that it's an official document signed by Edward and Richard Richard has added his personal motto loyalty to us this motto seems truly ironic which provides in London a few days later it wasn't to a hostile reception in fact his seizure of the young what he done was to wrench anyone from we use family who were universally loved they Mussina's up stars belt had married beneath himself and the traditional nobility resented the power that Queen's family wielded far better the young king should be in the hands of his hunter a true blue blood so when Richard suggested that Ed would stay here at the tower no one thought there was anything wrong with that it was after all we're kings traditionally stayed prior to their coronation and hadn't yet acquired the sinister reputation that it gained in the Tudor Age so Edward moved in sometime in mid May and his younger brother followed shortly afterwards they would never leave again the king was chief advisor you looked closely in the kind Frankie loves it already been accepted as the chief counselor so the government of the kingdom was going to be conducted under his leadership and this was quite normal and as expected however it wasn't normal in minorities for the protector as Richard the third made himself in the end to both have the responsibility of the government kingdom and have the custody of the person of the king was he up to something did he really have the young Kings best interests at heart if he didn't it was a major obstacle in his way the one man who would certainly resist any attempt by Richard of Gloucester to take the throne is William Lord Hastings who is one of Edward the fourth most loyal supporters throughout his reign and he's probably the man who's most committed to ensuring that Edward the fifth is crowned and rules so if you're going to go for the throne in Richard the third which the Gloucester's position you're going to go for the throne William Lord Hastings is certainly a man that you're going to have to take out on the morning of June naturally among those attending was the Kings Chamberlain William Lord Hastings [Music] it was like a board meeting on the agenda the coronation no one expected what happened next he started by pulling the same trick he'd used on rivers at Northampton he loved them into a false sense of security he was relaxed friendly he even suggested that they sent out for some strawberries and he left the meeting for a while when he returned which it's mood had changed according to one report he bared his arm which had developed an infection he was a victim he said of sorcery the Queen was plotting against him then he rounded on Lord Hastings accusing him of being in league with his enemies he slammed his fist on the table this signal armed men rushed into the room well Hastings barely had time to splatter a denial before he was dragged off a few minutes later he was dead beheaded on a makeshift block on Tower green [Music] standing on Tara green the village green I live here it's my home it's where I walk command evening to relax and unwind after a busy day at the office hasty person we have understood of significance for the same position which is shown his hand it had been a typically dramatic even reckless coup but what looks like a man on the make may have been a man who felt deeply threatened I think Richard the third probably was making a political judgment about his best interest calculating that if he didn't make himself King in the long run he'd become a victim of the reign of Edward the fifth in particular a fear that he had about the influence of a Queen's family around the young King Edward the fifth and the possibility that he couldn't hold on to power if you ask what Richard had to lose it was this but lands that have been given by one king could be taken away to stroke there's another possibility that he genuinely believed he was the rightful king it certainly was he claimed and especially staged defense nine days after death tastings Richard had already eliminated opposition ability now on this spot in the shadow of the old medieval sand Paul's Cathedral stood something called some Paul's cross which acted as a sort of outdoor pulpit and here on June the 22nd an extraordinary statement was made it was meant to be a sermon but the crowds knew the bishop reading it was Richards mouthpiece and he was announcing Richards own claim to the crown what stunned everyone were the grounds he used to justify it a series of quite scandalous revelations about Richards own family Edwards Richards brother had been born out of wedlock and so had the two princes this left only one legitimate heir to the throne at this moment Richard himself was supposed to appear in one of the galleries of the Cathedral to shouts of long live King Richard from the crowd but unfortunately he must hide his entrance as I was met by stunned silence as a piece of theater it was a fiasco but Richard had made sure laughter even as he loved it and all me was on its way so some of the pyrogen it was clear that he was going to seize her phone what happened any minute or three days after declaring himself King Richard executed roofers and the other men he had arrested at Northampton and on July the sickness 1483 Richard Duke of Gloucester was crowned King Richard the third of England at Westminster the one huge problem remained rather too small somewhere deep in the bowels of the tower richard has seen outmaneuvering the opposition moving with extraordinary speed