Politics vs Power at the Point of a Pike

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History was not kind to me when I was younger. Learning dates of battles, kings, queens, significant events etc. and regurgitating them in an exam didn’t always sit well with me. My father’s advice on this problem – ‘the trouble with history is that the longer you leave it, the more there is to learn’. 
Well if history was not kind to me, it has been even crueller to Richard III as I discovered on a recent visit to Bosworth Field and the City of Leicester.
The popular Shakespearian image of Richard is as an ugly hunchback who is ‘rudely stamp'd’, ‘deformed, unfinish'd’, and cannot ‘strut before a wanton ambling nymph.’ From the perspective of Richard’s now growing number of supporters, this is a classic case of history being written by the winners.
Look carefully at Richard’s statue in the now rejuvenated area outside Leicester Cathedral and you’ll find the inscription; ‘a good lawmaker for the ease and solace of the common people’. This begs one of those historical ‘what if’ questions. What would have happened if Richard, king for just two years, had prevailed over Henry Tudor at Bosworth? A very different future for these islands without the son of Henry Tudor for sure.
Both Richard’s and Henry’s standards fly together over Bosworth Field today. The visitor centre is well worth a visit, provoking thoughts on how well or badly we deal with alternative versions of the future and how much we can be influenced by what we read and what we are told.

Standards of Richard III and Henry Tudor flying together today over Bosworth Field remind us how in 1485 competing versions of the future settled their differences. If ever you get fed up with politics and politicians wrangling over their view of our future, try to remember, it’s incredibly important we settle our differences through politics and debate and not at the point of a pike.
All we need is for politicians to keep their standards up.

©Keith Murphy