The Lost King
The Search for Richard III
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4.6 • 23 Ratings
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- £3.49
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- £3.49
Publisher Description
Previously published as The King's Grave.
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING SALLY HAWKINS AND STEVE COOGAN.
The official inside story of the discovery of history's most controversial monarch.
On 22 August 1485 Richard III was killed at Bosworth Field, the last king of England to die in battle. His victorious opponent, Henry Tudor, went on to found one of our most famous ruling dynasties. Fifty years later, the king's grave was lost and Richard III's reputation buried under a mound of Tudor propaganda.
Philippa Langley and Michael Jones trace the remarkable story of the search for the lost king, leading to the incredible moment when the 500-year-old mystery was solved by Philippa Langley as his remains were uncovered beneath a car park in Leicester. The Lost King is the astonishing true story of a woman who refused to be ignored and who took on the country's most eminent historians, forcing them to think again about one of the most controversial king's in England's history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In September 2012, the remains of England's Richard III, whose two-year reign marked the end of the Plantagenet dynasty and a long, bloody civil war, were exhumed from under a Leicester car park. Langley, who spearheaded the dig and a related TV documentary, and medieval historian Jones (Bosworth 1485), sought a more nuanced and complex Richard, hoping to quash the caricature of the murderous, hunchbacked psychopath vilified by Tudor propagandists and Shakespeare alike. Richard's skeleton exhibited severe scoliosis, but the disability didn't hamper his martial skills in battles that restored his brother Edward IV to the throne in 1471. The skeleton's wounds likely show that this last English king to die in battle led a courageous and carefully planned cavalry charge at Bosworth against an inexperienced, fearful Henry Tudor luckily saved by mercenary French pikemen. Moreover, the authors argue that Richard was an idealistic king with a keen sense of justice and humor. It is a solid, perceptive work that rights historical injustices, but Langley's recalling of premonitory goose bumps at Richard's lost grave and her hiring a graphologist to interpret Richard's handwriting is off-putting, and her passion devolves at times into cheerleading. Illus.
Customer Reviews
Lost no more
Great film but Leicester University and less so Leicester City Council should hang their head in shame if their portrayl in this film is true ... how embarassing for them , stealing the research and thunder of the true heroine and i thought that a University was supposed to be against plagiarism usurpers and charlatans ....