. . .who has been given a funeral service in Leceister.

His image in history has always been that of the evil hunchback murderer of the Princes in the Tower. However, more recent historical research has concluded that this image was down to Tudor propaganda looking to discredit his lineage and that his brief reign was in fact the most enlightened perhaps in British history.

Yes - Shakespeare was very much controlled by the Tudor need to retain his head and thus re-created past Kings etc to suit the prevailing wind from the back passage of the Monarch...

Much of the image of Dick The poo comes from his Richard De Toid.

Naturally Henry VII had to be the hero taking the crown from a palsied and craven cowardly killer of kids.... and not just some brand new usurper of the Plantagenet line..... Dick died on the battlefield at the hands of up to half a dozen assailants at the one time - hardly a coward....

bogarde73 wrote on Mar 24^th, 2015 at 10:49am:

. . .who has been given a funeral service in Leceister. His image in history has always been that of the evil hunchback murderer of the Princes in the Tower. However, more recent historical research has concluded that this image was down to Tudor propaganda looking to discredit his lineage and that his brief reign was in fact the most enlightened perhaps in British history.

Indeed, very little has changed. They tried to do the same with the wonderful Hugo Chavez and in the last few days have tried to paint a sweet little picture of that nasty ratbag self serving dictator Lee Kuan Yew. 

Why would people give a farewell for a person who died more than 5 centuries ago?

UnSubRocky wrote on Mar 24^th, 2015 at 10:15pm:

Why would people give a farewell for a person who died more than 5 centuries ago?

I had the same thought.  Why bother, and who paid for some old fart's bones to be ceremoniously paraded etc?  Dumb.  Waste of money whoever paid.

Say what you will about Richard, I would guess he was not a very pleasant person, but he did lead his men from the front which is a lot more than you can say about Henry. Hero or villain, he was a very brave warrior. And in some ways, the last real king.

UnSubRocky wrote on Mar 24^th, 2015 at 10:15pm:

Why would people give a farewell for a person who died more than 5 centuries ago?

Aye - ye're a Sassenach fer true, ye miserable spalpeen - there's nae a feud in't if't gae nae more than a thousan' year!

Ye expect yon Heelander t' fergit Bonny Prince Charlie an' yer '49?  Culloden were a bite o' yisterday an' the Flight of Yon Wilde Geese?!

An' yer fockin' Cromwell in Oireland?

Ach - I've nae toime for ye!

UnSubRocky wrote on Mar 24^th, 2015 at 10:15pm:

Why would people give a farewell for a person who died more than 5 centuries ago?

Because:

1/ At the time of his death he was the King of England, not exactly an insig-
    nificant nobody.

2/ Most kings do tend to get the old Royal Burial treatment when they cark.

3/ Because he was killed in battle, and was on the losing side, he was not
    accorded this respect at the time, but rather was instead stuffed into the
    proverbial shallow grave and forgotten.

4/ His evil reputation (largely confected by his victorious enemies) having
    been refuted by subsequent research, and his remains having been dis-
    covered and identified, it is only reasonable that he finally be accorded
    the decent burial he was denied at the time of his death.

Actually, if one cares to read up a bit on English history under the Tudors
prior to Elizabeth 1, one could be forgiven for wondering if England just may
not have been better-off in the long run had the Plantagenets won.