The Deviant Dead • Richard III • Trial by Combat [audio 30min]

Sue Cook and the "Making History" team examine listeners' historical queries and gets to the bottom of historical mysteries, local legends, family curiosities and architectural oddities. 1) Richard Daniel met up with Nicola Whyte, of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, who is interested in the number of place names on old maps of Norfolk which appear to relate to places of execution or places of burial. 2) Who was the last English king to die in battle was, and who was the last heir to the English throne to die in battle? We consulted Professor John Childs at the Centre for Military History, University of Leeds, and learned the answers are Richard III (1485) and Edward, Duke of Westminster (1471). 3) When were trial by combat and trial by ordeal replaced by the jury system that we know today? "Making History" consulted Victor Tunkel of the Selden Society.