![]() There is something peculiarly and touchingly British about this concern for the underdog in history. There are those who believe that the king, who died fighting bravely for his cause against Henry Tudor during the War of the Roses, was falsely accused of the murder of the young princes. On one level, Frears’ film is about a passion for the past and for defending those cruelly maligned by the official historical record – a role which Richard fulfils well. Others have focused on the political philosophy in More’s work as an essentially metaphorical warning about tyranny and its dangers. Richard’s defenders have denounced it as “Tudor propaganda”, contrived years after the event to blacken the reputation of a king. ![]() More’s account, written around 30 years after Richard’s death, has been treated with varying degrees of scepticism over the last 150 years. The first person to allocate specific responsibility for the disappearance – and death – of the two princes was the prominent lawyer, philosopher, politician and Roman Catholic saint, Sir Thomas More. This is the area that my latest research examines. Richard’s guilt or innocence in the fate of the princes – arguably the greatest missing persons case in British history – is particularly important here. Denounced as illegitimate shortly after coming to the throne in 1483, Edward and his brother Richard – the “princes in the tower” – disappeared soon afterwards. ![]() 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. 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. 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. 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.
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