Well, that’s one way to deal with your wife’s mother. Happy Birthday to Richard III of England, 1452. Rich was the brother of Edward IV who was the King. In an awkward sort of circumstance for Richard, Eddie had two sons who naturally were next in line for the hot seat. When Eddie died his oldest son, also Edward, took over as Edward the V. Richard got himself named as “Lord Protector” since Eddie number 5 was only 12. Well, a rumor got started that perhaps Edward IV wasn’t legally married to his wife, thus making the sons ineligible for the throne. Being Johnny-on-the-spot, Richard took over the throne. For good measure, he invited the young Edward and his brother to live comfortably in the Tower of London. The two boys were never seen publicly again. Richard was one of those guys you either hated or loved. One charming report stated that, “… he was a freakish individual who was born with teeth and shoulder length hair after having been in his mother’s womb for two years.” That must have been an interesting child birth. It went on to say that he was stunted and distorted. His supporters felt that he was a fair and good law maker and that his physical weakness was exaggerated. In fact, his skeleton, which wasn’t discovered until 2013 (more on that in a minute), didn’t really show any serious deformity. There were two rebellions during his reign, the last didn’t go so well. His boys were defeated at the Battle of Bosworth making him the last king to die on English soil in 1485. He was thrown into an unmarked grave. He was kind of shy around the women and ended up marrying the widow of the Prince of Wales, who was Anne Neville. Many portrait painters of the olden times were encouraged to practice what would now be called “Photoshop” techniques to make the subjects more attractive. The guy that did Anne’s probably didn’t have a long career as a painter or, if he fixed her up, she must have been a true sight to behold if the painting is the “after”. Anyway, shortly after the marriage, Dickie invited Anne’s mom to come and live comfortably. Remember Eddie’s kids? Yup, Mommy Dearest ended up in the Tower, too.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 07:31:13 +0000
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