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    The Lost King: The Search for Richard III
    The Lost King: The Search for Richard III
    The Lost King: The Search for Richard III
    Ebook423 pages6 hours

    The Lost King: The Search for Richard III

    By Philippa Langley and Michael Jones

    4/5

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    The official inside story of the discovery of the bones of Richard III now a major motion picture starring Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan

    The mystery of who Richard III really was has fascinated historians, readers and audiences familiar with Shakespeare's dastardly portrait of a hunchbacked monster of royalty for centuries. In 2012, the remains of a man with a curving spine, who possibly was killed in battle, were discovered underneath the paving of a parking lot in Leicester, England. Phillipa Langley, head of The Richard III Society, spurred on by the work of the historian Michael Jones, led the team of who uncovered the remains, certain that she had found the bones of the monarch. When DNA verification later confirmed that the skeleton was, indeed, that of King Richard III, the discovery ranks among the great stories of passionate intuition and perseverance against the odds.

    The news of the discovery of Richard's remains has been widely reported by the British as well as worldwide and was front page news for both the New York Times and The Washington Post. Many believe that now, with King Richard III's skeleton in hand, historians will finally begin to understand what happened to him following the Battle of Bosworth Field (twenty miles or so from Leicester) and, ultimately, to know whether he was the hateful, unscrupulous monarch of Shakespeare's drama or a much more benevolent king interested in the common man. Written in alternating chapters, with Richard's 15th century life told by historian Michael Jones (author of the critically acclaimed Bosworth - 1485) contrasting with the 21st century eyewitness account of the search and discovery of the body by Philippa Langley, The Lost King will be both an extraordinary portrait of the last Plantagenet monarch and the inspiring story of the archaeological dig that finally brings the real King Richard III into the light of day.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 22, 2013
    ISBN9781466842700
    The Lost King: The Search for Richard III
    Author

    Philippa Langley

    Philippa Langley MBE is a writer and award-winning producer, best known for her role in the discovery and reburial of Richard III in 2012. She is co-author of the bestselling The Lost King with Michael Jones (first published as The King's Grave, John Murray 2013), and Finding Richard III, the official account of her ‘Looking For Richard Project’. On the ten-year anniversary of discovering Richard III, her extraordinary story was released as the internationally acclaimed major feature film, The Lost King, directed by Sir Stephen Frears and starring Sally Hawkins. Her latest venture, ‘The Missing Princes Project’, is an international initiative based on rigorous original research to unveil the truth behind one of history’s greatest mysteries.

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    Reviews for The Lost King

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    • 5/5
      Loved this book! An engaging, fascinating read about the unearthing of the remains of King Richard III, along with a concise, well-written history of his life, brief reign, and death in battle. Langley has channeled her quest for redemption of the much maligned king into a strong case for further exploration and study; especially by this reader!
      I knew not much about Richard III, except for descriptions of his appearance, and the supposition that he ruthlessly killed his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. That was until I viewed the recent British television series, "The White Queen", based on the novel by Philippa Gregory, when my view of Richard was subtly changed.

