Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England
The remains of
Richard III, the final ruler of the
A search for Richard's body began in August 2012, initiated by
The age of the bones at death matched that of Richard when he was killed; they were dated to about the period of his death and were mostly consistent with physical descriptions of the king. Preliminary
As a condition of being allowed to disinter the skeleton, the archaeologists agreed that, if Richard were found, his remains would be reburied in Leicester Cathedral. A controversy arose as to whether an alternative reburial site, York Minster or Westminster Abbey, would be more suitable. A legal challenge confirmed there were no public law grounds for the courts to be involved in that decision. Reinterment took place in Leicester on 26 March 2015, during a televised memorial service held in the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior members of other Christian denominations.
Death and initial burial
King
Richard's body was stripped naked and taken to Leicester
Burial site
In 1495, ten years after the burial, Henry VII paid for a marble and alabaster monument to mark Richard's grave.[9] Its cost is recorded in surviving legal papers relating to a dispute over payment showing that two men received payments of £50 and £10.1s, respectively, to make and transport the tomb from Nottingham to Leicester.[10] No first-person descriptions of the tomb survive, but Raphael Holinshed wrote in 1577 (perhaps quoting someone who had seen it in person) that it incorporated "a picture of alabaster representing [Richard's] person".[11] Forty years later, Sir George Buck wrote that it was "a fair tomb of mingled colour marble adorned with his image".[11] Buck also recorded the epitaph inscribed on the tomb.[11]
Following the
The
The origin of Speed's claim is unclear; it was not attributed to any source, nor did it have any antecedents in other written accounts.[16] The writer Audrey Strange suggests that the account may be a confused retelling of desecration of the remains of John Wycliffe in nearby Lutterworth in 1428, when a mob disinterred him, burned his bones and threw them into the River Swift.[17] The independent British historian John Ashdown-Hill proposes that Speed made a mistake over the location of Richard's grave and invented the story to account for its absence. If Speed had been to Herrick's property he would surely have seen the commemorative pillar and gardens, but instead he reported that the site was "overgrown with nettles and weeds"[18] and there was no trace of Richard's grave. The map of Leicester drawn by Speed incorrectly shows Greyfriars where the former Blackfriars was, suggesting that he had looked for the grave in the wrong place.[18]
Another local legend arose about a stone coffin that supposedly held Richard's remains, which Speed wrote was "now made a drinking trough for horses at a common Inn". A coffin certainly seems to have existed; John Evelyn recorded it on a visit in 1654, and Celia Fiennes wrote in 1700 that she had seen "a piece of his tombstone [sic] he lay in, which was cut out in exact form for his body to lie in; it remains to be seen at ye Greyhound [Inn] in Leicester but is partly broken." William Hutton found in 1758 that the coffin, which had "not withstood the ravages of time", was kept at the White Horse Inn on Gallowtree Gate. Although the coffin's location is no longer known, its description does not match the style of late 15th-century coffins, and it is unlikely to have had any connection with Richard. It is more likely that it was salvaged from one of the religious establishments demolished following the Dissolution.[16]
Herrick's mansion, Greyfriars House, remained in the possession of his family until his great-grandson Samuel sold it in 1711. The property was subsequently divided and sold in 1740; three years later, New Street was built across the western part of the site. Many burials were discovered when houses were laid out along the street. A townhouse, 17 Friar Lane, was built on the eastern part of the site in 1759 and survives today. During the 19th century, the site was increasingly built on. In 1863 Alderman Newton's Boys' School built a schoolhouse on part of the site. Herrick's mansion was demolished in 1871, the present Grey Friars Street was laid through the site in 1873, and more commercial developments, including the Leicester Trustee Savings Bank, were built. In 1915 the rest of the site was acquired by Leicestershire County Council which built offices on it in the 1920s and 1930s. The county council relocated in 1965 when its new County Hall opened, and Leicester City Council moved in.[16] The rest of the site, where Herrick's garden had once been, was turned into a staff car park in about 1944, but was not otherwise built on.[19]
In 2007, a single-storey building from the 1950s was demolished on Grey Friars Street giving archaeologists the opportunity to excavate and search for traces of the medieval friary. Very little was unearthed, except for a fragment of a post-medieval stone coffin lid. The results of the dig suggested that the remains of the friary church were farther west than previously thought.[20]
