Richard III

Apparently he and his wife to be grew up at Raby Castle near here. At least they haven't claimed his bits back yet.

I'm very torn now. My Yorkist sympathies say take him back to Yorkshire but, to be fair, Leicester have put in a lot of money and effort and perhaps he should be left there. (Don't tell anyone on Facebook that I've said that )

I bet that Richard would never have believed that we would still be arguing about him over 500 years later!

Direct quote from Philippa Langley who instigated the project: "I am incredibly grateful to the University of Leicester for funding the project in association with the Richard III Society, and to Leicester City Council for agreeing to facilitate it and allow us to do all this excavation work."

This suggests that the Richard III Society provided only some, albeit possibly the largest portion, of the funding.

From the terrible Channel 4 documentary about the discovery, I got the impression that the whole thing had been funded and organised by the Richard 111 society which is Yorkist.

Why the sudden interest from the folk of York? If Richard III was so highly thought of there, why no efforts made to locate his body? Fair play to the city of Leicester. The research and identification process was carried out in Leicester and it's only right that Leicester should benefit. Anyway, "finders keepers" and "possession is 9/10ths of the law" should make the decision very easy.

Literally your ancestor Galen – and how appropriate would that be – or spiritual ancestor?

My ancestress Elizabeth Blackwell

Mad, bad and dangerous to know – applies to both the last two posts.

Byron!

I'd quite like to meet Jack the Ripper in the afterlife _ just to see who he was!

Could just as well be a Henry or an Edward of course.

When I hear the name "Richard the Third" I can't help remembering Ronnie Barker's monologue about someone finding a small Richard the Third on the pavement, picking it up and moving it to one side etc....

Sorry, not relevant but it keeps coming back into my brain.

PS sorry about the mishaps with the keyboard: I got a bit steamed up!

Richard the third is a seriously maligned king. Was he hunchback? Most likely. Did he suffer from not being photogenic? Oh I think so. Did the Earl of Oxford (aka W Shakespeare) afford him a bead press? Undoubtably. Did her murder the "princes in the tower"? Personally no. But then Henry gets blamed for the murder of Thomas a Becket - will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest.

Oh that the dammned Lancastrians had lost. Would that the house of York had rulked. How different life might have been. Please send his bones home to York, whence he came and whence he belongs. Do please set up a shrine in Leicester. And Richard... Requiescat in Pacem......

As a footnote: who are the dead that you most would like to meet in the after life? For me Richard the third is high up the list.

Richard the third gets my vote for being a seriously maligned king. Was he a hunchback? Probably. Did that count? Possibly. Is the Earl of Oxford aka W. Shakespeare guilty of creating a bad press for the guy? Oh most definately. Why? Oh dear oh dear, do not get me going on politics. If only the white rose had won.... England would be free of the dreaded Lancastrians and their Hannoverian substitutes. Bury him, PLEASE, in York Cathedral and Requiescat in pacem.

As for Hannoverian upstart making a decision: oh dear no.

I also understand that the original exhumation license stipulated the remains should be buriedleicester

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She took her harp to the party, but nobody asked her to play.

Sounds like my aunt who had already bought a bridesmaid dress for her daughter for my wedding and was upset when I didn't want her as a bridesmaid!

A tomb has been prepared for him in Leicester for a long time - and Leicester people put a tremendous amount of effort to find him - so in Leicester he should stay. And what is 'wrong' with Leicester Mischief - I certainly love the place and the county (just come back )

I think that re-interring Richard III in Leicester would be the final humiliation for him. After all wasn't he paraded through the town, naked, on a horse and even stabbed in the bum before being buried. Now Leicester proposes to make a lot of money out of him too.

Richard III wanted to be buried in York, his son is buried in Sherrif Hutton near York and he was brought up at Middleham Castle. We should respect his wishes and bring him home. Yorkshire loved him.

The paperwork given to the University of Leicester should have had a clause in it to say that if the skeleton turned out to be Richard III the government (or maybe the Queen) would make the decision about where he was re-buried. Because this clause was not in the document, I think the government were convinced it couldn't possible be Richard III. How wrong they were. Someone slipped up there.

As a second choice for burial I think Westminster should be the place. But Leicester.......?

The present Duke of Gloucester is Richard. Don't know if there are any more recent ones.

broomsticks I think Henry V (son of the chap who deposed and murdered Richard II) moved his corpse from where it was buried at Kings Langley to Westminster Abbey.

History is always written from someone or other's slant, I suppose. Obviously the Tudor had to justify grabbing the throne by blackening Richard's name.
I think some of the other kings who were deposed are unaccounted for (corpse wise). Isn't Richard II missing as well.
No member of the royal family seem keen to christen their sons Richard
Perhaps that will change now.

The Daughter of Time is very good and makes some points that are still worth thinking about. For instance, why did Richard invite Elizabeth Woodville for Xmas but Henry VII locked her up in a convent? Josephine Tey would have to rethink a few things today. She was shocked at the idea of Richard accusing his mother of adultery, but now it seems likely to have been true. It's such a good read though and turns so many ideas upside down.