      I anxiously look forward to reading more about the House of York, and I hope I can one day visit the future museum and resting place of King Richard III.
    • 4/5
      published-2013, medieval5c-16c, nonfiction, e-book, plantagenet-1154-1485, archaeology, lifestyles-deathstyles, net-galleyRead from September 11 to 16, 2013ARC from NetGalley via ♥St. Martin's Press♥Blurbification: The first full-length book about the discover of Richard III's remains by the person who led the team and the historian whose book spurred her on.Colour me excited.Opening: On 22 August 1485 two armies faced each other at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire.There is a quote by Eco that could be altered slightly to encompass the fever that has surrounded the disinterment of Richard's skeleton and tapeworm eggs from the carpark in Leicester:“The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.”Change 'Templars' into 'Ricardians' and you have it nailed.This is a co-authored work of differing ideas as to Richard III's character. Was he the instigator of the murder of the Princes in the Tower? We will never know and that is why this subject will always be alluring; people will cling onto their pet theories until hell freezes over.Although Langley and Jones display mutual admiration, they disagree on several points yet never let the subject disintegrate into full-on spat. All is measured discussion and maybe this is why it loses a star.This is a book that will have you resembling a cat with a mouse no matter which view you subscribe to. You pick it up and hold it close, then just as quickly toss it away only to grasp it once again, and heaven help the person who would relieve you of it thinking that would be the charitable thing to do.Where do my loyalties lay, you wonder. How could Richard III be other than as so brilliantly portrayed by Ian McKellen.Recommended.Cross-posted: Goodreads, Anobii, LibraryThing, NetGalley3 likes
    • 4/5
      Philippa Langley was behind the discovery of King Richard III's body under the car park in England. This book gives an account of Richard's life, showing differences in the real Richard III and the Tudor version of Richard III, as well as the account of the discovery of his resting place. The authors alternated between the two portions of the story, and that particular arrangement did not work well for me. I was far more interested in the events leading up to the discovery and the archaeological dig and testing done to determine this was indeed Richard than in a reconstruction of his life which has been the subject of numerous other histories. I felt that more details of the dig itself and of the testing and results could have been presented if the authors had left parts of the story of Richard which had no bearings on the forensics presented in the volume to other histories. I was quite interested in the DNA analysis and was disappointed that there was not more on that presented in the book and that there was no appendix presenting detailed findings of the mitochondrial match. Although I was disappointed in some aspects of the book, it was interesting to read about the discovery and understand a little more of what drove the team and of the cooperation they had from others to make the discovery. This review is based on an advance e-galley received from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation that a review be written.
    • 5/5
      The War of the Roses, for me at least, is a confusing piece of English history - too many Richards, Henrys, Edwards, Woodvilles and Nevilles, on top of their titles, and controversies over legitimate and illegitimate children. For the newcomer it takes some time to get to grips with the deluge of information. With the help of some diagrams of family trees, this book has helped my unravel this somewhat. It focuses on the last few years of this long family disagreement, when Richard III wrested power, set to rule for couple of years, and then was defeated by a young pretender who had spent most of his life in France. Ultimately, of course, as the title suggests, this book focuses on his death, or more correctly the quest to find his body. It's also an attempt to rehabilitate his character, one that had been trashed by the Tudors and their friends. I'm no expert, but the authors put forward a good case that the impression that most people have, mainly through a play by William Shakespeare, is incorrect.This proof comes partly through finding the body, and that it was not deformed, that he was not a hunchback.Sitting on top of all this, this book describes the quest, particularly of Philippa Langley, to find the body of Richard III. Through her tenacious efforts, she identified a likely site, gained the interest from stakeholders, and raised the funds for the archaeology. She has been criticised for being less than objective - however, she tells it as it is. She describes her feelings and emotions, especially when she see the 'R' in the car park. She herself writes that it was 'bonkers'; however, in the end it was correct. Finding the skeleton on the first day in the first trench is quite bonkers too. Ultimately it was a team effort, with plenty of people giving objective and scientific input. Without her emotional involvement the project may never have started, and who knows, the car park will be (or may have been) developed in the future, and done a 'better' job than the Victorians did when they destroyed the feet.I enjoyed reading the book. It's pity that the photos were in black and white. However, there is plenty of material online to satisfy the curious.
    • 4/5
      Hugely entertaining account of the discovery of Richard III's skeleton in a car park in Leicester in 2012. Chapters alternate between the current time and the work to uncover the skeleton and a re-visioned history of the last English king to be killed in battle. Did Richard murder the princes in the tower? Was he deformed madman? While the jury remains out on the murder question this book does bring some justice to RIchard and shows that perhaps he wasn't exactly the Richard portrayed by Shakespeare.
    • 3/5
      I received this as an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley.I was the odd 12-year-old with an obsession for Richard III. I read Josephine Tey's famous book The Daughter of Time and was utterly convinced that Richard had been thoroughly maligned by Tudor propagandists and did not murder the princes in the Tower. I have read more about Richard and the War of the Roses over the years. Therefore, the recent news of the discovery of bones and their identification as Richard III was of keen interest to me.Philippa Langley was the woman behind the search for Richard III. She was working on a screenplay and wanted a full idea of the "real" Richard. She spear-headed the effort, gathered the funding, and the result was extraordinary. Not only did they find Richard III, but he was found the very first day they began the dig.Langley comes from a staunchly Ricardian background, She's a member of the Richard III Society and believes the king did not have the princes murdered, nor was he the warped villain as portrayed by Shakespeare. The co-author, Michael Jones, wants a more complete picture of Richard but he does believe that Richard murdered the princes, though this act must be viewed in context of the times. Together, I felt they provided an interesting balance to the book. They bring up oft-quoted passages by Sir Thomas More, but also explored a few other contemporary sources I had never read before. They go into great detail about Richard's character--even having a psychological profile done--talking about his piety, how he likely witnessed his mother's rape when he was a child and had firm views on sexual morality as an adult, how he was chivalrous and tried to act in a just way, even with the bodies of his enemies. This is a noteworthy aspect, considering how he was treated at the end: scalped and stabbed in the head, stripped and flung over a horse, stabbed in the buttocks, then crammed into a grave he didn't fit in. Then, after the dissolution of the church centuries ago, he is found today beneath a parking lot.The chapters flow back and forth from a detail history of Richard, to place him in the context of his times, and about Langley's modern quest to find him. If a reader is unfamiliar with the War of the Roses, this likely is not a good book to start on the subject. It crams in a lot of material and there are many names to keep track of, many of them the same name (especially Edward). I found it all fascinating, but then, I have read on the era before. It was intriguing to learn about the modern science involved in his identification. I thought the psychological profile was a bit silly, but otherwise the authors placed good emphasis on viewing Richard in the context of his times.Since I read an ARC ebook, I'm not sure if I missed out on illustrations or maps that are in the full version. I really would have liked more photographs and data along those lines. I'm in America and I'm not sure if or when I'll be able to see the full TV special by Langley, "Looking for Richard," though I certainly hope to at some point.