Looking for Richard project
The location of Richard III's body had long been of interest to the members of the Richard III Society, a group established to bring about a reappraisal of the King's tarnished reputation. In 1975 an article by Audrey Strange was published in the society's journal, The Ricardian, suggesting that his remains were buried under Leicester City Council's car park.[21] The claim was repeated in 1986, when historian David Baldwin suggested that the remains were still in the Greyfriars area.[22] He speculated, "It is possible (though now perhaps unlikely) that at some time in the twenty-first century an excavator may yet reveal the slight remains of this famous monarch."[23]
Although the Richard III Society remained interested in discussing the possible location of the king's grave, they did not search for his remains. Individual members suggested possible lines of investigation, but neither the University of Leicester nor local historians and archaeologists took up the challenge, probably because it was widely thought that the grave site had been built over or the skeleton had been scattered, as John Speed's account suggested.[24]
In 2004 and 2005,
Three years later, writer Annette Carson, in her book Richard III: The Maligned King (the History Press 2008, 2009, page 270), published her independent conclusion that his body probably lay under the car park. She joined forces with Langley and Ashdown-Hill to carry out further research.[29] By now Langley had found what she called a "smoking gun"—a medieval map of Leicester showing the Greyfriars Church at the north end of what was now the car park.[30]
In February 2009, Langley, Carson, and Ashdown-Hill teamed up with Richard III Society members David Johnson and his wife Wendy to launch a project with the working title Looking for Richard: In Search of a King. Its premise was a search for Richard's grave "while at the same time telling his real story",[20][31] with an objective "to search for, recover and rebury his mortal remains with the honour, dignity and respect so conspicuously denied following his death at the battle of Bosworth."[32] To ensure support from decision makers in Leicester, Langley had secured interest from Darlow Smith Productions for a televised documentary, which Langley envisaged as a "landmark TV special".[20]
The project gained the backing of several key partners—Leicester City Council, Leicester Promotions (responsible for tourist marketing), the University of Leicester, Leicester Cathedral, Darlow Smithson Productions (responsible for the planned TV show) and the Richard III Society.[31] Funding for the initial phase of pre-excavation research came from the Richard III Society's bursary fund and members of the Looking for Richard project,[33] with Leicester Promotions agreeing to pick up the £35,000 cost of the dig. The University of Leicester Archaeological Services—an independent body with offices at the university—was appointed as the project's archaeological contractor.[34]
Greyfriars project and excavations
In March 2011, an assessment of the Greyfriars site began to identify where the monastery had stood, and which land might be available for excavation. A desk-based assessment[note 1] was conducted to determine the archaeological viability of the site, followed by a survey in August 2011 using ground-penetrating radar (GPR).[20] The GPR results were inconclusive; no clear building remains could be identified owing to a layer of disturbed ground and demolition debris just below the surface. The survey was useful in finding modern utilities crossing the site, such as pipes and cables.[35]
Three possible excavation sites were identified: the staff car park of Leicester City Council
The proposed excavation was announced in the June 2012 issue of the Richard III Society's magazine, the Ricardian Bulletin, but a month later one of the main sponsors pulled out, leaving a £10,000 funding shortfall; an appeal resulted in members of the several Ricardian groups donating £13,000 in two weeks.[38] A press conference held in Leicester on 24 August announced the start of the work. Archaeologist Richard Buckley admitted the project was a long shot: "We don't know precisely where the church is, let alone where the burial site is."[39] He had earlier told Langley that he thought the odds were "fifty-fifty at best for [finding] the church, and nine-to-one against finding the grave."[40]
Digging began the next day with a trench 1.6 metres (5.2 ft) wide by 30 metres (98 ft) long, running roughly north-south. A layer of modern building debris was removed before the level of the former monastery was reached. Two parallel human leg bones were discovered about 5 metres (16 ft) from the north end of the trench at a depth of about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft), indicating an undisturbed burial.
