Last Sunday saw a select band of members and friends of the New South Wales Branch attend morning service at beautiful Mary’s Anglican Church in Waverley, to remember King Richard III and all who fell with him at the battle on August 22, 1485.

We were warmly welcomed at the beginning of the service and, just before the end, wishes were expressed that we had found the service rewarding, as indeed we did. And at morning tea with the Parish afterwards we made more friends – and handed out brochures about why the Society exists and some explanations about why we feel it is so important to champion a maligned king.

Copies of the Parish Messenger were handed to each member of the congregation and we were thrilled and proud to see the familiar portrait of King Richard on the first page, and a welcoming reference to the Society and why each year we meet “to remember a young man who was only 32 when he was killed, whose generosity inspired affection and loyalty among those who knew him best. His motto, Loyaulte me lie (loyalty binds me) is one that still rings true about the last Plantagenet king of England.”

We were touched to learn as we turned the page that the Rector of St Mary’s – the Reverend Peter Clark – had taken Richard’s motto for the following short article:

Loyalty Binds Me.  That is interesting isn’t it?  Loyalty is in short supply these days. I n politics, in corporate life, in marriages and families. In many places loyalty is gone. Even in the church, loyalty is a virtue which is becoming conditional – “I will be loyal to you as long as you please me”. Why is this? I believe that it is because the loyalty that “binds us” to God is being eroded. People are not loyal to God, or Jesus , or the Church and then the flow-on effect is that people are not loyal to each other.

With that in mind, all of us would benefit from taking on for ourselves Richard III’s motto “Loyalty binds me”.

Following this memorable service the Ricardians went on to have lunch together and toasts were drunk to the Richard III Society and all its members around the world and then to King Richard III and to all those who fell with him at Bosworth Field.

(All photographs by Julia Redlich)

Tags: Bosworth, Church, NSW Branch, Richard III