The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds

by Langley, Philippa

  Chapter 9: The Identification of the Remains

  Mathematics students at the University of Leicester calculated that the archaeologists had a less than 1 per cent chance of finding the grave, with chances of discovery on the very first day at just 0.0554 per cent, or odds of 1,785 to 1 against: University of Leicester, Press Office, 11 March 2013. The dental analysis was of particular interest as we have the dental record of some of Richard’s relations: Anne Mowbray, Eleanor Talbot and the bones in the urn in Westminster Abbey, reputed to be those of Richard’s nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Later, I approached other scoliosis specialists who confirmed that severe scoliosis, particularly in later life, is painful. And the Scoliosis Association in the UK confirmed that the word ‘hunchback’ is very distressing and no longer used. The skeleton is missing the left fibula (lower leg bone). Apart from a few small hand bones (twelve missing out of a total of fifty-four, which is a good recovery rate), the feet and a few teeth, the remains were complete: University of Leicester, March 2013. A rondel dagger is a modern term for a type of dagger with a circular, round cross-guard towards the blade, which could be single or multi-edged, and often a pommel of similar form. The rondel dagger was used by knights between the fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries and was so named because of the distinctive shape of its grip. After this examination of the bones, a third wound on the face was discovered: a tiny nick in the mandible also on the right and an inch or so above the other, making a total of nine identified wounds on the skull, with the possibility of more to be confirmed. At the time of writing it was unclear whether this new wound could support the theory that King Richard’s helmet was cut off him. The lack of trauma to the face further strengthened my conviction that Henry Tudor did not leave Richard’s body on the battlefield as it was his prize. At the time of writing, Jo Appleby confirmed that the soil analysis beneath the body for parasitic sample, the isotopic report and the dental analysis are not yet available, but should be included in the archaeological report some time towards the end of 2013. The facial reconstruction process has been blind-tested at the University of Dundee using living people, CT scans and photography, and the accuracy tested using recognition levels and anthropometry (scientific study of the measurements and proportions of the human body). The second living relative of Richard III who gave a sample of their DNA for the tests wishes to remain anonymous.

  Chapter 10: Bosworth

  An excellent survey on the sources is provided in Bennett, Battle of Bosworth. For a recent archival discovery about the battle see John Alban, ‘The Will of Thomas Longe of Ashwellthorpe, 1485. A Yorkist Soldier at Bosworth’, Ricardian XXII (2012). For Nottingham’s intelligence gathering before and during Bosworth, see Penelope Lawton, ‘Riding Forth to Aspye for the Town’, Ricardian Bulletin (September 2012). My ideas on Richard’s personal duel with Henry Tudor owe much to conversations with Cliff Davies and are also developed in Michael Jones, ‘The Myth of 1485: Did France Really Put Henry Tudor on the Throne?’, in The English Experience in France 1450–1558: War, Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange, ed. David Grummitt (Aldershot, 2002). The French mercenary’s account, written at Leicester on 23 August 1485, is from Jones, Bosworth 1485, and my views on the battle have been modified by the important archaeological finds summarized in Glenn Foard, ‘Bosworth Uncovered’, in BBC History Magazine, 11 (2010). On Richard’s courage, and his final moments in battle, the provisional ideas of Bob Woosnam-Savage are from ‘The Violent Death of the King in the Car Park’, a talk given at the Royal Armouries, Leeds, on 27 March 2013. For another who may have struck Richard in those final, terrible moments: Raymond Skinner, ‘Thomas Woodshawe, “Grassiour” and Regicide’, Ricardian, IX (1993). Rhys ap Thomas’s duel with Richard is recounted in the seventeenth-century family history: Ralph Griffiths, Sir Rhys ap Thomas and His Family: A Study in the Wars of the Roses and Early Tudor Politics (Cardiff, 1993). The history attributed Richard’s death to Rhys himself, but it was one of his followers who almost certainly killed him. For the praise poem: Edward Rees, A Life of Guto’r Glyn (Aberwystwyth, 2008). Information on the Rhys ap Thomas bed has been kindly provided by Sioned Williams, Curator of Furniture at the National History Museum, Cardiff.

