He died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. And we haven’t been able to stop talking about him since.
Yes, it’s time to consider the story of England’s last Plantagenet king, Richard III — a centuries-old tangle involving alleged murder, Shakespeare, vanquish and one mighty rediscovery.
In this debut episode of History’s Greatest Fails, Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day argue that the story of Richard’s rise and fall (and rise again) is much more modern that you’d first believe. Not least because of the reality-TV-style discovery of his remains under a Leicester council car park in 2022.
In many ways, Richard’s alleged ‘failures’ — which include allegedly killing the Princes in the Tower and overseeing the demise of Plantagenet rule — overshadow Richard III as the reformer that also existed. He introduced trial by jury and translated many laws into English. But those facts are not often what’s associated with him. He’s more likely to be seen as the villainous caricature of Shakespeare’s Richard III.
So in this episode, we’ll discover:
What Richard's story tells us about failure in the present.
How Tudor propaganda codified his ‘failure’, and how
How those failures have been revised over over the centuries
And the chain of events that propelled the search for his bones
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As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al are dissecting the biggest historical failures as submitted by the royal favourites. This episode, they discuss Wat Tyler’s failed Peasants Rebellion, Tulip Mania, and the South Sea Bubble of 1720.
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Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day
Producer - Alan Weedon
Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman
Researcher - Phoebe Joyce
Executive Producer - Simon Poole
Executive Producer - Dan Jones
Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day
Production Manager - Jen Mistri
Production coordinator - Eric Ryan
Head of content - Chris Skinner
Special thanks to Alex Lawless, Hannah Talbot, and Selina Ream
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