For 600 years, historians have been discussing the weaknesses of King Richard's character: his vanity, his superstitious nature, his capacity for self-delusion, his vindictiveness, his duplicity, his disregard for his subjects, his favouritism, his self-indulgence, his reliance on bad counsel, his lack of manliness, his fickleness, his introspection, his coldness and lack of social skills, his insecurity, his paranoia, his insanity and, of course, his megalomania.
But Richard, for his part, certainly didn't see himself as a tyrant. In fact he offered himself up as a champion against tyranny. Terry Jones discusses whether Richard II was simply misunderstood.
Terry Jones is an director, writer, actor and TV presenter best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team and for presenting television documentaries on medieval and ancient history. As an author he has written books including 'Barbarians', 'Who Murdered Chaucer?', as well as children's books, 'Fairy Tales and Fantastic Stories' and 'Erik the Viking'.
Click here to listen to the podcast
No comments:
Post a Comment