With tears very close, Richard took Henry’s head between his hands, the head that had once worn the crown of England, and snapped the thin neck with surprising ease. “Good man that you were, may you now rest in peace.”

He laid the king’s body gently on the bed and covered it in the blanket. Then he prostrated himself on the floor, tears wetting the cold stone, and prayed for his own soul.

The story that was put about in the days and weeks to come was that when King Henry, sixth of that name and last of the Lancastrian Plantagenets, heard of the disaster at Tewkesbury, he died of a broken heart in his Tower prison.

Richard did not understand until much later why he had decided to do Edward’s bidding himself, but at the time he only knew he could not have lived with himself had the murder of saintly Henry been carried out by that criminal in such a dishonorable manner. He felt ashamed he had given so rash a command, and a mantle of guilt settled permanently on his heart. ’Twas badly done, Richard, he told himself.

Only his confessor ever knew of his sin.

He would never forget the deadly sound that had put an end to the strife between the cousins and given England a dozen years of peace. He knew it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

As he buried his face in Traveller’s comforting neck after the awful deed, he had let go of his self-control and wept. All vestiges of his youth and belief in a merciful world had died in one sickening crack.

PART FOUR

PART FOUR

Lord of the North, Anne’s Man

London, 16 January, 2013

Finally to see the face of the last warrior King of England, the man I had sought for the last four years, would be the culmination of a long and difficult journey. It would also be an enormous personal relief since after all the research it would have seemed wrong not to proceed to the project’s visual conclusion.

…The reconstruction then followed a process based on the anatomical formations of the head and neck, where scientific standards are used to interpret the facial features….

The reconstructed head was set up in the centre of the main archeological Institute, University College London. To enable DSP* to record me meeting Richard for the first time, I was asked to close my eyes as Simon Farnaby led me in. After a few moments’ hesitation, I opened my eyes. Richard’s face took me completely by surprise. I don’t know exactly what I had expected but it wasn’t this….it was the face of a young man who looked as if he were about to speak, and to smile. I searched in vain for the tyrant. I can’t describe the joy I felt. I was face to face with the real Richard III.

—Philippa Langley, The King’s Grave

*Darlow Smithson Productions, the documentary filmmakers of the Looking for Richard Project.