Those in the UK, or who follow my project will probably know by now that Richard III, killed in battle in 1483, is being reinterred this week at Leicester Cathedral (for more of the story see this page:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/22/king-richard-iii-reburial-rest-in-peace-leicester). Since visiting Bosworth Battlefield thirty-odd years ago, I've been interested in England's last warrior king. I live on the wrong side of the World to visit Leicester before the reinterment, but I bought some white roses to commemorate the occasion.
Here's something I wrote about why the reburial of a 530-years-dead monach still matters.
I'm avidly following everything on twitter and blogs!
Thirty years ago, I visited Bosworth on a school field trip. Just like other trips, we rode a bus, roamed around, listened to people talk. Unlike other trips, the history came alive. In this rainy, muddy field armies fought and men died. A cairn marked where a king drank his last. A flag flapped in the wind marking where history was made. Now we know more about the location, and that he probably never drank from the cairn. But the magic of that visit - the shiver in my spine when I realised that a real king, a real man, and hundreds of other real, once-living men died somewhere in that mud. History, for me, became real in that moment.
Since then, I've learned what I could about 'my' king, including the Futurelearn "England in the time of Richard III" online course (twice). I've learned how in the two years he ruled, he made numerous improvements to the justice system, removed restrictions on book printing and sales, and saw laws translated into English. He lived in harsh times, but as the last English king to ride into battle - even with scoliosis robbing him of energy - he led from the front and fought his own battles - few leaders today do the same. That's why he matters today.
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