Re-interment of King Richard III

All families have folk legends, but whether they get passed down or not depends on so many things, the main one being the family wanting to record their history. In my dad's family we have tales of times past, usually told in song or poetry which was the Viking way of keeping continuity in the family and the communities. LL

Remember John Ashdown-Hill pulling faces at the reinternment?    Well, he explains on his blog why - this is his website, his blog is in the section 'Meet the Writer' and there's lots of Rlll stuff on the main site.   LL

http://www.johnashdownhill.com/

Why then did television cameras pick up a raising of my eyebrows? Since I myself have not seen this I can't give one simple answer. But I know I raised my eyebrows several times during Thursday's reburial service

In fairness, eyebrow-raising was quite justified in the instances he mentions. Alas, it didn't stop there...



https://youtu.be/ayI_w7Z83t8



To be honest, I don't find it at all offensive, it somehow added to the occasion as a wonderful piece of eccentricity. He and Ms Langley have earned the right to be a bit eccentric.

I think my eyes rolled too as the dates were wrong etc. I see he has written quite a few books on Richard and his times and the people he associated with so I think I will be buying more - at this rate I'm gonna need more bookshelves!! LL

Lamplighter wrote:I think my eyes rolled too as the dates were wrong etc.    I see he has written quite a few books on Richard and his times and the people he associated with so I think I will be buying more - at this rate I'm gonna need more bookshelves!!   LL

Won't we all, LL.  And a few of my neighbours are raising their eyebrows at my apparently sudden intellectual bent.  Actually, I have always been a bit bent, but I don't know many people who are interested in this sort of thing.

But I positively refuse to get into a discussion about how he killed The Princes.

Sabot wrote:

Lamplighter wrote:I think my eyes rolled too as the dates were wrong etc.    I see he has written quite a few books on Richard and his times and the people he associated with so I think I will be buying more - at this rate I'm gonna need more bookshelves!!   LL

Won't we all, LL.  And a few of my neighbours are raising their eyebrows at my apparently sudden intellectual bent.  Actually, I have always been a bit bent, but I don't know many people who are interested in this sort of thing.

But I positively refuse to get into a discussion about how he killed The Princes.

Ma petite, would you like a list of books I would recommend anyone to read re Richard and his times? Happy to post one on here if so. LL

I've got one of his - The Last Days of Richard III. I am happy to say that, though his style is obviously very precise, it's also readable, and complicated things like DNA are presented in a way that ignoramuses like me can follow.

Lamplighter wrote:

Sabot wrote:

Lamplighter wrote:I think my eyes rolled too as the dates were wrong etc.    I see he has written quite a few books on Richard and his times and the people he associated with so I think I will be buying more - at this rate I'm gonna need more bookshelves!!   LL

Won't we all, LL.  And a few of my neighbours are raising their eyebrows at my apparently sudden intellectual bent.  Actually, I have always been a bit bent, but I don't know many people who are interested in this sort of thing.

But I positively refuse to get into a discussion about how he killed The Princes.

 Ma petite, would you like a list of books I would recommend anyone to read re Richard and his times?   Happy to post one on here if so.    LL

Yes please, LL. But I have to admit to wanting some sort of story and not just basic facts, if there are all that many.

You want fiction or non-fiction? LL

There are loads of books, Sabot. LL would know better than me, but personally, I would say that the best, most accurate fiction that brings it all together is The Sunne In Splendour.

Lamplighter wrote:You want fiction or non-fiction?   LL

I don't actually know, LL. Is to possible to get facts mixed in with a story.

I have read The Sunne In Splendour, Bonny.. Which I was actually half way through when his body was found. Very odd was that, and I'm thinking, "Xcuse me, what is going on here. Why am I reading this now?"
I had owned the book for quite some time, and it just came to the top of the pile. And basically set me off. But without this Thread I might just have put it to one side and forgotten about it.

My interest in The Plantagenets started with The Brother Caedphile Books. And I sort of got a bit carried away with knowing that Henry the Second was the first of The Plantagenets. What a laugh that was. I stunned a few people at dinner parties at one time. Them never knowing that that was all I knew.

'Dickon'  is one of the first books I ever read, after I discovered Daughter of Time.  It was written by Marjorie Bowen in about 1928.  It covers the time from when Richard's father, Richard of York and his second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland were defeated at Sendal, York dying in battle, Rutland cut down as he tried to flee - he was aged 17 - to Bosworth.   It is a strange style, as she thees and thous a lot but it is readable.   You can read it here as a free E-book.   Dickon is a diminutive for Richard.   LL
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks09/0900531h.html

Reposting this link for 'Daughter of Time' also can be read here as a free E-book
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks09/0900271.txt

Found one I have never heard of. 'The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck' by Mary Shelley. As before, free to read as E-Book. LL

http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606411.txt

Now that could be interesting. Isn't that about one of the Princes?

Sabot wrote:Now that could be interesting.  Isn't that about one of the Princes?

I haven't gotten round to reaing it, ma petite, but it seems to be set after Bosworth and is about what happened to Perkin Warbeck, supposedly the younger of the two boys. LL

Prayer book owned by Richard III on display in Leicester museum

By atroughton  |  Posted: March 31, 2015

 
A prayer book owned by King Richard III has gone on display in Leicester.

Made of parchment and beautifully decorated, the Book of Hours was created in London in 1420, with handwritten prayers added for King Richard III around the time of his reign from 1483-85.

The document was loaned to the city for use in King Richard III's reinterment ceremony at Leicester Cathedral last week and is now on display at the New Walk Museum.