The bones found on 25 August were uncovered on 4 September and the grave soil dug back further over the next two days. The feet were missing, and the skull was found in an unusual propped-up position, consistent with the body being put into a grave that was slightly too small.[46] The spine was curved in an S-shape. No sign of a coffin was found; the skeleton's posture suggested the body had not been put in a shroud, but had been hurriedly dumped into the grave and buried. As the bones were lifted from the ground, a piece of rusted iron was found underneath the vertebrae.[47][48] The skeleton's hands were in an unusual position, crossed over the right hip, suggesting they were tied together at the time of burial, although this could not be established definitively.[49] After the exhumation, work continued in the trenches over the following week, before the site was covered with soil to protect it from damage and re-surfaced to restore the car park and playground to their former condition.[50]
Analysis of the discovery
On 12 September, the University of Leicester team announced that the human remains were a possible candidate for Richard's body, but emphasised the need for caution. The positive indicators were that the body was of an adult male; it was buried beneath the choir of the church; it had severe scoliosis of the spine, possibly making one shoulder higher than the other.[51] An object that appeared to be an arrowhead was found under the spine and the skull had severe injuries.[52][53]
DNA evidence
After the exhumation the emphasis shifted from the excavation to laboratory analysis of the bones. Ashdown-Hill had used genealogical research to track down matrilineal descendants of Anne of York, Richard's older sister, whose matrilineal line of descent is extant through her daughter Anne St Leger. Academic Kevin Schürer subsequently traced a second individual in the same line.[54]
Ashdown-Hill's research came about as a result of a challenge in 2003 to provide a DNA sequence for Richard's sister
Joy Ibsen, a retired journalist, died in 2008, leaving three children: Michael, Jeff, and Leslie.[60] On 24 August 2012, her son Michael (born in Canada in 1957, a cabinet maker based in London, England)[61][62] gave a mouth-swab sample to the research team to compare with samples from the human remains found at the excavation.[63] Analysts found a mitochondrial DNA match among the exhumed skeleton, Michael Ibsen, and a second direct maternal line descendant, who shares a relatively rare mitochondrial DNA sequence,[64][65][66] mitochondrial DNA haplogroup J1c2c.[67][68]
One other living female-line relative of Richard III is Wendy Duldig, an Australian resident in England and a 19th generation descendant of Anne of York. Duldig, who has no surviving children, is connected to the Ibsen family through Anne's granddaughter Catherine Constable, née Manners. Descendants of Constable, including one of Duldig's ancestors, reportedly emigrated to New Zealand. Duldig's mitochondrial DNA is reportedly a close match, i.e., it features one mutation.[56]
Despite the matching mitochondrial DNA, geneticist
Bones
An
Taken together, the injuries appear to be a combination of battle wounds, which were the cause of death, followed by post-mortem humiliation wounds inflicted on the corpse. The body wounds show that the corpse had been stripped of its armour, as the stabbed torso would have been protected by a backplate and the pelvis would have been protected by armour. The wounds were made from behind on the back and buttocks while they were exposed to the elements, consistent with the contemporary descriptions of Richard's naked body being tied across a horse with the legs and arms dangling down on either side.[73][76][79] There may have been further flesh wounds not apparent from the bones.[77]
The head wounds are consistent with the narrative of a 1485 poem by Guto'r Glyn in which a Welsh knight, Sir Rhys ap Thomas, killed Richard and "shaved the boar's head".[80] It had been thought that this was a figurative description of Richard being decapitated, but the skeleton's head had clearly not been severed. Guto's description may instead be a literal account of the injuries that Richard suffered, as the blows sustained to the head would have sliced away much of his scalp and hair, along with slivers of bone.[80] Other contemporary sources refer explicitly to head injuries and the weapons used to kill Richard; the French chronicler Jean Molinet wrote that "one of the Welshmen then came after him, and struck him dead with a halberd", and the Ballad of Lady Bessie recorded that "they struck his bascinet to his head until his brains came out with blood". Such accounts would certainly fit the damage inflicted on the skull.[79][81]
Sideways curvature of the spine was evident as the skeleton was excavated. It has been attributed to adolescent-onset
Radiocarbon dating and other scientific analyses
Two
The excavators found an iron object under the skeleton's vertebrae and speculated it might be an arrowhead that had been embedded in its back. An X-ray analysis showed it was a nail, probably dating to Roman Britain, that had been in the ground by chance immediately under the grave, or was in soil disturbed when the grave was dug, and had nothing to do with the body.[77]
Identification of Richard III and other findings
