# Straight dope on the Richardarians
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-the-richardarians/649430
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 5, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-the-richardarians/649430 "2013-02-05T23:36:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-the-richardarians/649430/21 "2013-02-06T19:18:02Z")
thanks - had forgotten about that one.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-the-richardarians/649430/22 "2013-02-06T19:44:53Z")
And of course, Pillars of the Earth revolves around the Stephen-Matilda wars in a big way.
Henry VIII was notorious for finding excuses to ensure that any potential claimant with a better connection was “neutralized”; my book on Lord Lisle, one of the last of the Plataganets, mentions how Henry’s spies kept a close eye on his activities, and eventually he died (of natural causes) while a guest in the Tower on suspicion of treason. Even promising to behave was not safe, as many claimants were figureheads for their backers’ factions. Lady Jane Grey was similarly (and her husband) offed when Mary thought she might be a rallying point of protestant objectors to her throne.
Henry was very conscious of his father’s relatively tenuous claim and the danger (as the War of the Roses showed) of too powerful an alternate claimant.
I’ve heard conflicting stories about wheher the bodies found by the tower were identified as the princes or even if hey could be identified as children.
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-the-richardarians/649430/23 "2013-02-10T03:14:14Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> Now they’re saying maybe he was kinda cute, too.
>
> [http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-iii-reconstruction/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-iii-reconstruction/index.html)
>
> So now perhaps he’ll stop saying “Now is the winter of our discontent.” Outside of being dead, life is good for Richard these days.
I don’t know about cute, but forensic reconstruction has made great strides in the last couple of decades. Given the skull as the basis and the painting as the model, the reconstruction is probably fairly close, which means old Rick may not have been the most handsome guy around, but he sure wasn’t the ugliest.
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### Author:  [@Fozzie\_Dabear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fozzie_Dabear)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-the-richardarians/649430/24 "2013-02-13T19:10:36Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> Now they’re saying maybe he was kinda cute, too.
>
> [http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-iii-reconstruction/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/05/world/europe/richard-iii-reconstruction/index.html)
But the Guardian reports that he had curvature of the spine:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2013/feb/04/richardiii-archaeology-leicester-scepticism[\url]](http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2013/feb/04/richardiii-archaeology-leicester-scepticism%5B%5Curl%5D).
So, not an ugly hunchback, per se.
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### Author:  [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2013, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-on-the-richardarians/649430/25 "2013-02-13T23:19:28Z")
The archetype of this sort of person was Sir Clements Markham and his book, _Richard III, His Life And Character_ (1906). Even contemporary Richardian advocates do not take his arguments seriously.
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