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Statue of Richard III
Richard III of England (r. 1483-1485) was the final Plantagenet king. Following the death of his brother, Edward IV, in 1483, Richard took the throne from his nephews Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury (“The Princes in the Tower”), who promptly disappeared. William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Richard the Third blamed Richard for the boys’ deaths, though it is a subject still hotly debated by historians. Richard’s reign was brief, as he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth by the Lancastrian leader Henry Tudor in 1485.
The statue of Richard was built by James Butler in 1980, funded by the Richard III Society and is located in the gardens of Leicester Cathedral. It portrays Richard in battle armour, with long hair, a dagger in his right hand and the crown in his left, a snapshot of him in action at Bosworth. The rediscovery of Richard’s bones in a carpark in Leicester in 2012 has led to a renewal of public interest in the king. With the opening of a “Richard III Visitor Centre” next to the statue in 2014 and his reburial at Leicester Cathedral the following year, the cathedral grounds have become a hub of devotion to the king. When visiting the statue, many so-called ‘Ricardians’ leave white roses (the Yorkist rose) on its plinth to pay tribute to him.
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