The Rumor Mill

“I suppose villainy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.” Truth.

10.13 The Daughter of Time

Last month, archeologists found the skeleton of Richard III in a carpark in Leicester.  My first thought was why the hell are we spending money digging up carparks, and my second thought was The Daughter of Time.  Or simply put:  The Truth.

There were many rumors about King Richard addressed in Daughter of Time, and the discovery of his body has put a few to rest and confirmed another:

Withered arm – No evidence

Hunchback – Evidence of severe scoliosis, so not a hunch per say but he certainly would have appeared hunched over.

Born with full set of teeth – No evidence

His kingdom for a horse – Lots of carpark jokes

But one rumor remains.  Was he a murderer of boys?

The portrait Grant looks at in the book.

The facial reconstruction of his skull.

Daughter of Time sets out to answer that question; trying to consider the facts of history as opposed to the facts claimed by historians and other educated men of the time.  The book has a clear opinion that I won’t spoil here, but what I really noticed is how much we love a mystery that cannot be solved.  We go back again and again even though a solution can never be truly discovered. Why do we still wonder about Richard and the boys in the Tower when so many other rulers have been overtly awful?  Why are we still trying to unmask Jack the Ripper when so many horrible murderers, with many more victims, are found out and imprisoned? Where is Jimmy Hoffa and why do we care?  I don’t think it is because we actually want to know the answer, I think it is because we love to gossip and spread rumors, the more sordid the better.  Be damned the truth.