An unusual new attraction is now open in the English city of Leicester: a walking trail that follows in the footsteps of the last Plantagenet king and the last English king to die in battle, Richard III.
Richard, reviled in Shakespeare’s plays and in the history written by his victorious enemies who accused him of having two young princes with a stronger claim to the throne strangled in the Tower of London, lost the crown in his fatal battle at nearby Bosworth Field, and was originally buried nearby.
A new wave of interest in Richard began a dozen years ago, when researchers found his remains, removed from their original tomb, under a public car park in the center of Leicester. The remains were interred again in Leicester Cathedral in 2012, the same year the city’s Richard III Visitor Center opened. The center is the starting point of the tour.
