The Blue Boar in Leicester – where Richard III is believed to have spent his last night before Bosworth – is being recreated
According to myth, Richard III spent his last night at a famous inn in Leicester. Leicester’s medieval castle was apparently no longer fit to accommodate a king, and Richard set up his headquarters at an inn located at Leicester’s medieval high street. Originally named the White Boar Inn – sporting the badge of Richard III – it was afterwards told that the innkeeper on the morning after the Battle of Bosworth hastily painted the sign over with some blue paint and changed the name to “The Blue Boar In”. While the White Boar was the badge of Richard III, the Blue Boar was the badge of John de Vere, supporter of Henry Tudor and post-Bosworth, the future Earl of Oxford.
Whether a fact or a popular fairy-tale may no longer be decided. A fact is though that the earliest mentioning of the inn dates from the 1570’s and the story of where Richard spent his last night at Leicester is first presented in the History of Speede in 1611. Further the actual date of the famous inn cannot be determined archaeologically, since it was pulled down in the 19th century in the name of progress.
Oddly enough, though, the entrepreneur Henry Goddard, who demolished the inn in the 19th century, apparently made an extremely detailed account of the structure of the timber-framed building, complete with accurate measurements in feet and inches and with precise drawings of the different fittings and joints. Looking into other archival material from the Goddard Family, researchers from Leicester University recently found this notebook by accident.
Due to its detailed information it has been possible to contract with an architect, Stephan Davis, who has made a three-dimensional cad drawing of the building. Further, on the basis of this, a scale model was produced using a 3D printer in the university’s department of physics and astronomy at the University, giving a sense of the place and offering the possibility of resurrecting the inn once more.
The Bed
Another relic from the time of Richard III is a bed, which used to be exhibited at the Inn, while claiming it to be the last one he spent a night in before Bosworth.
Apparently it was rumoured that Richard “slept ill in strange beds”. Accordingly his bed was part of his pack-train and put up wherever Richard stayed for the night. Later the bed was never claimed and became part of one of the “sights” of Britain, as claimed in a versed rhyme presented in Tom Coryat’s Crudities in 1611:
The lance of John O’Gaunt, and Brandon’s still i’ the Tower
the fall of Nineveh, and Norwich built in an hower
King Henry’s slip shoes, the sword of valiant Edward
the Coventry Boare’s shield, and fireworks seen but to bedward
Drake’s ship at Deptford, King Richard’s bedsted i’ Leyster
The White Hall whale bones, the silver bason i’ Chester
At that time the bed was still said to reside at the Blue Boar Inn probably incurring a lot of income for the Clarke’s, later innkeepers (of whom it was even rumoured that they had found a treasure of gold-coins stacked in the bottom.) At this time the bedstead – if indeed it belonged to Richard III – was mounted with Jacobean posters. It is generally believed though that the bottom of the bed might very well be medieval.
However, even if a proper archaeological investigation of the bed might confirm a medieval date of the timber, substantiating the myth would be near nigh impossible. Probably what was meant was, that Richard liked to bring his own bed linen plus mattresses including leather sheets, which helped to protect a sleeping person from the mites and vermin living in common beds at common inns. If Richard indeed did stay at the inn and indeed slept in the bed, he would have slept in his own bed-clothes. What would have been left behind would have been a timber-frame or bedstead, which probably had been there before he came; later this bedstead was turned into a relic having held the anointed body of the much maligned king.
In due course the bedstead was sold, finally ending up at a manor North West of Leicester, Donington le Heath Manor House. This is a remarkable is a surviving example of a family home built around seven hundred years ago; although modernised in 1618 it still oozes of the Middle Ages. This rare and beautiful house is a valuable historic resource for the local community as well as for the whole country. Today it is kept as a museum as well as rented out for local events. The bed may be seen there…
READ MORE:
Speede, J.: The History of Great Britaine. London 1611 (1614) as quoted in The Last Days of Richard III by John Ashdown-Hill. The History Press 2010
Read other articles about Richard III and the dilemmas and politics in connection with the reburial.