The Last Days of Richard III
This short work purposely eschews historical controversy about the demerits or merits of England’s King Richard III, instead providing minute detail on his final few months in an attempt to perceive the man behind War of the Roses partisanship. To this end, Ashdown-Hill covers matters from the religious and gustatory functions in a royal household to Richard’s immediate political anxieties. The discussion of liturgies and meal menus permits imagining Richard’s mental outlook, if not his personality, while the narrative of his progress from Windsor Castle to Bosworth Field tracks his main worries: finding a new consort to produce an heir and drumming up support from England’s magnates for the 1485 showdown with Henry Tudor. Ashdown-Hill dispenses with legends about Richard’s guilt-wracked insomnia before battle, concentrating on a more verifiable topic, the destination of Richard’s corpse. Suggesting that today it lies beneath a Leicester parking lot, Ashdown-Hill concludes with hope that someday bone reconstruction will yield an impression of Richard’s physiognomy. Although this is a specialized work, the sun never sets on interest in British royalty, the Shakespearean Richard III in particular. --Gilbert Taylor