As this article Walking Leicester’s new Richard III trail – 530 years in the making | Leicester holidays | The Guardian says, the trail that Richard III left through Leicester has been nearly 5½ centuries in the making. It certainly wasn’t a part of his realm that had particular meaning for him during his life….except at the very end, when he had his fatal battle with the Lancastrian usurper, Henry Tudor, on the field at Bosworth on 22 August 1485.
Throughout the years since then he has lain in Leicester, lost except for rumours and hints about his ultimate fate, including that his remains were thrown into the River Soar! Then, in September 2012, he was found, thanks to the heroic labours of Philippa Langley, who just wouldn’t take no for an answer. She, John Ashdown-Hill and others made a concerted effort to search for him (Philippa’s instinct and intuition told her where he was, on the site of the city’s long-gone Greyfriars Friary) and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Richard has been a huge benefactor to Leicester, which has done all it can to laud the king found so unexpectedly within its limits. Now he lies in the cathedral, and there is a famous Richard III Visitor Centre that has quite justifiably earned awards.
Suddenly Leicester is “on the map”, so to speak, attracting thousands of visitors who might otherwise have passed by without stopping. But—setting aside the huge exception of all things Richard III—it has always been unfair to brush the city aside as not being worth visiting, for it has a great medieval history.
The link at the begining of this post tells all about a new trail that has been prepared, which leads around the city. Then there is Bosworth Field itself, in the countryside nearby. As the author states “….it does feel as if I’m walking in his footsteps at times. And that makes one of history’s more mysterious monarchs all the more real for it….”
Richard has always been very real to the thousands who are still his supporters, set upon clearing his name of all the crimes imposed upon him by his loathsome foes, the Tudors, who had to justify their usurpation of the throne of England, which did NOT belong to them by blood.
I hope the new trail is a huge success, and that by following it there will be many more who will come to view Richard in his true light, not the vile, murderous monster his enemies would like to continue imposing. The vile murderous monsters were the “glamorous” Tudors….just take off the rose-tinted spectacles and see their horrifying record. They turned England into a realm of terror.
You can read more about the trail itself here King Richard III Walking Trail (visitleicester.info).
murreyandblue 
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