Richard III - Great King, Bad Guy?

It’s 532 years to the day since the battle of Bosworth. Paul visits the battle-site to ask re-enactors and history enthusiasts what they think of Richard III in the light of recent research and discoveries. Psychology Portrait of Richard III. From the University of Leicester Library Special Collections. Professor Mark Lansdale and Dr Julian Boon have studied Richard III from a psychological perspective, based on contemporary documentation and records of Richard’s actions. Murderous tendencies? Professor Lansdale and Dr Boon first considered the Shakespearean view of Richard as a Machiavellian schemer and cold-blooded psychopath. Psychopathy is a clearly defined condition and many of the traits associated with it – such as narcissism and psychosis – were never associated with Richard. We can be sure that if any hint of such traits existed, Tudor chroniclers would have latched onto them just as they did his physical appearance. We know that Richard was loyal to his brother Edward IV, and that he felt genui