Buc

Here it is at last, a publication sponsored by the Society of Antiquaries and the Richard III Society. Over forty years after his last edition of Buc‘s magnum opus, Arthur Kincaid has managed to remove the “wrapping paper” added by the author’s less painstaking great-nephew and namesake so that only the original remains. Through the many introductory chapters, we can read of Sir George’s descent and precise relationship to his “editor”, as well as how so many later authors confused his own meticulous work, conversations with heralds and personal recollections (viva voce, including his Howard connections) led manuscript with the bastardised version that emerged over two decades after his death. Buc’s work has rested for centuries, under a bust of Tiberius, in the library of his fellow antiquary Sir Robert Cotton, where a 1731 fire and other adverse events damaged it, particulary in the margins which he had much used for annotation. He was the first to rediscover Titulus Regius from Crowland, thereby disproving More‘s substitution of “Elizabeth Lucy” for Lady Eleanor Talbot in the pre-contract.

So that is the 160 or so introductory pages, but what of the core content? It is divided into five books and the first two describe Richard’s reign and the “Tudor” invasions leading to Bosworth, after which Buc’s great-grandfather was beheaded. There are many Latin quotations and much genealogy, although he counts Hereward and the Bigods as ancestors of the Howards, for which there seems not to be evidence. There is a good explanation of what makes a true Lancastrian (ie not a Beaufort) and the status of royal bastards, together with a note on the Statute of Merton (left) as it affected the Swynford/ Beaufort case. There is also a little confusion between the later Stewart kings. The third and fourth books cover the evidence in the “Perkin” case and for the pre-contract, whilst the last part is a general conclusion about Richard’s ancestry and character.

The core content is accompanied by followed by Kincaid’s further notes amounting to over a hundred pages, explaining the Latin quotes and the evolution of the known facts in the four centuries since Buc’s death, including several Ricardian articles. His final chapter (Folklore and History, particularly pp.359-60) sums up the denialists’ approach and the widespread misunderstanding of scoliosis.

You probably need this book and it is the more expensive option, but you don’t need to go near the 1648 travesty any more.