Monster monarch given raw deal by historians, says author

But now historian and author Matt Lewis is out to right the wrong done to Richard III, who was killed on the field of battle at Bosworth and buried under a car park. Although of course it wasn't a car park back in 1485.

In his book "Richard III" 42-year-old Matt, of Six Ashes, near Bridgnorth, seeks to separate the fact from the fiction surrounding one of the most notorious monarchs in history.

"He's probably the only monarch who has his own fan club," said Matt.

"The Richard III Society has a worldwide membership, dedicated to a re-evaluation of Richard III's reputation."

As to his own interest, he says: "It's partly the classic British thing of rooting for the underdog, someone you think has been wronged, and is not the monster he has been portrayed to be, and to root out the real story."

Shakespeare's Richard III play was simply a culmination of a century of re-writings of Richard's story, with added twists and embellishments along the way, which made him out to be a malevolent scheming monster.

As it happens, Matt loves the play.

"It's unfortunate that it's been mistaken for genuine history."

Matt's interest in Richard III stretches back a long way, and he first wrote a fictional novel about him, followed by a blog shortly after his remains were found in Leicester.

"I did it because I thought there was so much misinformation out there, and so much about the traditional stories which can easily be disproved. I started writing the blog posts with factual corrections."

That blog caught the eye of a publisher and led to Matt writing books mainly focussed on the Wars of the Roses, Richard III, and Richard III's father.

However this latest book is the first he has written for military publisher Pen & Sword.

Among many mix-ups about Richard III, he says, is that people mistake him for his father, Richard, Duke of York.

And of the various other popular beliefs is that he tried to marry his niece – there's no evidence of that, says Matt - and that he murdered Edmund Beaufort, the 2nd Duke of Somerset, which would have been quite a feat as Matt says Richard was only two at the time.

Richard spent part of his boyhood at Ludlow Castle and one of the legends Matt's book examines is the tale that at the age of seven he stood on the steps of the market cross in Ludlow with his brother George, his sister Margaret, and his mother Cecily to confront a hostile army led by King Henry VI.

Matt, who grew up in Finchfield, Wolverhampton, trained in law and gained his degree and, although he has never practised law, says it has proven a useful qualification as the techniques involved of going to source materials, structuring arguments, and examining evidence, are all equally applicable in historical research.

He has visited the tomb of Richard III, which is in Leicester Cathedral after his remains were discovered under a car park in the city in 2012.

"I also went to an open day at the archaeological dig. I managed to get a tour of the dig site even before they realised they had found his body."

"Richard III" is published by Pen & Sword and costs £12.99.