Bang in the Middle. Robert Shore

the “vilified Yorkshireman” to return home’ – no doubt Richard, as a true son of ‘God’s own county’, insisted on eating his dinner at midday, even if, as one linguistic expert amusingly pointed out, the available evidence suggests that he probably spoke with a Brummie accent.

      Actually Leicester is an ideal final resting place for Richard, the great outsider king of English history. Under pressure from his Southern Tudor paymasters, Shakespeare portrayed the last Plantagenet as a physically deformed monster with a hunchback, an out-and-out villain who had his princely nephews done in and generally rejoiced in the misfortune of others. But other historical sources suggest that Richard wasn’t like that at all. Butler’s statue in Leicester attempts to set the record straight by picturing Richard as a youthful, attractive, reforming king who was keen to do the ordinary folk a bit of good – very Robin Hood, in fact, far removed in spirit from the ‘Yorkshireman’s Creed’. Rest assured: Richard’s bones are perfectly at home in the Midlands.