Romsley & Hunnington History Society -

Meeting Report - April 2017

There were 54 members and visitors present at the meeting of the Romsley and Hunnington History Society on Tuesday, 25th April. Our speaker's reputation had gone before him and we were delighted to welcome, once again, Max Keen, who gave a talk on "Richard III".

Max made his dramatic entrance dressed in armour, with threatening weapons, and declared himself a supporter of Richard III. Richard, who has always been a bit of an enigma, was in the news recently when his body was found, buried beneath a car park in Leicester. We could see from Max's photograph of his skeleton that he did have a deformity as depicted by Shakespeare, but Max put forward the idea that not all that has been written about his life was necessarily true and many assumptions were certainly false! Perhaps he was one of the first victims of "Fake News"!

As Max explained, England in the 15th Century was in a state of unrest. The War of the Roses was in full force and there was brotherly rivalry within the Royal Family, with hints of illegitimacy. There was also the unexplained mystery of the "Princes in the Tower" and consequently the ultimate prize, the Crown of England, was at stake! However, Max has a knack of making all the characters and intrigues of history come alive and his tales are full of the unexpected. Only he could demonstrate the tactics of a battle by using his arms and elbows!

Richard's reign, which lasted only two years, ended in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth, which Henry Tudor won, together with the Crown. Two years is not long, but Richard set in motion several policies such as the granting of bail and preventing the intimidation of juries, which are still in place today. Max gave a dramatic and fascinating talk and we all look forward to his next visit to the History Society.

Future events for your diary:

• The next meeting of the History Society will be the Annual General Meeting on 23 May, when Julian Hunt will give a talk on "Romsley and Hunnington in 1939."
• The Annual Dinner will take place on 2nd June at Churchill and Blakedown Golf Club and on the 19th July there will be a visit to and guided tour of Croome Park.
• The next meeting of the Court Rolls Group will be on Wednesday 14th June at 2.30pm in the Church Hall.
• The last meeting of the season will be on Tuesday 27th June at 7.30pm in the Church Hall when Tim Bridges will give a talk on, "Victorian and Edwardian Buildings of Birmingham and the Black Country." Everyone is welcome.

Pat Evans