Ricardian Bulletin Contents Spring 2007 2 From the Chairman 3 Strategy for the Future 4 Society News and Notices 6 Media Retrospective 8 Reputation Management by Richard Van Allen 9 New Members 10 A Death Warrant for the Princes? by Wendy Moorhen 13 News and Reviews 19 Changes in the Perception of King Richard by Wendy Moorhen 21 Celebrating 50 Years: York Minster and a Service of Thanksgiving 21 Adopt a Stone 23 Ricardian Heroes: The Australian Connection by John Saunders 26 The Man Himself by Keith Dockray 28 Incest and Richard III, Bigamy and Edward IV by H.A. Kelly 31 A Little Known Portuguese Source for the Murder of the Princes by António S. Marques 33 Lord Olivier - A Closet Ricardian? Part 2 by Geoffrey Wheeler 35 Logge Notes and Queries: Service and Return by Lesley Boatwright 37 Obituaries and Recently Deceased Members 38 Correspondence 42 The Barton Library 44 Report on Society Events 47 Future Society Events 49 Branch and Group Contacts 51 Branches and Groups 56 Calendar Contributions Contributions are welcomed from all members. All contributions should be sent to the Technical Editor, Lynda Pidgeon. Bulletin Press Dates 15 January for spring issue; 15 April for summer issue; 15 July for autumn issue; 15 October for winter issue. Articles should be sent well in advance. Bulletin & Ricardian Back Numbers Back issues of the The Ricardian and Bulletin are available from Judith Ridley. If you are interested in obtaining any back numbers, please contact Mrs Ridley to establish whether she holds the issue(s) in which you are interested. For contact details see back inside cover of the Bulletin The Ricardian Bulletin is produced by the Bulletin Editorial Committee, Printed by St Edmundsbury Press. © Richard III Society, 2007 1 From the Chairman t last we can look back on our year of anniversary celebrations and see what a successful A year 2006 was. However, whilst the many events and the four bumper issues of the Bulletin tell me that the Society is in good shape, I also know that there is no room for complacency. There is still much to do to ensure that our successes continue. At the AGM, I said that we would be reviewing our plans and strategy for the future, and our first thoughts on the subject are outlined on page 3. We will keep you fully informed as matters progress, of course. Naturally, a part of the strategy will be our approach to public relations and I would urge you all to read Richard Van Allen’s article on page 8. Just from looking at the contents page of this Bulletin, you can see that we have yet another informative and highly entertaining magazine. Keith Dockray concludes his comparison of Richard III and Henry V, and finds some ‘unexpected’ similarities. There is a report on an edition of the television programme Castle in the Country, in which, it was claimed, a letter written by King Richard had been discovered, a letter that suggested his complicity in the ‘murder’ of the princes! As you will read, this was a classic case of the danger of jumping to conclusions. Also, Geoffrey Wheeler concludes his series on Lord Olivier, and it’s reassuring to learn that, under the greasepaint, the greatest portrayer in living memory of Shakespeare’s Richard III had a more realistic and enlightened opinion of the king. In another article, we celebrate the contributions to the Society of Philip Lindsay and Pat Bailey and their links with Australia. Like me, many members will have fond memories of Pat, while many will know about Philip through his books. Mention of Australia reminds me to wish Australasian Ricardians every success for their convention. This year, the meeting, which is held every two years, is taking place in New Zealand on 13 – 15 April and I know we all look forward to hearing about it in the summer Bulletin. Actually, 15 April looks like being a pretty busy day for many Ricardians, with not only the closing day of the convention but the final day of the Study Weekend in York and the day of the Scottish Branch’s Annual Lecture at Edinburgh Castle. The Society is sorry to learn of the death of Dorothy Mitchell in York. With her ‘Friends of King Richard’ she may not have seen eye to eye with us, but she was a staunch Ricardian and her passing is one less defender of Richard’s reputation. This year, I will complete my first five years as your chairman. It’s been an exciting and challenging time which has seen many changes and improvements to the way the Society operates. With your support, I look forward to continuing in the post for some time yet. As I’ve said before, there is still much to do. It’s been a very odd winter here in Britain. In fact, it may well have given us a miss this year. As I write this in early February, it feels as though spring has arrived well ahead of itself. Indeed, there have been clumps of daffodils visible on my way to work since early January. All down to global warming, no doubt. I wonder what Richard would have made of it? Whatever, we must not allow the vagaries of the weather to stop us from making sure that 2007 is another successful year for the Society and for the promotion of the cause of good King Richard. Phil Stone 2 Future Steps: The Next Five Years n 2002, we embarked on a major review of the Society under the title Towards the Next Fifty I Years. This focused on the years up to our fiftieth anniversary which we so successfully celebrated last year. Now it’s time to make sure that we have another fifty years to look forward to. Richard III was, of course, an innovative and effective manager, both as duke of Gloucester and king of England. It has been said of him that ‘to an extent that is wholly exceptional amongst his contemporaries, Richard shaped his own estate and his own career. Richard is unique in this period for taking a strategic view … and for developing and implementing a plan. It makes him strangely modern.’ It should not be surprising, therefore, that the Society that bears his name and exists to promote his positive qualities should be equally serious in having a strategy and plan for the future. Few, if any, organisations in today’s world can afford to stand still, and we are no exception. To survive in a rapidly changing world, we need always to be seeking ways to improve the way we do things, how to retain and attract members and to be financially sound enough to enable us to achieve our objectives. We have made a number of significant and necessary changes over the past five years which have increased our efficiency and saved us money: bringing our sales and membership functions in-house, finding better means to distribute our publications and making realistic decisions about membership rates. The Bulletin has been redesigned and expanded, The Ricardian has become an annual publication, through a more focused public relations approach we have made a positive impact on the media, and we have taken the AGM out of London to York and Bristol. We now need to consolidate and build on these achievements. So, we are looking ahead to the next five years and beyond to identify what we want to do and to ensure that we have the resources and structures to achieve them. We are evaluating a broad range of areas and activities that cover the remit of our Society. And in doing so we will seek to consolidate improvements already made to the Society’s internal governance, finances, membership services and communication. This will enable us to build on our impressive research achievements and increase our capacity to do more, which will give us the gravitas, respect and confidence to develop a more effective publicity strategy to enable us to be even more proactive in promoting the positive case for King Richard and to challenge more effectively the negative representations of the king. We have made a number of significant and necessary changes over the past five years: A more detailed report will be published in the summer issue of the Bulletin and, in the autumn, the Annual Report will be accompanied by the first draft of our strategy. This will be open to comment and suggestions by the membership and will be debated at the Annual General Meeting. The Executive Committee 3 Society News and Notices Executive Committee – the Low Down As the new Secretary, I am keen to enhance my role as a link between the Executive Committee (EC) and you, the members. With this in mind, I would like to give you a regular overview of what the EC are up to, current concerns and issues being discussed – so here is the inaugural EC ‘low down’ from meetings held in October and December 2006. EC meetings are usually lively and topics covered range from the more mundane but vital ‘business’ to the exciting ideas for new developments and offerings/services to members. During autumn 2006 the accounts kept us occupied. As you know, we needed a new auditor to overview and authorise them before the AGM. Paul was keen also to introduce some procedures which would make the accounts far more accurate. In October he requested that all expenditure have a detailed explanation for accuracy and to make it easier to locate recoverable expenses.