Friday, August 19, 2016

Richard III & the Princes in the Tower

Author: AJ Pollard
Stars: 2
Review by: Mandy Apgar


How do historians pretty much know Richard III killed his nephews to gain the throne? Call it a hunch. (Came up with that myself.) Originally third in line, Richard found himself as King when his two nephews mysteriously disappeared. His role in the crime has been debated ever since, with some taking the side that Richard was a victim of Tudor propaganda and really just a big cuddly teddy bear. I am not a Ricardian by any means, and I really wish the book would have stopped its wavering. Constantly shifting tone between if Richard was a good guy or bad, it just lacks tonal focus and loses ground by going off on tangents. Out of its 238 pages very little was actually on the titular subject - although it acknowledges at times that he had to have known something about it at least. Written before God had the humor to let us find Richard underneath a parking spot labeled "R" it is out of date on several things thusly as well - now we know what he looked like, his cause of death, and actual severe spinal curvature, spending what little time one has debating those topics (and often coming up with the wrong conclusion) is rather a moot point.

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