The re-burial of King Richard III

The pictures that accompany this article were taken by me on Tuesday 24th March 2015, during the week of King Richard III’s reburial in Leicester Cathedral. This was an important event that took place almost on my doorstep.

King Richard III

King Richard III reigned from 1483 to 1485. There can be little argument that he usurped the throne from his young nephew Edward, but whether he subsequently murdered him is another matter. This question may never be answered to everyone’s satisfaction.

There is certainly no question that Richard’s successor, King Henry VII, was another usurper. Henry’s claim to the crown was extremely weak and his succession only came about because he defeated and killed Richard in battle in 1485 – in a field about four miles from where I am writing this article!

The car park king

Richard’s body was taken to Leicester, where it was buried in haste by the friars of Greyfriars. Their friary was close to St Martin’s church, which (in 1927) became the cathedral of the new Leicester Diocese.

During the reign of King Henry VIII (the son of Richard’s conqueror) nearly all of England’s religious houses – monasteries, convents and friaries – were suppressed as part of the country’s conversion to Protestantism. Greyfriars in Leicester was no exception, and the building was abandoned and eventually demolished, with not a single stone of it left above ground. It is highly likely, in fact, that some of the stones were used to repair parts of St Martin’s Church.

Above ground, the scene changed considerably over the years, with the site of Greyfriars eventually becoming part of Leicester Grammar School. The only lasting memory of the friary is contained in the name of the street (Greyfriars) that runs alongside the former school building.

However, below ground nothing changed at all! All the bodies that had been buried in the choir of the friary chapel stayed exactly where they had always been, and the remains included those of King Richard III.

During Victorian times, excavations were made for the foundations of the Grammar School, and some damage was caused to what lay underground. Fortunately for Richard, and the later discovery of his bones, the site of his burial was not covered by buildings but by a paved area.

That paved area was later used by Leicester City Council for a private car park, given that some of the school buildings had been taken over by the Council after the school moved to new premises. My wife is an employee of the City Council, and often crossed this car park to visit colleagues, so she may well have unwittingly walked across the king’s grave!

The story of the discovery of the bones by archaeologists from Leicester University is well known, as is that of the dispute as to where the remains should receive their final resting place. Suffice it to say that the decision has been made for all time and that Leicester won the case.

A proper send-off for Richard

It is more than 500 years since the death and hasty burial of King Richard III, but that has not stopped Leicester from making the most of giving Richard a send-off fit for a king.

On Sunday 22nd March 2015 the remains were taken from Leicester University to Fenn Lane Farm, near Stoke Golding and Dadlington, where it is now known that the Battle of Bosworth took place. From there they were taken back to Leicester along the route that is probably close to that of Richard’s original final journey. Thousands of people lined the route, especially when the cortege reached the edge of the City and the coffin (made by a descendant of a sister of Richard III) was transferred to a horse-drawn gun carriage.

A service was held in the Cathedral at which the Bishop of Leicester was joined by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, in recognition of the fact that Richard was a Catholic, and apparently a pious one at that.

Queuing to view

The coffin was draped with a special embroidered cloth on which was placed a replica crown and a copy of the Latin Bible. These were left in place for three days so that people could file past to pay their respects, which they did in their thousands.

The above picture shows the queue starting to make its way into the Cathedral, with those at the end of the queue having a wait of several hours in front of them. I decided not to join the queue on the first day, finding that it was considerably shorter on Day Three! I also returned to view the impressive tomb after it had been completed.

A memorable time for Leicester

I have lived in Leicestershire for more than 30 years and regularly make visits to Leicester. I have never thought that Leicester was “off the map” in national terms, but these events have made the city better known across the world. Speaking as a local, I can have no regrets about that!