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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 25482821, member: 101855"]“Richard” Richard is another common English name, but over the British millennium, only three rulers have had it. The first Richard, who was known as “Richard the Lionheart,” is a much admired king. He ruled from 1189 until 1199. He was a great warrior and much admired battlefield commander. Today a heroic statue of him stands outside of the Halls of Parliament. Yet, from the British perspective, Richard regarded England as little more than an afterthought. Richard I was far more French than he was English. He spent only about ten months of his ten year reign in England. The rest of his time was devoted to his French holdings and fighting the Third Crusade in the Middle East. Richard II, who ruled from 1377 until 1399, became king when he was 14 years old. Such an early rise to power has not been a good harbinger for the success of a British monarch. Perhaps because of his concerns about asserting his authority as king, Richard’s relationships with the British ruling class was stormy. At one point he was nearly deposed. After a brief period of good behavior, Richard returned to his old ways. Ultimately Richard was deposed and replaced. He spent his last days in prison where he either starved himself to death or was starved to death. Richard III ruled from 1483 until 1485. He was a usurper who snatched the crown from Edward V. Edward V was the 12 year old son of King Edward IV who died unexpectedly at age 40. Richard, who was Edward IV’s brother, had no right to crown. He is most often mentioned as “the murderer of the innocents” who had Edward IV’s two sons imprisoned, murdered and buried in the Tower of London. Richard III does have his defenders. They point out that when Richard was not trying to snatch the crown, he was an effective administrator. They further point out that King Henry VII (ruled 1485 to 1509) had an equal motive to kill Edward IV’s sons since his claim to the crown was also tenuous.         William Shakespeare depicted Richard III as a deformed monster in his play by the same name. Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth and Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor Dynasty, replaced him in 1485. Henry VII had Richard’s remains quietly buried at a friary in Leicester, but his tomb was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII in 1536.  His remains were found under a parking lot in Leicester City in 2013 confirming the rumors, that Richard did have a curvature of the spine. He was given a proper burial at Leicester Cathedral.         After Richard III’s death in 1485, no other British monarch has been named Richard. Could this be by design or happenstance? I showed a picture of the British coin of Richard the Lionheart in the opening post. Here is a French Richard the Lionheart coin. [ATTACH=full]1631197[/ATTACH]Here is a French Aquitaine denier of Richard I. Unlike the British coin, the obverse does spell out Richard's name "RICA / RDVS/" This coin is roughly the same size as the British penny. [ATTACH=full]1631199[/ATTACH] Here is a groat or 4 pence of Richard II. This is a very scarce coin, which is hard to locate. By  this time the English coins had a very good reputation in Europe for their weight and quality. It got to be too good because many of them were shipped to the European mainland and melted. [ATTACH=full]1631207[/ATTACH] This Richard II half penny is more common. [ATTACH=full]1631208[/ATTACH]This is a groat of Richard III. This is also a scarce coin because Richard ruled for only about three years. [ATTACH=full]1631213[/ATTACH]This Richard III penny is the most common coin from this ruler. [ATTACH=full]1631214[/ATTACH]Here is a photo of Richard III's skeleton which was found in a parking lot in Leicester. It proved that he did have a curvature of the spine. Richard III has since been given a proper burial.  [/QUOTE]

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