Podcast Summary: "Was Richard III a Failure?"

This is History: History’s Greatest Fails
Hosted by Dan Jones & Elizabeth Day
Original Release: April 7, 2026

Episode Overview

The debut episode of History’s Greatest Fails dives into the contested legacy of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king. Hosts Dan Jones, medievalist and dyed-in-the-wool Tudor defender, and Elizabeth Day, self-confessed Ricardian and podcast host, debate whether Richard III was indeed a historic failure or an unfairly maligned figure. Through sharp historical discussion, personal anecdotes, and reflections on the nature of failure, the hosts dissect myth, propaganda, and why Richard’s story still grips the imagination.

Main Discussion Topics & Insights

1. Personal Connection & The Ricardian/Tudor Divide

• Timestamps: 00:00–04:56
  • Dan and Elizabeth reminisce about their university days and how their friendship, rekindled through podcasting, has been shaped by opposing historical loyalties—Dan with the Tudors, Elizabeth with Richard III.
  • Quote (Elizabeth, 04:21):
    “You’ve accused me of being in love with Richard III, which automatically... undermines my historical prerogative to put this case. And one might suggest that your argument is going to be the weaker because of it, because you’ve gone personal from the start.”

2. Richard III: Background & Rise

• Timestamps: 06:35–10:37
  • Dan charts Richard’s ascent: born 1452, brother to Edward IV, initially a capable political operator and trusted lieutenant in the North.
  • Explains the succession crisis after Edward IV’s death and how Richard’s actions (seizing the crown, alleged ruthlessness) led him onto a perilous path with no good options.
  • Quote (Dan, 10:09): “If he doesn’t kill those princes in the Tower, he's insane.”

3. The Princes in the Tower: Crime, Evidence & Myth

• Timestamps: 10:37–14:20
  • Elizabeth challenges the widespread assumption of Richard’s guilt, reminding listeners of the lack of conclusive evidence regarding the fate of the princes.
  • Discusses the absence of definitive proof (the missing bodies, politics of DNA testing).
  • Quote (Elizabeth, 13:46): “Because this is a case where the facts are incomplete and the case is probably unprovable...there’s enough space within this discussion always to make up your mind.”

4. Tragedy, Reputation, and Historical Perception

• Timestamps: 14:20–16:06
  • Both agree on the tragic shape of Richard’s reign, noting how failure and tragedy are often intertwined in historical memory.
  • Elizabeth argues Richard’s reputation has suffered unfair wounds inflicted by later propaganda and cultural notions.

5. Richard’s Reforms and “Progressive” Kingship

• Timestamps: 15:05–16:06
  • Elizabeth champions Richard’s short but impactful reign:
    • Popularity in the North
    • Advocacy for commoners over nobility
    • Introduction of trial by jury
    • Translation of laws into English for accessibility
  • Quote (Elizabeth, 15:18):
    “He introduced trial by jury. He translated a lot of laws into English so that people could understand them...he was such a progressive leader who existed way before his time.”

6. The Failure at Bosworth and What It Means

• Timestamps: 16:06–22:23
  • Dan contends that Richard’s most significant failure was at Bosworth Field, unable to secure the throne despite his political moves.
  • Explores how “failure” becomes magnified or redefined via Tudor propaganda and Shakespearean drama.
  • Quote (Dan, 18:45):
    “The great failure to win at Bosworth, if we place these on the historical scales, does outweigh everything else.”

7. Tudor Propaganda, Shakespeare, and the Shaping of Memory

• Timestamps: 18:45–23:29
  • Dan details how Richard’s villainy was not simply the product of a nefarious Tudor PR machine, but an organic evolution as the new regime established its legitimacy.
  • Shakespeare’s Richard III seen less as a historical argument and more as a useful, familiar moral drama for audiences.
  • Quote (Dan, 21:45):
    “Shakespeare had a political bone in his body with regard to the 15th century.”

8. The Rediscovery: Philippa Langley and Modern Ricardianism

• Timestamps: 23:29–26:12
  • Elizabeth recounts the modern saga of Richard’s excavation—Philippa Langley’s successful campaign to locate and exhume the king in 2012.
  • Highlights serendipity and emotion at the core of historical obsession.
  • Quote (Elizabeth, 25:15):
    “The fact that we’re still talking about him is in and of itself really interesting...In a way that’s a kind of success.”

9. The Meaning of Failure: Risks, Legacy, and Modern Re-evaluation

• Timestamps: 26:12–28:46
  • Both hosts reflect on how the idea of failure is shaped by culture and time: is it better to have failed boldly, or never to have risked at all?
  • Address broader shifts in contemporary thought—Elizabeth’s argument that Richard’s modern ‘rehabilitation’ says more about us than him.
  • Quote (Elizabeth, 26:54):
    “Isn’t it better to live that way [boldly, risking failure] than to play it very safe?”

10. Coincidence, Romance, and the Power of Story

• Timestamps: 28:46–32:34
  • Elizabeth shares compelling coincidences between the exhumation and original burial dates of Richard III, weaving together history, myth, and a sense of destiny.
  • Dan, ever the skeptic, reminds listeners of calendar shifts—but allows for the romance.
  • Quote (Elizabeth, 32:11):
    “Sometimes the universe sends you mysterious messages from the edges of consciousness. And I find something very romantic about the idea that his body needed to be found, and it needed to be found in this echo of time.”

Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• Elizabeth, 05:32:
  “Discovery magazine was a history periodical for kids. And I loved it so much...they did an entire issue on Richard III and Henry VII. And I think there is something somewhat mystical about the allure that Richard III has for so many people.”

• Dan, 09:17:
  “The Woodville marriage with Edward IV is precisely that. It’s just a sort of weird jumble of all these oddball people interacting with each other...This is a amazing moment of revelation where the King turns up and goes, guess what? I got married to someone completely inappropriate.”

• Elizabeth, 13:46:
  “And why do you think no bodies have ever been found?”

• Dan, 26:53:
  “Failure is more interesting to us...than the rise and fall. Stories with that tragic shape are just deeply fascinating.”

Key Timestamps

• 00:00–04:56: Dan & Elizabeth’s personal (and humorous) history, Ricardian identity
• 06:35–10:37: Richard’s background, succession crisis
• 10:37–14:20: The princes in the Tower—evidence and legend
• 15:18–16:06: Richard’s reforms as king
• 18:45–23:29: Tudor propaganda, Shakespeare, and the cultural codification of “failure”
• 23:29–25:21: Philippa Langley’s dig and the rediscovery of Richard III
• 28:46–32:34: Haunted dates, coincidences, and historical romance

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

• Despite disagreement on points of culpability and the definition of failure, both hosts agree that Richard III’s story is compelling precisely because of its ambiguities, loose ends, and narrative power. His enduring relevance—whether as a subject of academic debate, Shakespearean villain, or archaeological marvel—suggests that historical failure is far from a simple matter of who won or lost.

• The episode closes on the notion that failure—when lived boldly and revisited with compassion and curiosity—yields meaning as much as it does sorrow.

Next Episode Preview:
Exploration of history’s great romantic fails: Antony & Cleopatra, Edward & Wallis, Henry VIII & Anne Boleyn.

Find more at:

• This Is History — for the rest of the “History’s Greatest Fails” series
• How to Fail with Elizabeth Day — for interviews on failure in the modern world

“Things aren't failures simply because they end. It's the nature of the ending.”
—Dan Jones (27:27)

(All timestamps MM:SS)