On 4 February 2013, the University of Leicester confirmed that the skeleton was that of Richard III.[86][87][88] The identification was based on mitochondrial DNA evidence, soil analysis, dental tests, and physical characteristics of the skeleton consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance. Osteoarchaeologist Jo Appleby commented: "The skeleton has a number of unusual features: its slender build, the scoliosis, and the battle-related trauma. All of these are highly consistent with the information that we have about Richard III in life and about the circumstances of his death."[86]
The story of the excavation and subsequent scientific investigation was told in a Channel 4 documentary, Richard III: The King in the Car Park, broadcast on 4 February 2013.[92] It proved a ratings hit for the channel, watched by up to 4.9 million viewers,[93] and won a Royal Television Society award.[94] Channel 4 subsequently screened a follow-up documentary on 27 February 2014, Richard III: The Unseen Story, which detailed the scientific and archaeological analyses that led to the identification of the skeleton as Richard III.[93]
The site was re-excavated in July 2013 to learn more about the friary church, before building work on the adjacent disused school building. In a project co-funded by Leicester City Council and the University of Leicester, a single trench about twice the area of the 2012 trenches was excavated. It succeeded in exposing the entirety of the sites of the Greyfriars presbytery and choir sites, confirming archaeologists' earlier hypotheses about the layout of the church's east end. Three burials identified but not excavated in the 2012 project were tackled afresh. One burial was found to have been interred in a wooden coffin in a well-dug grave, while a second wooden-coffined burial was found under and astride the choir and presbytery; its position suggests that it pre-dates the church.[95]
A stone coffin found during the 2012 excavation was opened for the first time, revealing a lead coffin inside. An investigation with an endoscope revealed the presence of a skeleton along with some head hair and fragments of a shroud and cord.[95] The skeleton was at first assumed to be male, perhaps that of a knight called Sir William de Moton who was known to have been buried there, but later examination showed it to be of a woman—perhaps a high-ranking benefactor.[96] She may not necessarily have been local, as lead coffins were used to transport corpses over long distances.[95]
Plans and challenges
The University of Leicester's plan to inter Richard's body in Leicester Cathedral was in keeping with British legal norms which hold that Christian burials excavated by archaeologists should be reburied in the nearest consecrated ground to the original grave[85] and was a condition of the licence granted by the Ministry of Justice to exhume any human remains found during the excavation.[97] The British royal family made no claim on the remains – Queen Elizabeth II was reportedly consulted but rejected the idea of a royal burial[85] – so the Ministry of Justice initially confirmed that the University of Leicester would make the final decision on where the bones should be re-buried.[98] David Monteith, Canon Chancellor of Leicester Cathedral, said Richard's skeleton would be reinterred at the cathedral in early 2014 in a "Christian-led but ecumenical service",[99] not a formal reburial but rather a service of remembrance, as a funeral service would have been held at the time of burial.[100]
The choice of burial site proved controversial and proposals were made for Richard to be buried in places which some felt were more fitting for a
After legal action brought by the "Plantagenet Alliance", a group representing claimed descendants of Richard's siblings, his final resting place remained uncertain for nearly a year.[103] The group, which described itself as "his Majesty's representatives and voice",[95] called for Richard to be buried in York Minster, which they claimed was his "wish".[103][104] The Dean of Leicester called their challenge "disrespectful", and said that the cathedral would not invest any more money until the matter was decided.[105] Historians said there was no evidence that Richard III wanted to be buried in York.[95] Mark Ormrod of the University of York expressed scepticism over the idea that Richard had devised any clear plans for his own burial.[106] The standing of the Plantagenet Alliance was challenged. Mathematician Rob Eastaway calculated that Richard III's siblings may have millions of living descendants, saying that "we should all have the chance to vote on Leicester versus York".[107]
In August 2013,
Reburial and commemorations
In February 2013, Leicester Cathedral announced a procedure and timetable for the reinterment of Richard's remains. The cathedral authorities planned to bury him in a "place of honour" within the cathedral.
The reburial took place during a week of events between 22 and 27 March 2015. The sequence of events included:
- Sunday 22 March 2015: Richard's bones were sealed in a lead-lined English oak from the Duchy of Cornwall estate by Michael Ibsen,[62] was transferred from a motor hearse to a four-horse-drawn hearse for entry into the city of Leicester.[119]
- Monday 23 – Wednesday 25 March 2015: Remains lay in repose in the cathedral. Waiting times to view the coffin were reported to exceed four hours.[120]
- Monday 23 March 2015: Cardinal Holy Cross Church. Music for the introit motet 'In memoriam; Ricardus Rex' was composed by Graham Keitch.
