Ricardians are people interested in altering the posthumous

reputation The reputation of a social entity (a person, a social group, an organization, or a place) is an opinion about that entity typically as a result of social evaluation on a set of criteria, such as behavior or performance. Reputation is a ubiquitous ...

of King Richard III of England (reigned 1483–1485). Richard III has long been portrayed unfavourably, most notably in

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

'' Richard III'', in which Richard is portrayed as having murdered his 12-year-old nephew Edward V in order to secure the English throne for himself. Ricardians have worked in an effort to turn this around and to paint this portrayal, and the many other related assertions that followed, as most probably false politically motivated accusations. Ricardians accept as facts: that first the young king Edward V was placed under the protection of his uncle Richard III; that Richard III himself was then crowned as the new king instead of young Edward V; and finally that the young king disappeared at some point over the coming year, never to be seen again. However, they dispute the initial common assumption by many, that Richard III was personally responsible for the apparent murder of Edward V. Richard III's reign lasted for only two years, and his short reign came to a violent end on 22 August 1485 at the

Battle of Bosworth The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 Au ...

; the last battle of the War of the Roses. In the aftermath of the battle, Richard III's body was not given a proper state funeral, and the location of his remains was soon forgotten; there was even a belief, now proved false, that they had been thrown into the River Soar in Leicester following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Ricardians assert that many of the original assumptions about Richard III's motives and likely responsibility relating to these events were not supported by the facts of the day, that these assumptions were most probably instead the result of the political claims of his successors, and that they were most probably mistaken assumptions. The two most notable societies of Ricardians are the Richard III Society, and the Richard III Foundation, Inc. A third much smaller Ricardian organisation, composed of "collateral descendants" of Richard III, was the Plantagenet Alliance. In 2012 the Richard III Society was instrumental in leading an archaeological effort to positively locate and identify the long-lost remains of Richard III, which resulted in the discovery and retrieval of the remains from beneath a Leicester car park. Subsequently, much popular historical interest was generated in this historical period. Such historical interest resulted in the review and publication of many articles and documents regarding Richard's reign, which have contributed to the scholarship of latter 15th-century

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. After their discovery, Richard III's remains were first scientifically evaluated, then formally re-interred within the interior of

Leicester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Martin, Leicester, commonly known as Leicester Cathedral, is a Church of England cathedral in Leicester, England and the seat of the Bishop of Leicester. The church was elevated to a collegiate church in 192 ...

on 26 March 2015. Their re-interment occurred amidst days of solemn ceremonies and pageantry.

History

Ricardian

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

includes works by Horace Walpole and by Sir

George Buck Sir George Buck (or Buc) (October 1622) was an English antiquarian, historian, scholar and author, who served as a Member of Parliament, government envoy to Queen Elizabeth I and Master of the Revels to King James I of England. He served in the ...

, who was the king's first defender, after the Tudor period. Ricardian fiction includes

Josephine Tey Josephine Tey was a pseudonym used by Elizabeth MacKintosh (25 July 1896 – 13 February 1952), a Scottish author. Her novel '' The Daughter of Time'' was a detective work investigating the role of Richard III of England in the death of the Pr ...

's '' The Daughter of Time'' and

Sharon Kay Penman Sharon Kay Penman (August 13, 1945 – January 22, 2021) was an American historical novelist, published in the UK as Sharon Penman. She was best known for the Welsh Princes trilogy and the Plantagenet series. In addition, she wrote four medieval ...

's ''The Sunne in Splendour''.

Elizabeth George Susan Elizabeth George (born February 26, 1949) is an American writer of mystery novels set in Great Britain. She is best known for a series of novels featuring Inspector Thomas Lynley. The 21st book in the series appeared in January 2022. ...

writes of the fictional discovery of an exonerating document in her short story "I Richard".

Science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

writer

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...

, in the 1965 novel '' Quest Crosstime'', depicted an alternate history in which Richard III won at Bosworth and turned out to be one of England's greatest kings, "achieving the brilliance of the

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

two generations earlier".

