Dickon (1953)

       Epitaph

         for

    Sir Richard Plantagenet, K.G.;

King of England and France

Lord of Ireland, Duke of Gloucester

Earl of Cambridge and

of Richmond

Born at Fotheringay Castle, 2md October, 1452

Slain on Redmoor Plain, near Leicester, 22nd August, 1485

Richard I was and nothing am,

Plantangenet, haut Knight and King,

Traitorly slaim and buried privy,

Third of my name to England rule

And of my house the last.

By strife and evil chance pursued--

Of love and fellowship bereft--

Crownéd, smitten, dolourous--

Yet Crownéd and so undismayed

In my fair prime I fell.

O Jesu!  Mercy on my soul!

England I was once and Gloucester--

Now, this mean earth is all I own.

Thou passing by, above my dust

Give me thy prayers and charity.

To

Tom Heslewood

whose knowledge of the characters

and period of the 15th century may

make him sympathetic towards the

attempt at a portrait of the last

Plantagenet king.

Roused by a violent knocking, the little boy sat up in bed.

They placed a plain stone over Richard's grave and paid his Mass penny for him, and prayed that the soul of Richard Plantagenet might find peace at last.