The book is a collection of prayers to guide devotion throughout the day. It includes several additional hand-written prayers for Richard's personal use, with his name attached. The date of the king's birthday also appears, which is believed to have been written in by Richard himself.


One prayer reads, "Lord Jesus Christ, deign to free me, your servant King Richard, from every tribulation, sorrow and trouble in which I am placed..." As Richard's personal prayer book, it is thought it may have been in his tent at the Battle of Bosworth.

It is known to have later belonged to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, before eventually being passed into the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury during the early 1600s.

The book has been loaned to Leicester by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev and Rt Hon Justin Welby and the Trustees of Lambeth Palace Library.

Liz Blyth, director of culture and neighbourhood services at Leicester City Council, said: "We're very grateful to Lambeth Palace Library for loaning this fascinating book to us, to coincide with our commemorations of King Richard III.

"This will give visitors to Leicester a fantastic opportunity to view this unique object, in the impressive surroundings of New Walk Museum."

Giles Mandelbrote, librarian at Lambeth Palace Library, said: "Richard III's Book of Hours is one of the medieval treasures preserved in the collections of Lambeth Palace Library.

"We are delighted to lend it for this historic occasion and for the enjoyment of visitors to the New Walk Museum."

The Very Revd David Monteith, Dean of Leicester said: "King Richard was clearly a devout Christian.

"The annotations show that this book was in regular use and it offers us an insight into King Richard as a man of prayer."

The book will be on display at New Walk Museum until Sunday 28 June.

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Prayer-book-owned-Richard-III-display-Leicester/story-26260118-detail/story.html#ixzz3W2XHTivg
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It was a lovely touch that the current Duke of Gloucester re-united the prayer book with its owner at the Cathedral service, LL.

Who knew king was buried in a car park?
By Leicester Mercury | Posted: March 30, 2015



The tale of the "king under the car park" is now as much the stuff of legend, as Richard III's life.



But, as so often with such exploding media interest, the whats, wheres and hows have inevitably been polished to "help" or simplify the story, whether it be in the retelling of Richard's reputation or even the story behind his discovery.

According to some TV programmes or articles, you'd think the hypothesis that the king was lying under the car park was new.

However, as far back as 50 years ago, there were those who had settled on this unlikely location.


It was widely agreed that Richard III was buried in Grey Friars' Church, in August 1485, following his brutal death at Bosworth.

For centuries, it was suggested Richard's body lay there for several decades before being dug up and tossed, unceremoniously, into the nearby River Soar.

But, by the time the University of Leicester's Archaeological Services started its dig in August 2012, they shared the theory of the Richard III Society and several historians who believed the king remained on the Grey Friars' site.

It was known that the area had remained largely undisturbed since the 1500s.

In the 17th century, Robert Herrick, a former mayor of Leicester, built a house on the site. But, over time, the garden was divided up and the precise location of the church lost.

In 1915, the rest of the site was acquired by Leicestershire County Council, who built new offices there in the 1920s, adding their staff car park around 1944.

The council moved out in 1965, when their new County Hall was opened at Glenfield.

In 1975, Audrey Strange suggested in the Richard III Society's journal that the king's remains were still under the car park. The claim was repeated in 1986 by the historian, David Baldwin.

But, rewind 21 years previously and a letter published in the Mercury, on July 16, 1965, from the Provost of Leicester, John Hughes – who lived at St Martin's East, a mere bone's throw from the car park – stated:

"No one really knows where his remains rest. With some prejudice, I believe that David Tyrwhitt-Drake Clarke, our former Keeper of Antiquities at Leicester Museum, was right in his belief that the grave was never disturbed and is therefore sited in the private car park.

"As this lies in the cathedral , and is in any case, the certain site of his burial, I hope, one day, he may be commemorated in the mother church of our city and county."

Fifty years on, the provost's wish – and David Tyrwhitt-Drake Clarke's assertion – have been recognised.

But, does the story end there? Did anybody else suggest the king was in the car park, before 1965?



Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/knew-king-buried-car-park/story-26253218-detail/story.html#ixzz3W37JHTL0
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Actually, if you think about it, that Car Park was always worth a look. But did they dig anywhere else around there before finally finding him? Or was it ground radar?

I am always going to have some idea of how they must have felt when they found that skeleton with the bent spine as it wasn't likely to have been anyone else.
I am still gobsmacked to this day when I see the photograph. To have been there must be a constant glory.

As far as I am aware, they found Richard almost as soon as they started digging, Sabot - no ground radar involved. There was another trench opened, but he was found almost at once, right under the R where Ms Langley had previously had 'odd feelings'.

There are a lot of very odd things about this. Almost as if he decided that it was time to be found. Perhaps the swing towards the growing belief that he didn't kill The Princes.

And it's only now that DNA research was sufficiently advanced to be able to identify him beyond any doubt. Not to mention his reappearance coinciding with his first-ever mass media portrayal as the romantic hero, in the otherwise-awful White Queen.

The whole thing is peculiar; indeed, there are an awful lot of peculiar things associated with Richard III.

I think I shall have to watch The White Queen again.

It's a pity most of it was such a disaster, not helped by the 'White Queen' being played by such an ineffectual actress, I personally couldn't imagine many men even giving up a seat on the bus for her. And there was also all that nonsense about throwing bits of string in rivers....

Mad Mags Beaufort and Richard ended up stealing the show, as I recall.

Yes, the actress who played Mad Mags was riveting. I'd watch it again just for her.