and decisiveness the two princes remained a threat to his power they seem to be more than aware of the danger they were in the young contemporary chronicler sought remission of his sins I believe before the coronation the boys had been seen regularly playing in the grounds but now the sightings stopped altogether Edward the fourth sons being disappeared the princes were taken right into the bowels of the White Tower here and almost as soon as we should have been crowned rumors began circulating that they've been got rid of [Music] no court convicted on the evidence the princes disappeared but in law that doesn't prove crimes being committed the story that Richard got his servant to killed Bruce's only came to light 20 years later the bones of the young boys were discovered 200 years afterwards if the Tudors had the man who done the deed why could they also produce the bodies [Music] purely circumstantial and doesn't sit easily with what we know of his character after he was crowned if someone like the bishops and David's a Thomas Langton who is when one knows are quite a lot about he was a rather delightful well-educated cleric if he says about Richard God has sent him to us for the we love us all I never liked but if not Richard and who like the identity of Jack the Ripper or the shooting of JFK has been a whole host of pet theories alternative suspects first up the Duke of Buckingham no portrait exists he was a slippery careerist he did have a heritage he seems to have regretted it pretty quickly tense months following the correlation there was a major rebellion against Russia tide turning they started by aiming to free end with the fifth from the tower but halfway minor works noble in Judah Henry Tudor would eventually become part of a scheme the rebellion went off at half and was easily suppressed Henry had to scamper back to exile in France but one objection to kill the princes you had to get at them with the two boys locked securely in the tower only the King has access to them but which King Richard was only on the throne for two years before Henry the seventh took over suppose Henry and his moment of triumph had ridden into London and found the two boys still alive in the tower the true heirs to the throne is Henry the seventh our real villain there's little doubt that Henry would have killed them if he'd found the princes alive their claim to the throne was better than his the Tudor smear campaign against Richard could be just a cover-up it's a lovely theory but common sense says it just doesn't hold water if they weren't dead why didn't rip produce them and parade them through the streets of London to prove they were still alive and if they weren't dead or if she didn't think they were dead why did their mother Elizabeth Woodville support a rebellion apparently to put Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond on the throne which takes us back to our prime suspect if this was an Agatha Christie novel then the murderer would turn out to be the least likely suspect Henry or Buckingham or whoever but history isn't like that and for me at any rate richard remains the most likely culprit he had the means he had the motive and his behavior since his brother's death had shown a streak of ruthlessness but there's still one unsolved mystery okay Richard usurped the throne and murdered the incumbent King but in the Middle Ages that was par for the course I think it's it's probably a mistake to select rich in the third for special denigration 15th century politics was a brutal game Kings were killed in battle imprisoned in one case gruesomely murdered with a red-hot poker it's difficult to find too many 15th century Kings who one would really want to spend a lot of time with in all honesty but Kings led to Richard and Cena King turned out of his own comfort needs to be tough to survive it's probably easiest to think of these people know like our present-day royal family the Queen and Harriet wills Prince Charles but his present-day mafia dons with their bands of thugs and their struggles for power no matter how many people got hurt how many people got killed it was just business nothing personal [Music] so Richard he's the victim of the process of the myth-making and ledger and that process began here in this bleak here that he met his nemesis if the grandson of an illegitimate son bastard son of John of Gaunt who's the third son of Edward the third so he has no claim to the throne at all I was gonna say that doesn't sound very impressive very unimpressive this second rebellion of Henry's was the last round of the Wars of the Roses and Henry did it for one simple reason was the only claimant to the throne the House of Lancaster had left Henry had been in exile in France for the last 15 years the army he brought to England comprised mainly of French mercenaries this was a foreign invasion not a popular uprising he landed at Milford Haven in Wales on the seventh two weeks later he arrived at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire which it was waiting for the battle that took place here on August the 22nd 1485 seems to divide English history in two and sometimes around about mid-morning on that day the old savage warlike era of the Middle Ages ended and the enlightened modern times of The Tudors began at least that was the Tudor propaganda the Shakespeare Bosworth was a simple morality tale it's the place where the child murderer got his comeuppance [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Shakespeare