March 2025 Monthly meeting

Max Keen -Richard III, Hero? Murderer? Loyal Brother?

As soon as Max burst onto the stage wearing full armour including helmet (salet and bevor) breastplate, and padded underclothes with weapons including the vicious warhammer and sword we knew we were in for an entertaining afternoon. 

He acknowledged from the start he was a full “Ricardian” and admired Richard believing he has been given a bad press in Tudor and therefore Shakespearean propaganda. His detailed and sometimes graphic account of Richard’s life led from his birth in 1452 to his death during the Battle of Bosworth in 1483. Max gave a full introduction of the strengths and weaknesses of the armour and how Richard’s death came from head injuries after he lost his helmet in the battle.

Max showed a tree and the background to Richard’s family’s succession to the Plantagenet throne, and how the Wars of the Roses was essentially two disaffected sides of the same family fighting each other. The feuding was underpinned by claims of illegitimacy and secret marriages.

We learned about ‘local’ connections such as Ludlow Castle where possibly the elder of Richard’s nephews, the future Edward V , one of the “Princes in the Tower” lived,. When Edward and his younger brother Richard disappeared, history and Shakespeare were very quick to point a finger of suspicion at Richard III, but Max counterargued this as he believes Richard honoured his role of Lord Protector to his brother’s sons. He pointed out that, there were several other potential heirs to the Plantagenet dynasty that were all kept safe, implying Richard was not threatened by them. This intriguing story will be continued in Max’s new talk about the Princes in the Tower. Watch this space…

Other local significance included the use of  Bewdley archers ( The Bewdley Spears) at the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, fought right through the town into the Abbey, at which the Lancastrian army ,nominally under King Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou, were routed and at which Richard (Duke of Gloucester at that time ) commanded the Yorkist army.

Max showed us evidence for believing that Richard was a scholar, patron of the arts and wise king, before he illustrated the gory details of Richard’s death, using photos of his skull and skeleton before his unceremonial burial in the carpark in Leicester. 

The whole performance was delivered with enthusiasm and crammed full of facts, showing how much research Max has put into the subject and how much he enjoys it, and in turn we enjoyed it!

Sally Whyte

Speaker Coordinator