Boudewijn's Reviews > The Lost King: The Search for Richard III

A very interesting book that mixes a biography of Richard III with a personal account of Philippa Langley, who proceeded to raise money for, and organise the excavation of the remains of Richard III.

Philippa Langley, member of the Richard Society, is standing on a car park in Leicester. She has a weird feeling - somewhere below here she suspects that Richard III has been buried. Philippa decides to go on a quest - a quest to search for Richard III and have him reburied with honours.

This book combines the personal search from Philippa with a (short) biography of Richard III. For me, as a non Brit, it was interesting to read how Richard III was mispresented by his successor, Henry Tudor. It seems that the Tudors have used the three 'M's' of the Ricardian realm to present us with a villain so alienated from the world around him that he will be cursed by his own mother: misshapen, Machiavellian and murderous.

But was the actual Richard III so terrifying, or was his character progressively blackened by the Tudor dynasty that supplanted him? By searching for the king's lost grave, and the remains that lie within it, finally gives us the chance to connect with the reality behind the Tudor myth.

The book doesn't paint Richard III as a villain. He was a man, who played the hand he was dealt loyally and, as far as he could within the limitations of his time, humanely.