    • 4/5
      Most of us know Richard III from Shakespeare’s famous play, notably written for a Tudor audience, as a monster, crippled both in body and soul, who viciously killed the innocent princes in the tower so that he could steal the throne.However, there are many who don’t share this Tudor depiction of Richard including the authors of The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III. The book is divided between two stories. In one, Philippa Langley who spearheaded the ‘Looking for Richard” project, gives us an account of the search and eventual recovery of Richard’s skeleton. Historian Michael Jones discusses Richard’s short reign including his death at Bosworth. The two authors give two decidedly different reactions to Richard III. Langley’s views of Richard are much more emotional. She seems to see Richard not as an historical figure but rather as someone she feels a strong personal attachment to; someone she must protect from any and all detractors. Her actions are guided by her ‘intuition’. When she sees an R mark in a public car park (R for Reserved), she gets ‘goosebumps’, convinced that Richard’s body will be found there. When, as it turns out, she was right, she is moved to tears when the skeleton has a markedly curved spine not because she is thrilled at an important historical discovery but because she is convinced that this will reinforce the Shakespearian portrait of Richard as a hunchbacked monster. Jones, on the other hand, gives a much more objective and nuanced view of Richard although still a fairly positive one. According to him, Richard, rather than being a monster, was intelligent and pious with a fine sense of justice. It is probably not surprising, though, that the two disagree on the fate of the young princes. The discovery of Richard’s skeleton gives us little new in terms of Richard’s rule. However, it is an important discovery in terms of the forensic science involved and of the historical portrait of the man. Thanks to Langley’s efforts, we now know more about Richard III’s physical appearance. He was not a hunchback but he did have scoliosis so that one shoulder was higher than the other. He also did not have a withered arm. We also have a better understanding of what happened at Bosworth based on the wounds discovered on his skeleton. Although it adds little to our knowledge of the motivations and actions of the historical Richard, still, his story is an interesting one and, as the last English monarch to die in battle, it is hard not to feel some of Langley’s emotions towards both the discovery of his skeleton and the details of his death.
    • 3/5
      Richard lll, the War of the Roses, the mysterious disappearances of the two princes in the tower, have long fascinated many , myself included. I was very excited to hear that they had found his bones under a municipal parking lot and wondered how it had come to pass that this is where his bones had been buried. This book answers all these questions and more.It also tells how Richard's story and life had come to portray him as a villain, of course that was helped along by Shakespeare, and that this may not have been his true character. Of course Tudor revisionist history also helped in this portrayal. So this tells the story of tracking down documents, getting permits, funding all the other fundamentals and details to get permission for this huge undertaking.Along the way we learn about Richard, his life, his battle, favorite castles and learn from historical documents that he most likely was wrongly portrayed. While I found much of this interesting reading, the historical part definitely being my favorite there were a few things that kept me from rating this higher. I think the author would have been better served to have left out the tingly feelings she kept getting in the parking lot, supposedly at the exact spot they later found his bones. Also the vomiting on learning that the bones were of a man who had scoliosis which apparently was what Richard was thought to have suffered from. All this might be true, but it calls out the skeptic in me and makes me feel a little differently about what I am reading. Maybe that is not fair, but it is how I felt. I am glad I read this book, loved the pictures that were included and admire the author's tenacity in pursuing this project.
    • 4/5
      Philippa Langley had been the driving force behind the re-discovery of the English king Richard III. In the media reporting about the event, she has been mostly elbowed aside by the professionals and gadflies of the university of Leicester. She was also very unfortunately presented as an emotional simpleton in the Channel 4 documentary ("Richard III was a human:" and other rather inane statements were all she was shown to contribute as well as a copious amount of the opposite of a stiff upper lip. How she and historian Dr John Ashdown-Hill were pushed off the limelight was a nasty case study of the English class system at work.This personal account of the project to unearth a king shows how difficult the realization of the project was, in convincing the authorities as well as financing the project. The largest cost element of the project was paying for the parking of the social services employees as the dig had cost them access to their beloved car park. The gloating city of Leicester which will rake in many tourist pounds (if they manage to hold on to the body) could have had at least shown the grace of returning those funds. The employees of the university of Leicester who first had to be dragged screaming and kicking to perform the task as hired help soon discovered that they could push their nominal sponsor into the offside. For their next project, they should add a political heavyweight to block the bureaucracy from taking over.The second strand of the book is Michael Jones' account of Richard's life which is fine but a bit too rosy. Yes, RIII was not the devil character written by Shakespeare but neither was he a saintly king. Rule in the 15th century meant to act ruthlessly and dispose of one's enemies. Richard made two miscalculations that cost him his life. He believed he still had the support of the Stanleys and he failed to notice the bloody effectiveness of the pike block which had already cost his brother-in-law Charles the Bold his life in 1477. I read Richard's desperate cavalry charge as atonement of the infanfry battle lost against the French pikes.
    • 3/5
      I've been a Ricardian ever since I read Sharon Kay Penman's wonderful book on Richard III, The Sunne in Splendour. It caused me to do a lot of research and reading on the King and to re-examine the Shakespeare play (which I also love) as Tudor propaganda. Richard III is a great reminder of the way the victors shape the stories of the vanquished. I was really excited when the King's remains were discovered and even more excited to read this book about the search and discovery process.The King's Grave is at its best when it is telling the story of Philippa Langley's undying affection for Richard III and her quest to locate his bones (and locate them she did). A lot of hard work and effort went into this dig and its primary discovery - archaeology is complicated. Ms. Langley is at times a bit burbley and a bit self-congratulatory, but given the finding I'm willing to put up with it from her. For me the parts of the book regarding Richard's history were less compelling and a bit dry, although that may be because I've already read so much about it. If you're interested in knowing more about this controversial King and the discovery of his bones, you'll like this book. When you're finished with it, go read The Sunne in Splendour if you haven't already and then read or re-read the Shakespeare play. So many perspectives about one singular man. I imagine the truth is somewhere in the middle, but it's fun to read along the edges and ponder.