makes it seem as though Richard have lost the battle before he started he was haunted by nightmares he was alone and friendless but actually it wasn't anything like that on the morning of the 22nd you'd have put your money on King Richard Henry CUDA the Welsh Pretender was a rank outsider a dorm the two men mustered their troops and Henry would have been only two of them the disparity in their forces his army numbered around 5,000 Richards and Richard believed God was on his side he paraded the cross before years later in every way he had this polish decision Henry was down there in that hollow with the flagpole is and Richard was up here on the hill so the King have got the advantage of the high ground and you've got an army about twice as big as Henry's but he got his problems too he'd spent an uneasy night Shakespeare reckons he was wracked with conscience there's more likely that he was wrestling with practical issues made up in use where he was one man Lord Stanley Northwest of it Lord Stanley was a man who'd always managed always managed to be on the winning side and gradually became a very powerful and influential person so that most Kings needed him on their side something he was able to use to his own advantage so Richard was up here Henry was down there and over there somewhere was Stanley with his truths hedging his bets waiting to jump in when he saw what was best for Stanley the battle started at the bottom of the hill when the two vanguards engaged in brutal and bloody everyone knew that behind bridges his superior then suddenly Richard noticed but just over there to the left of where those farm buildings are today Henry and a few of its followers had become detached from the main body of the army his old reckless streak reasserted himself what if he could kill Henry could finish the battle and say this kingdom are one blow he couldn't resist it he gathered together some of his most loyal supporters and ordered a cavalry charge down the hill and straight at Henry [Applause] two forces clashed in the place called Sandiford which is probably somewhere around here Richard killed Henry's standard-bearer he killed a second man and by this time he was probably just yards away from Henry who would have been surrounded by a mass of French mercenaries but at that moment Richards horse was killed from under him all nothing gamble and failed the attack faltered then the final nail was driven in Richards coffin as Lord Stanley at last committed himself on Henry's side see stylists warden around him Richard must have realized he'd had it but he fought on according to eyewitnesses screaming in fury of the treachery of his allies one thing even Richards enemies left question his courage forget a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse one of his men offered him a horse so he could make his escape but he refused and went out fighting you would probably hacked to death by French pikemen as he lay writhing in the mud and his body was stripped naked slung over a horse and then paraded through the streets of Leicester thus died the last medieval king of England [Music] he's the only English monarch without a tomb they buried him in a nearby monastery later when Henry Tudor's son Henry the eighth dissolved the monasteries his bones were dug up and thrown away it said his coffin ended up as a foster the Tudors wanted to rob him of one of the aims of Tudor propagandists is to paint a really black picture of the Wars of the Roses as a warning as to what can happen when you have dynastic strife and since Richard the third is the last of the Wars of the Roses kings and the one whom Henry the seventh turfs off the phone anyway he comes in for a particularly powerful denigration for the Tudors Richard became a lesson from history this was what happened when you overthrew the rights and Kings we found the one-dimensional villain presented by Shakespeare is a caricature the real Richard probably murdered his nephews but he was far from being the monster of popular legend and that's where our story might have ended but then while we were making this programme a chance discovery in a French archive turned all of this on its head forcing us to totally rethink not just Richard but every royal our inquiry into the murders of the princes in the town has led us back to the prime suspect Richard the third it was never quite clear what drove why was the loyal brother of the years before 1483 was suddenly transformed [Music] then while we were making this program a new discovery one which provided an explorer it was made not in England but here at war in Normandy Richard remember based his right to the throne on the claim that his brother Edward who was the father of the two princes was illegitimate and shouldn't have been crowned King at all and it was this claim that was central to the sermon that was preached at some Paul's cross for days before Richard became King but it's a claim that always been laughed at by historians until an English historian was rooting around in the records at the Cathedral here and came up with a fascinating document to understand it we need to go back up into the period before Richard was born before the rules of the roses when England was still a war with France Richard's father the junior was serving with the English garrison hero Rahm was the English HQ in France and he had his home family with him Richard's eldest brother they took him was born either in 1532 and the key thing