- Thursday 26 March 2015: Reburial in the presence of God Save the Queen" by Judith Weir.[124]
- Friday 27 March 2015: Unveiling the tomb to the public, in a Service of Reveal at Leicester Cathedral, followed by commemorations across Leicester.[125]
Reactions
After the discovery, Leicester City Council set up a temporary exhibition about Richard III in the city's medieval
In Norway, archaeologist Øystein Ekroll hoped that the interest in the discovery of the English king would spill over to Norway. In contrast to England where, with the possible exceptions of
Richard Buckley of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services, who said he would "eat his hat" if Richard was discovered, fulfilled his promise by eating a hat-shaped cake baked by a colleague.[100] Buckley later said:
Cutting-edge research has been used in the project and the work has really only just begun. The discoveries, such as the very precise carbon dating and medical evidence, will serve as a benchmark for other studies. And it is, of course, an incredible story. He's a controversial figure; people love the idea he was found under a car park; the whole thing unfolded in the most amazing way. You couldn't make it up.[130]
Some commentators suggested the discovery and subsequent positive exposure and good morale around the city contributed to
For too long, people in Leicester have been modest about their achievements and the city they live in. Now – thanks first to the discovery of King Richard III and the Foxes' phenomenal season – it's our time to step into the international limelight.[131]
The two events inspired Michael Morpurgo's 2016 children's book, The Fox and the Ghost King, in which the ghost of Richard III promises to help the football team in return for being released from his car park grave.[132]
In popular culture
- Directed by Stephen Frears, the 2022 British comedy-drama film The Lost King follows Langley's search for King Richard III's body.[133]
Notes
- ^ A desk-based assessment involves gathering together the written, graphic, photographic and electronic information that already exists about a site to help identify the likely character, extent, and quality of the known or suspected remains or structures being researched.
- ^ Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC)
- ^ University of Oxford's Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit
- ^ Richard's wife Anne Neville is buried within Westminster Abbey; it is uncertain where their only child Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales, is buried; theories have included Sheriff Hutton Church, or Middleham, both in North Yorkshire.[101]
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Bibliography
- Ashdown-Hill, John (2013). The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA. Stroud, England: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-9205-6.
- Ashdown-Hill, John; David Johnson; Wendy Johnson; Pippa Langley (2014). Carson, Annette (ed.). Finding Richard III: The Official Account of Research by the Retrieval & Reburial Project. Horstead: Imprimis Imprimatur. ISBN 978-0-9576840-2-7.
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- Buckley, Richard; Mathew Morris; Jo Appleby; Turi King; Deirdre O'Sullivan; Lin Foxhall (2013). ""The King in the Car Park": New Light on the Death and Burial of Richard III in the Grey Friars Church, Leicester, in 1485". Antiquity. 87 (336): 519–538. .
- Halsted, Caroline Amelia (1844). Richard III, as Duke of Gloucester and King of England. Volume 2. Carey and Hart. OCLC 2606580.
- The Grey Friars Research Team; ISBN 978-1118783146.
- Hipshon, David (2009). Richard III and the Death of Chivalry. History Press. ISBN 978-0750950749.
- King, TE; Gonzalez Fortes, G; Balaresque, P; Thomas, MG; Balding, D; Maisano Delser, P; Neumann, Rita; Parson, Walther; Knapp, Michael; Walsh, Susan; Tonasso, Laure; Holt, John; Kayser, Manfred; Appleby, Jo; Forster, Peter; Ekserdjian, David; Hofreiter, Michael; Schürer, Kevin (2014). "Identification of the remains of King Richard III". PMID 25463651.
- Langley, Philippa; Jones, Michael (2014). The Search for Richard III: The King's Grave. John Murray. ISBN 978-1-84854-893-0.
- Mathew, Morris; Richard Buckley (2013). Richard III: The King Under the Car Park. Leicester: University of Leicester Archaeological Services. ISBN 978-0-9574792-2-7.
- Penn, Thomas (2011). Winter King – Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-9156-9.
- Pitts, Mike (2014). Digging for Richard III: How Archaeology Found the King. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-25200-0.
- Rees, EA (2008). A Life of Guto'r Glyn. Tal-y-bont, Ceredigion: Y Lolfa. ISBN 978-0-86243-971-2.
- Rhodes, Neil (1997). English Renaissance Prose: History, Language, and Politics. Tempe, AZ: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. ISBN 978-0-8669-8205-4.
Further reading
- ISBN 9780199676101.
- Hobson, Pete (2016). How to Bury a King: the reinterment of Richard III. Preston: Zaccmedia. ISBN 9781911211174.
External links
- University of Leicester Richard III website (University of Leicester)
- Videos and links about the discovery of Richard III's body (University of Leicester)
- About the facial reconstruction Archived 8 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine (University of Dundee)
- Timetable of reburial week events 22–28 March 2015