Things started rather ominously this week – from my perspective as a viewer.  A rather big turn to the silly, even by Baraou no Souretsu standards.  It’s one thing for Henry VI to still be alive – that’s bad enough.  But to make him James Tyrell?  That’s really beyond the pale, frankly.  It takes dramatic license far past its breaking point (and its tensile strength is pretty good).  It’s a total fabrication – that’s a given.  But it’s not based in any way on reality – it’s just the author totally winging it for the sake of plot convenience, or allegory, or whyever she’s doing it.

Ah yes, James Tyrell.  That’s a name familiar to anyone versed in British history, or in fact probably to most Brits even today.  He’s a very important figure in the dramatic events to come, though this is the first time he’s been mentioned in Baraou no Souretsu as far as I remember.  While the blame for what happens in the Tower of London is almost universally assigned to Richard – thanks to Tudor historians and Shakespeare – the deed itself is generally ascribed to Tyrell.  He’s the boogeyman of the dark tales of the event, the ones grandparents tell the kids to try and scare them straight.

It must be said, once it got past that absurdity (though it still hangs over the plot) the episode got much more interesting.  That’s because the focus turned to Richard’s relationship with his son, Edward.  History does in fact speculate that Richard might not have been the father, though that’s a rumor that’s never been proved.  It also states that Prince Edward was a frail and timid boy and that Richard doted on him.  If in fact Edward wasn’t Richard’s son that would be a problem for obvious reasons, much less if he was the grandson of the last Lancastrian king.  It’s a secret that would pose a great risk to Richard, especially given the grounds by which he got the other Edward removed from the line of succession.

Here it’s mostly played for drama between Richard and Buckingham (the Henry de jour), whom Richard promised never to keep secrets from.  But Richard’s essential decency is intact to the point where he naturally wants to protect “his” Edward – the boy is innocent as a lamb and thoroughly kind-hearted, and his idolizes his father.  Disinheriting him is unacceptable, even if it drives a wedge between Richard and Buckingham.  And Richmond spreading rumors about Edward’s parentage is further inflaming tensions, in addition to its intended effect of hurting Richard politically.

Finally, after much delay, the story returns to the princes in the tower.  Here’s they’re depicted as quite healthy but intensely squabbling (eyewitnesses didn’t report that part at the time, though their accounts are impossible to prove).  Richmond turning up to “rescue” the boys is an interesting twist – he’s one of the names connected to them, though orthodoxy frowns on suspecting anyone other than Richard for what happens next.  What Baraou no Souretsu chooses to say about that development has always been the most interesting question hanging over it, and we’re indisputably getting very close to getting our answer now.