to understand is that Edward only became king the Duke of York was of royal blood Mike Jones was just here to research 200 years when he stumbled across a crossing reference to the Duke of you in the daily log of the Cathedral unfortunately for Edward the fourth he was good at maths it was here in Rahl in 1441 that Edward the fourth was conceived was known that's right so why is this document so important this is the Cathedral register for the summer of 1441 it tells us the clergymen are being paid for sermon to be delivered for the safety of the Duke of York going to Pontoise on campaign he wasn't there at the crucial time he's not with his wife so even though Edward the fourth was conceived here his dad wasn't here that's right it had to be somebody else worried it's there in black and white here's the maths everything indicates he was born at Fulton there's no record of him being smaller than sickly in the Middle Ages they didn't understand about 40 week pregnancies we know that Edwards birth date of April 28th means he must have been conceived around the first week of August the Duke of York was fighting in Pontoise from July the 14th to August the 21st but the register provides further evidence when the seconds later the register records a massive celebration for his person no expenses spared the whole Cathedral is thrown out and the relics the choir singing the most precious objects are put on the altar Equus christening is hushed up it's in a tiny private chapel on the castle it's so extraordinary to celebrate the second son was so much more honor than the first and this with the second son the capital had naught to celebrate no it's gotta be a bastard isn't it I think so the records here backup gossip because when Richard made his extraordinary claimants and things first that Edward was illegitimate he didn't [Music] all Edwards life people were whispering behind his back that he was a bastard what made them so sure was that he looked nothing like his father unlike his brother Richard who was the spitting image of their dad Richard and his father was small Edward was a six foot four giant and Edwards own mother is reported as twice saying he was illegitimate up till now historians have simply dismissed these reports as two incredible we even have a candidate for the real father the rumor at the time was that he was an English Archer called blade born burly handsome a bit of rough so it may be the Edward the fourth rather than being descended from the noble House of York was in fact the child of a presumably very tall Archer from the garrison at rule and if Richard was aware of this then suddenly we see him in a very different light if he was the legitimate king then what does that make the two little boys in the tower this new evidence suggests they were the sons of an impostor with no true claim to the throne at all while Edward was alive Richard had little option but to be loyal after all of what had happened to Clarence with Edward dead it was his duty as the only surviving brother to restore the honor of the House of York and remove the corrupted line does that mean he killed them I think he did but I think it was a matter of necessity rather than evil grasping ambition why necessary because they attracted the faction that wanted to unseat the rightful claim and put the rivals on the throne and yes it did affect him afterwards I think it had a colossal effect on him he felt that it was a an act that he had to do and at the same time must have felt enormous remorse for what was a grievous sin but the Battle of Bosworth members had failed the legitimate line died out it was the archers DNA through Edward magenta because as well as the princes in the tower and would have a daughter and she became the bride of Henry Tudor who wanted what he thought was good royal blood to boost his own feeble claim to the throne the rogue genes were firmly lodged in the royal nine we started out on a royal murder mystery we discovered a Richard the third there was far more rounded and complex traditional image who probably did murders and evidence to play uncovered the real skeleton anything the wrong is good - today pales by comparison the consequences reverberate down the centuries it means that some of the most famous characters in history like Henry the eighth and Elizabeth the first shouldn't be there at all every single member of the Royal line since has been tainted by the blood of the arch or of roar so solving one mystery has left me with another and it's one that I simply haven't been able to get out of my mind the monarchs claim to the throne their right to live in the big house over the road is based simply on being descended from the right person but if Edward the fourth corrupted that line then who should really be wearing the crown today is there someone out there with more royal blood than the present inhabitant who is Britain's real monarch [Music] you

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 307,462

Rating: 4.4061832 out of 5

Keywords: Full length Documentaries, Full Documentary, stories, BBC documentary, Documentary, real, history documentary, shakespeare documentary, History, TV Shows - Topic, 2017 documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, the princes in the tower documentary, Channel 4 documentary, documentary history, Documentaries, did richard III murder his nephews?

Id: bkRftHETKjU

Length: 48min 54sec (2934 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 11 2018