Talk: Richard, the Northern King

8th Dec 2022
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Richard III, the last Plantagenet King, who spent over half his life in the North, living principally at Middleham Castle in Wensleydale.

Why are we so fascinated by him 537 years after his death? Though reviled for over 500 years by Tudor writers and dramatists and some modern historians, Richard combined the chivalric heroism of the Middle Ages with the radical ideas of the Renaissance; a forward-thinking social reformer who tried to tackle the problems he saw in English society.

The violence and insecurity of ‘The Wars of The Cousins’ filled his entire life, and in many ways he is a tragic figure, afflicted by the premature deaths of his wife and son, too ready to believe others to be honourable and rather politically naïve.

Yet in the course of a mere two years as King, he laid down a coherent programme of legal enactments, and actively promoted the well-being of his subjects and the English language. Richard played the hand he was dealt, honourably, never lacking courage, on or off the battlefield and by governing the North of England justly and successfully for over a decade, he remains the most Northern, the most Yorkshire, of all English Monarchs.

The talk will be given by Graham Mitchell BA, Member of the international Richard III Society & the Yorkshire Branch and a former Keighley Town Mayor.

Tickets are £8 and may be purchased online through Eventbrite (a booking fee is payable) or in person through the Box Office when the Manor House is open. Tickets may be available on the door but will be subject to availability.

Doors open at 07:00pm.

Timings are approximate.

A joint event hosted by the Ilkley Manor House Trust & The Yorkshire Society.