London Month of the Dead - Bloody Deeds and Death

BLOODY DEEDS AND DEATH What Richard III’s recently exhumed corpse tells us about this infamous king with Kevin Schurer Sunday 14th October 2018 from 3:00 pm Richard III was the last English King to die in battle. He fell at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, following a short and tumultuous reign plagued by rebellions and suspicions over his role in the disappearances of the Princes in the Tower. His death brought an end to the Wars of the Roses, the Plantagenet line and symbolically the Middle Ages. His remains lay forgotten for over 500 years until they were unearthed beneath a municipal car park in Leicester in 2012. Kevin Schurer was part of the team based at the University of Leicester that discovered and identified this Royal relic. In his talk Professor Schurer will focus on the body of King Richard, detailing the battle injuries he received and what we can tell about his general physical condition from the skeletal remains. Was he really “Crookback Dick” as posterity remembers him or was this a retrospective slur by Shakespeare, rewriting history at the bidding of his Tudor masters? Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin cocktail. Please click here to buy. Kevin Schurer Kevin Schurer is Professor of English Local History at the University of Leicester. He previously worked at the University of Essex where he was Director of the UK Data Archive and a member of the History Department, Directing the Centre for Local and Regional History. He is a Fellow of the Academy for the Social Sciences, a Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge and chaired the British Library Ethos Advisory Board.

Richard III was the last English King to die in battle. He fell at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, following a short and tumultuous reign plagued by rebellions and suspicions over his role in the disappearances of the Princes in the Tower. His death brought an end to the Wars of the Roses, the Plantagenet line and symbolically the Middle Ages.

His remains lay forgotten for over 500 years until they were unearthed beneath a municipal car park in Leicester in 2012. Kevin Schurer was part of the team based at the University of Leicester that discovered and identified this Royal relic. In his talk Professor Schurer will focus on the body of King Richard, detailing the battle injuries he received and what we can tell about his general physical condition from the skeletal remains. Was he really “Crookback Dick” as posterity remembers him or was this a retrospective slur by Shakespeare, rewriting history at the bidding of his Tudor masters?

Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin cocktail. Please click here to buy.

Kevin Schurer
Kevin Schurer is Professor of English Local History at the University of Leicester. He previously worked at the University of Essex where he was Director of the UK Data Archive and a member of the History Department, Directing the Centre for Local and Regional History. He is a Fellow of the Academy for the Social Sciences, a Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge and chaired the British Library Ethos Advisory Board.