 by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author's program note. Let us open with a fanfare, music that breaths royalty, written by a man who knew precisely how to present princes to their subjects for maximum effect. This man is Sir William Walton (1902-1983). The fanfare of immediate interest is the piece he wrote in 1955 for Sir Laurence Olivier's classic film "Richard III." It is the processional music which every sovereign has the right to expect and which you can find in any search engine. Now listen to it as you await... "Richard by the Grace of God, King of England and France, Lord of Ireland" for from 26 June 1483 to 22 August 1485 he was your liege lord and master. Attend His Grace... "Cousins, princes, peers and gentlemen of England. My eternal rest is troubled, and so we have commanded this court and the opportunity to address the heinous charges by Master Shakespeare, charges which in the most brilliant words of our language have blackened my reputation forever and which I herewith call upon him to defend or withdraw." The chamberlain banged his staff of office on the flagstone floor three times and called "Master William Shakespeare". The King, wearing his crown of state, was seated on the throne. A small side table held water, red wine, and a copy of "The Tragedy of King Richard III." (1592). Shakespeare stood before the King, a copy of his play in his hand but rarely open. Opening Statements, the first by the King. "We are met here today because one man, a man of talent, of skill and of an unsurpassed ability to twist truth into falsehood has written a play purportedly about our life. Yet those who know us and the truth of the matter are appalled and scandalized by what has been written and presented to the public. We have asked the author of these exaggerations, calumnies and lies to defend his work and to give him full credit he is here of his own volition. But make no mistake about it, what this man has written is designed to injure, distort, deceive and destroy." Shakespeare's opening statement. "First let me take this opportunity to thank His Grace. His invitation to me to appear here before sovereign, court and England itself was gracious, not threatening albeit threat there could so easily have been. My defense is simple. I am a playwright, producing tales which will captivate and enthrall an audience. I am no historian, have written no dissertation, defended no thesis before any faculty of learned men. I write fiction, the best fiction I can, my masters in the audience the only ones I seek to please... and their response is everything." And so the vital struggle for England and the mind of the English began... The King: "Master Shakespeare, you opened your tale by assigning me these words, 'I am determined to prove a villain/And hate the idle pleasures of these days/Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous/By drunken prophesies, libels, and dreams...' Sirrah, where did this farrago of prevarication come from? Were you paid to issue this hurtful, wrongful description? If so we demand the name and station of your paymaster. Or did you draw these words out of your own diseased imagination? The truth, just the simple truth." Shakespeare on the hot seat. "Sire, I ask you to consider the following facts. You are killed August 22, 1485. Many would argue that you should have won that day; after all you outnumbered your foe by 8,000 to 5,000. However, you rashly (if bravely) determined to lead from the front and on a white horse at that. You were courting valor and renown; what you harvested instead was death. And with that untimely demise, aged just 32, you lost control of England, of your story and of the minds of men... as history's losers do." It was an argument any king, particularly any absolute monarch, could understand... and Richard of England looked at the Bard of Avon with the respect of one professional to another. Richard knew he, too, would have rewritten history if it was necessary to achieve his objective,vilifying the expendable, if it conduced to the greater glory of the King and the House of Plantagenet. "Honi soit qui mal y pense." Now did the charges, the counter charges, fly for both men, tenacious, understood everything at issue, conceding nothing, resolved to achieve everything. "Why looks your grace so heavily tonight?" One of the greatest charges against Richard, Duke of Gloucester (as he then was) is the murder of his brother the Duke of Clarence. Shakespeare, always selecting the most malign aspect, has Richard conspiring so their brother King Edward IV and Clarence fall out over a trivial matter. Richard ever industrious in his machinations turns this petty infraction into lese majeste' and a prison cell for Clarence.Thence to this cell murderers are dispatched (at Richard's supposed urging) to drown his brother in a butt of malmsey wine; the whole accompanied by some of the finest and most touching language Shakespeare ever wrote. Every syllable was designed to destroy Richard's reputation, for after all this death moved him one necessary step closer to the throne; had Clarence lived, he and not his younger brother of Gloucester would have reigned. Richard's response to this charge: "The King, my brother, signed Clarence's death warrant not I." Then with the utmost asperity, "all the rest is just so much theorizing. My hands are clean of Clarence's death, and no one can do anything other than surmise, for irrefutable proof there is none." The blackest charge of all... "The most arch deed of piteous massacre/ That ever yet this land was guilty of." Now we come to the gravamen of the charge, a crime so grave which if proved would lend the utmost credence to every other claim. This is the murder of Richard's two young nephews (12-year-old King Edward V and his 9-year-old brother the Duke of York). This matter rested on whether King Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was valid and therefore whether her children were legitimate. This was a matter of the greatest possible significance. As Lord Protector of the Realm, Richard was duty bound to scrutinize all the evidence, coming to the conclusion that the Woodville marriage was invalid, her children bastards, and a new King necessary. Each step in this process was public, above board and confirmed by Parliament. And remember, just because the final result was to Richard's advantage didn't mean it was improperly done. After all, Richard wanted his rights confirmed, not subject to latter cavil and censure. But what of the princes, their high offices and royal status removed, first placed in the Tower of London to await Edward V's coronation; thence never to be seen again; the stuff of legend and Shakespeare's genius? "Within their alabaster innocent arms/ Their lips were four red roses on a stalk/ And in their summer beauty kiss'd each other/ A book of prayers on their pillow lay..." Thus did Shakespeare sensing the crucial moment had arrived look directly at the King and demand answers... and provide them... ""Who benefited most from the removal of both princes? You did, Your Grace! Once they were safely locked away in the Tower, who controlled every person who saw them? You did, Your Grace! Who seemed completely unconcerned about their well-being when rumors flooded the court, great London and the entire realm of England? You did, Your Grace. Thus, I charge you Richard of England, last of the glorious Plantagenet dynasty, with the unspeakable crime of infanticide, and royal children, too, all in pursuit of your lust for power and the regal crown of this sceptered isle. And it is my proud boast that every word in my play will carry your lusts, your villainies, your connivances and your murders to every generation hence... and that these generations shall all know you for the monster of scheming malevolence my play has proclaimed you to be and which the great language of this kingdom I have wielded for truth, for justice and for righteous vengeance, the great stalwarts of this ream and which you so dishonored. However, our very language, available to everyone the lowest no less than the most exalted grandee, has saved us and damned you to all eternity. Such is the power of language and it has been my privilege to serve her, Sire. It is my proudest boast that I have done so... and have used my gift for good, for great England's good, a strand in the skein of this earth-circling imperium." Envoi On 24 August 2012, the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society, announced they had joined forces to begin a search for the remains of King Richard. On 5 September 2012 the excavators announced they had identified Greyfriars church where the memorial to Richard III stood in the early 17th century. A human skeleton was found beneath the Church's choir... DNA testing identified these remains as Richard's and proved that he did have scoliosis, a curvature of the spine. However, he was neither a hunchback nor was there anything wrong with his arm. And so he lead his troops on 22 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field against his cousin Henry Tudor, soon to be King Henry VII. Richard's skeleton had 10 wounds, eight of them to the head. He was the last English king to be killed in battle. "If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell." |
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