Richard III Society

The Richard III Society was founded in 1924 by

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

surgeon Samuel Saxon Barton (1892-1957) as The Fellowship of the White Boar, Richard's

badge A badge is a device or accessory, often containing the insignia of an organization, which is presented or displayed to indicate some feat of service, a special accomplishment, a symbol of authority granted by taking an oath (e.g., police and ...

and a symbol of the Yorkist army in the

Wars of the Roses The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...

. Its membership was originally a small group of interested amateur historians whose aim was to bring about a re-assessment of the reputation of Richard III. The society became moribund during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. In 1951,

published her detective novel '' The Daughter of Time'', in which Richard's guilt is examined and doubted. In 1955, Laurence Olivier released his film of Shakespeare's '' Richard III'', which at the beginning admitted that the play was based on legend, and a sympathetic, detailed biography of Richard was published by

Paul Murray Kendall Paul Murray Kendall (March 1, 1911 – November 21, 1973) was an American academic and historian, who taught for over 30 years at Ohio University and then, after his retirement, at the University of Kansas. Biography Kendall was born in Phila ...

, all of which went some way towards re-invigorating the society. The Fellowship of the White Boar was renamed The Richard III Society in 1959. In 1980,

Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, (Richard Alexander Walter George; born 26 August 1944) is a member of the British royal family. He is the second son of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, as wel ...

, became the society's

Patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

. (Richard III was Duke of Gloucester before ascending the throne, therefore he was before his accession (Prince) Richard, Duke of Gloucester). In 1986, the society established the Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, a registered charity, to advance research and publication related to the history of late medieval England. The society publishes a scholarly journal, ''The Ricardian''.

Rediscovery of Richard III

In 2012, the society, working in partnership with the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council, exhumed a skeleton at the site of the former Greyfriars Church that was later confirmed to be that of the King.

Philippa Langley Philippa Jayne Langley (born 29 June 1962) is a British writer, producer, and Ricardian, who is best known for her role in the discovery and exhumation of Richard III in 2012 (the ''Looking for Richard'' project), for which she was awarded an ...

, the secretary of the Scottish Branch of the Richard III Society, inaugurated the quest for King Richard's lost grave as part of her ongoing research into the controversial monarch. Her project marked the first-ever search for the grave of an anointed King of England, and in 2013 was made into an acclaimed TV documentary ''Richard III: King In A Car Park'' by Darlow Smithson Productions for Channel 4. Philippa Langley and

John Ashdown-Hill Louis John Frederick Ashdown-Hill MBE FSA (5 April 1949 – 18 May 2018), commonly known as John Ashdown-Hill, was an independent historian and author of books on late medieval English history with a focus on the House of York and Richard III o ...

were awarded the MBE in recognition of their services to "the Exhumation and Identification of Richard III" (''London Gazette'') in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours.

The Richard III Foundation, Inc.

The Foundation is a US educational organization. The aims of the Foundation are to study, share and stimulate interest in the life and times of King Richard III and the Wars of the Roses. Its website states, "The Foundation seeks to challenge the popular view of King Richard III by demonstrating through rigorous scholarship that the facts of Richard’s life and reign are in stark contrast to the Shakespearian caricature."Richard III Foundation
. Their aim is to identify and translate documents and texts that shed new insight into this important period of history.

Plantagenet Alliance

The Plantagenet Alliance was a grouping of 15 individuals who claimed to be "collateral on-directdescendants" of Richard III, and have been described as a "Ricardian fan club". The group, formed for the purpose, unsuccessfully campaigned during 2013 and 2014 to have Richard re-interred at

York Minster The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, commonly known as York Minster, is the cathedral of York, North Yorkshire, England, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Arch ...

rather than

, believing that that was his wish. During the campaign, the group failed to attract enough support to petition parliament.

References

{{reflist

External links

Richard III Society

Society of Friends of King Richard III

Richard III Foundation

Ricardian Friends

Richard III & Yorkist History Trust website
History organisations based in the United Kingdom Richard III of England Wars of the Roses