The
Legends of Bosworth
Richard
III and the Ripening Wheat
The following
is reprinted from The Ricardian, No. 21, May 1968. Former American
Branch chair William Hogarth arranged for historian, A. L. Rowse
to address a gathering of Ricardians on March 24, 1968. Jean Di
Meglio's moving remarks, which she delivered to Dr. Rowse on that
occasion, follow below:
Wheat
on Ambion Hill |
Knowing of
your interest in and respect for folk history, I would be interested
in your comments on the attitudes still prevalent among the country
people living in the villages around Bosworth Field. I was born
in one of those villages and grew up there, being in fact one
of those country people.
Richard III
first came to my notice as the King Dick of King Dick's Well,
a place of interest pointed out to me by my father when I was
a little girl. The affectionate diminutive was used exclusively
in speaking of him, so that only when I was about nine years old
and studying the War of the Roses in the village school did I
find that he was actually King Richard III. At the same time I
also learned of King Henry VII who until that time was known to
me only as "that there Henry Tudor" who came over the
Brockey Fields in August, ruining the ripened wheat -- instead
of marching his men up Barwell Lane as any decent man would have
done!
Under their
"King Dick" the country people had begun to recover
from years of civil strife; they had expect to reap their harvest,
and the bitterness of their disappointment when Henry Tudor destroyed
the crops has lasted for five hundred years.
My village
of Earl Shilton sent men to Bosworth for Richard and although
the common grave of those who died is only an unevenness in a
green field near the church, it is still said that there is where
the men of Bosworth lie.
A neighboring
hamlet, Elmesthorpe, was one of those wiped out by the battle.
The barrows of those Elmesthorpe dead are adjacent to the church
there. The unmarked mounds were pointed out to me as a child as
the graves of the men who went to fight for their King and died
in vain. Richard III was their King -- Henry VII, the upstart
who ruined the crops. Tudor politicians may have reached the minds
of men at court, but not the hearts of simple country folk whose
only criterion was the effect of the laws of the land on their
daily lives.
My history
lessons about the Wars of the Roses were given in the village
school by a teacher who encouraged us to take sides. Some of us
went so far as to wear roses -- mostly white! the "Red Roses"
were, in the main, children whose older brothers and sisters had
"told them the winner" and who were of a mind to be
on the winning side. I find it interesting in retrospect to see
how few of us were swayed by this "advanced information."
With those high ideals of childhood, we did not care so much about
being on the winning side as being "for the right."
We had, seemingly, no question about which was the right side.
Blue
Boar Inn, Leicester, from W. H. Hutton, Bosworth Field,
2nd ed. (1813) |
I recall
that we were a little ashamed of the innkeeper of the "White
Boar" in Leicester, who, on learning the outcome of the Battle
of Bosworth, painted his inn sign blue. We wondered, as children
will, if indeed the battle might not have been lost but for the
misfortune of the old crone on the Soar Bridge cursing Richard
for disturbing her sleep as his entourage passed by.
I feel, Dr.
Rowse, that such affection and veneration for his memory would
not have been passed down through 500 years had King Dick been
a tyrant and a villain.
Indeed, since
he lost the crown, and it is the nature of man to turn to the
winner, King Richard III must have been well loved in his day
to be remembered as he is.
Thank you.
Jean
Di Meglio
American Branch
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