The King in the Car Park: Richard III
This makes me happy.
It has nothing to do with the stuff I normally post here, but I couldn't let it pass without making some mention.
Richard III and the story and controversy surrounding him was my first inspiration to study history, and my first proper researched paper (aged 17) was written about Richard and the Princes in the Tower. My UG Dissertation was on the Kingship of the Wars of the Roses, again, inspired by my ongoing curiosity of Richard.
To know that the King who inspired my curiosity and my academic interests - yes, even to the Heike Monogatari and the Taira samurai - will now have a proper resting place is awesome.
And, at long last...some justice.
Richard did not have a withered arm. That was a lie.
Richard was not a hunchback. That was a lie.
He had scoliosis, but it would not have shown in his outer appearance, except in slight unevenness of the shoulders, and did not prevent him from wearing armour or distinguishing himself as a highly proficient and successful warrior.
With all the research I've done over the years for this paper or that, I have always believed that the Tudor accounts of Richard's life, reign, death and activities are largely suspect and his name was globally blackened by Shakespeare's flare for the melodramatic. There is just too much that doesn't add up, too much that doesn't make sense, too many skipped facts and unfounded assumptions where the truth is, "we just don't know."
Shakespeare wrote a play, but that's what it was - a play. It has influenced historical accounts for too long. This is, maybe, the first step on a new path to reopen old investigations about Richard's life and the events of 1483-5. Maybe this time all the bits of facts that don't fit comfortably into the typical accounts will be able to be explained, eventually...and perhaps we might even get DNA tests on the bones from the tower, which have been labelled "The Princes" since 1600, but which have not been scientifically examined since the 1960s, and never definitively proven to be Edward V and Richard, Duke of York.
Back to the fangirling now, but you know, this makes me very happy. :)
Edit to add: A brief Ricardian History outline from an academic source.
The fight to bury the King. I am not from York or from Leicester, but I personally believe he should be buried in the city he loved - York. And, even though it would create outcry, that he ought to have a Catholic funeral, because he lived before the schism and would've understood that faith. He didn't choose to die near Leicester, nor does it seem right to give him a Church of England funeral. But these are issues for the bigwigs to debate. So long as he has a tomb, somewhere, I guess it's all good.