Beware of misleading labels

In the great prize-giving of history, there are only two truly ‘bad’ kings of England: King John and James II. Or three if you count Ethelred the Unready. There is more argument about the ‘good’ ones, but King John’s brother Richard ranks high in most people’s pantheon, right up there with King Arthur and Queen Elizabeth. Plainly, Ladybird Books, Robin Hood on TV and touring exhibitions of Magna Carta, have a lot to answer for. We know at once that Frank McLynn is going to adopt the same outlook, because his joint biography of Richard and John is illustrated with such gems as Richard I’s mythical meeting with Robin Hood by Howard Davie, an Edwardian children’s illustrator best known as a designer of chocolate ads (‘most delicious — both a sweetmeat and a food’).

‘Imagine my surprise,’ he writes in his introduction, ‘when my own sleuthing in ancient documents turned up what is in effect a reinforcement of the stereotype.’