Battle of Bosworth Field of visible combat. Despite the dramatic licences taken, Shakespeare's version of the Battle of Bosworth was the model of the event for English textbooks for many years during the 18th and 19th centuries. This glamorised version of history, promulgated in books and paintings and played out on stages across the country, perturbed humorist Gilbert Abbott à Beckett. He voiced his criticism in the form of a poem, equating the romantic view of the battle to watching a "fifth-rate production of "Richard III"": shabbily costumed actors fight the Battle of Bosworth on-stage while those with lesser roles lounge at the back,
Ricardian (Richard III) of the White Boar was renamed The Richard III Society in 1959. In 1980, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became the society’s Patron. (Richard III was Duke of Gloucester before ascending the throne, therefore he was before his accession (Prince) Richard, Duke of Gloucester). In 1986 the society established the Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, a registered charity, to advance research and publication related to the history of late medieval England. The society publishes a scholarly journal, The Ricardian. In 2012 the society, working in partnership with the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council, exhumed a skeleton at