    Book preview

    The Lost King - Philippa Langley

    Introduction

    The Inspiration

    I SUPPOSE I HAD always known about Richard. Shakespeare’s villain must have registered somewhere in the recesses of my mind, but he didn’t strike a chord with me. When I was growing up in the northern market town of Darlington, history had been my favourite subject. We had studied the Viking period through to 1066, our teacher bringing history vividly to life, and I’d revelled in the characters that formed our island nation. Oddly enough, we were never taught about Richard III and the Wars of the Roses, the conflict that tore the country apart. And there was another mystery that I discovered years later: Richard, Duke of Gloucester’s home at Middleham Castle lay a short drive away yet there had been no school trips to see the history right on our doorstep.

    I began to take an interest in Richard after I read Paul Murray Kendall’s biography, Richard III, in which he questioned Shakespeare’s interpretation of the king, proposing a different character altogether. Kendall drew on the testimonies of those who had known Richard intimately, such as the city fathers of York who, the day after Richard’s death at Bosworth, had written: ‘King Richard, late mercifully reigning upon us … was piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city…’ noting he was ‘the most famous Prince of blessed memory’. Richard’s life had everything: politics, power, romance, intrigue, mystery, murder, self-sacrifice, loyalty and incredible acts of bravery. I was intrigued to know more about the man and why it had been so necessary for the Tudors to rewrite his story.

    As I learned more about him I was puzzled as to why Richard had always been represented one-dimensionally on screen. The malevolent, crooked, Shakespearean figure has been rolled out since the dawning of the film industry with Hollywood portraying a tyrant in its first-ever full-length feature film, Richard III, in 1912. No one seemed interested in rendering a more complex, nuanced portrait while, perversely, Tudor history has been extensively filmed, television companies favouring exciting modern dramas about the Tudor monarchs who succeeded Richard III. The Six Wives of Henry VIII, starring Keith Michell, was screened in 1970, quickly followed by Glenda Jackson’s Elizabeth R and many other similar programmes. It would seem that little has changed today. HBO’s critically acclaimed Game of Thrones is loosely based on the Wars of the Roses but is a fantasy, and the BBC has a forthcoming modern, glossy series about the women of this period, The White Queen, adapted from Philippa Gregory’s trilogy, with Richard sidelined to a supporting role. Cinema, too, has recounted almost every story concerning the Tudors, but has yet to bring the actual Richard to life.

    I was baffled by the industry’s apparent desire to avoid putting King Richard III’s more subtle persona centre-stage on the screen. Was this because of a general lack of interest in the character or something more profound? Perhaps Richard was too complex, and it was too difficult to find his voice. Or perhaps the establishment was happy to maintain the Tudor version of his story, in which case there was little need to reinterpret his life. After all, Shakespeare had already presented the Tudor account. Many modern works claiming to reveal the real King Richard were simply rehashes of the Tudor Richard. Villains

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