  Chapter 11: The Man Behind the Myth

  For the story of Thomas Redeheid see Paul Murray Kendall, Richard III (London, 1973) p. 136. For Richard’s sense of humour: from Leicester Castle, on 18 August 1483, Richard sent an important letter to the French king, Louis XI. The letter was carried by Richard’s groom of the stable: ‘I pray that by my servant, this bearer, a groom of my stable, you will let me know in writing your full intention…’ Kendall, Richard III, pp. 255–6. For the letter to Chancellor Russell see Kendall, Richard III, p. 324. Kendall remarks on the generosity of the letter. For the full text of the poem see Andrew Breeze, ‘A Welsh Poem of 1485 on Richard III’, Ricardian, XVIII (2008), pp. 46–53. For analysis indicating the Tudor instigation behind it, see Annette Carson, ‘Dafydd Llwyd’s Poem’, Ricardian Bulletin, autumn 2008, pp. 35–49.

  Chapter 12: The Man and his Times

  William Bracher, yeoman of the crown, owed his promotion to royal service through informing Richard of the uprising in the West Country in 1483: Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1476–85, pp. 373, 390 (grants of lands and offices in Devon, Somerset and Dorset for ‘good service against the rebels’). Catesby’s role as agent of Richard III in Brittany was crucial in precipitating Henry Tudor’s flight from the duchy at the end of September 1484: Cliff Davies, ‘Richard III, Brittany and Henry Tudor’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 37 (1993). For the revealing wording of Richard’s grant of an annuity to Saxton Church on 19 February 1484: Tim Sutherland and Armin Schmidt, ‘Towton 1461: An Integrated Approach to Battlefield Archaeology’, Landscapes, 4 (2003). For Thomas Gregory’s pride in his service ‘cum Henrico Septimo apud Bosworth Field’, in the earliest use of the actual battle name: the Shakespeare Centre (Birthplace Trust), DR10/1349, a deed of 26 October 1500. Henry VII’s first parliament is described in Cavill, English Parliaments. Material on the Stanley-Harrington dispute is drawn from Michael Jones, ‘Richard III and the Stanleys’, in Richard III and the North, ed. Horrox. For the political climate of the time see Paul Strohm, Politique: The Languages of Statecraft Between Chaucer and Shakespeare (Notre Dame, Indiana, 2005) and Grummitt, Short History of the Wars of the Roses. Thomas Barowe’s bequest is from Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, ‘Richard III and the University of Cambridge’, in Richard III and East Anglia, ed. Visser-Fuchs. On legitimacy and the Tudor claim to the throne: Michael Bennett, ‘Table Tittle-tattle and the Tudor View of History’, in People, Places and Perspectives: Essays on Later Medieval and Early Tudor England, ed. Keith Dockray and Peter Fleming (Stroud, 2005). For the de la Pole pedigree see Philip Morgan, ‘“Those Were the Days” – a Yorkist Pedigree Roll’, in Estrangement, Education and Enterprise in Fifteenth-Century England, ed. Sharon Michalove (Stroud, 1998). Cliff Davies, ‘Information, Disinformation and Political Knowledge under Henry VII and Early Henry VIII’, Historical Research, 85 (2012) provides an important reassessment of the Tudor view of history. Jane Sacheverell’s petition is in University of Nottingham Library, GB159 Mi5/168/23.

  Bibliography

  John Ashdown-Hill, Eleanor, The Secret Queen (Stroud, 2009)

  ——, The Last Days of Richard III (Stroud, 2010)

  David Baldwin, Richard III (Stroud, 2012)

  Michael Bennett, The Battle of Bosworth (Stroud, 1985)

  Annette Carson, Richard III: The Maligned King (Stroud, 2008)

  Paul Cavill, The English Parliaments of Henry VII (Oxford, 2009)

  Anne Crawford, The Yorkists: The History of a Dynasty (London, 2007) Sean Cunningham, Richard III: A Royal Enigma (London, 2003)

  ——, Henry VII (London, 2007)

  Keith Dockray, Richard III: A Source Book (Stroud, 1997)

  Bertram Fields, Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes (New York, 1998)

  Veronica Fiorato
et al., Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton (Oxford, 2007)

  Peter Foss, The Field of Redemore (Newtown Linford, 1998)

  John Gillingham (ed.), Richard III: A Medieval Kingship (London, 1993) Anthony Goodman, The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers’ Experience (Stroud, 2005)

  Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin and Michael Jones, The Women of the Cousins’ War: The Duchess, the Queen and the King’s Mother (London, 2013)

  Ralph Griffiths and James Sherborne (eds.), Kings and Nobles in the Later Middle Ages (Gloucester, 1986)

  Ralph Griffiths and Roger Thomas, The Making of the Tudor Dynasty (Stroud, 1985)

  Sarah Gristwood, Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses (London, 2012)

  David Grummitt, A Short History of the Wars of the Roses (London, 2013)

  Peter Hammond, Richard III and the Bosworth Campaign (Barnsley, 2010)

  Alison Hanham, Richard III and his Early Historians 1483–1535 (Oxford, 1975)

  Michael Hicks, False, Fleeting, Perjur’d Clarence (Stroud, 1980)

  ——, Richard III (Stroud, 2000)

  ——, The Prince in the Tower: The Short Life and Mysterious Death of Edward V (Stroud, 2007)

  David Hipshon, Richard III (London, 2011)

  Rosemary Horrox, Richard III: A Study in Service (Cambridge, 1989)

  ——, (ed.), Richard III and the North (Hull, 1986)

  Mike Ingram, Bosworth 1485 (Stroud, 2012)

  Michael Jones, Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle (Stroud, 2002)

  ——, Agincourt 1415: A Battlefield Guide (Barnsley, 2005)

  Michael Jones and Malcolm Underwood, The King’s Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby (Cambridge, 1992)

  Paul Murray Kendall, Richard III (London, 1955)

  Hannes Kleineke, Edward IV (London, 2008)

  Malcolm Mercer, The Medieval Gentry: Power, Leadership and Choice During the Wars of the Roses (London, 2010)

  James Petre (ed.), Richard III: Crown and People (Gloucester, 1985)

  Anthony Pollard, Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (Stroud, 1991)

  Jeremy Potter, Good King Richard? (London, 1983)

  Charles Ross, Edward IV (London, 1975)

  ——, Richard III (London, 1981)

  James Ross, John de Vere, Thirteenth Earl of Oxford (1442–1513): ‘The Foremost Man of the Kingdom’ (Woodbridge, 2011)

  David Santiuste, Edward IV and the Wars of the Roses (Barnsley, 2010)

  Anne Sutton and Peter Hammond (eds.), The Coronation of Richard III: the Extant Documents (Gloucester, 1983)

  Anne Sutton, Livia Visser-Fuchs and Peter Hammond, The Reburial of Richard Duke of York, 21–30 July 1476 (London, 1991)

  Anne Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books (Stroud, 1997)

  Livia Visser-Fuchs (ed.), Richard III and East Anglia: Magnates, Gilds and Learned Men (Stroud, 2010)

  Alison Weir, The Princes in the Tower (London, 1992)

  Josephine Wilkinson, Richard: The Young King to Be (Stroud, 2009)

  Ken Wright, The Field of Bosworth 1485 (Leicester, 2002)

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Act of Accord

  Addison, Heidi

  Agincourt, Battle of

  Aitken, Janice

  Albany, Duke of

  Alexander the Great

  Ambien Hill

  André, Bernard

  Anjou, Margaret of

  Appleby, Dr Jo

  Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment (DBA)

  Archaeological Institute, University College London

  Archaeology: battle

  Argentine, John

  armour

  Arrivall, The

  Arthur of Brittany

  Arundel, Earl of

  Ashdown-Hill, Dr John; The Last Days of Richard III

  Ashfordby, Thomas Gregory of

  Astill, Paul

  Atherstone

  Atterton, parish of

  Baker, Steve

  Barnard Castle

  Barnet, Battle of

  Barowe, Thomas

  Basin, Thomas

  Bateson, Sir Thomas

  Bath and Wells, Bishop of

  Bawdry

  Baynard’s Castle

  BBC

  Beaufort, Cardinal

  Beaufort, Edmund, Duke of Somerset

  Beaufort, Lady Margaret

  Bedford, George Neville, Duke of

  Beja, Duke of (later Manuel I)

  Belgium

  Berkeley, William, Lord

  Berkhamsted

  Bermondsey Abbey

  Berwick: recapture of

  Berwick Castle

  Beverley, William

  Bierbrier, Morris

  Blisworth, Roger Wake of

  Blore Heath, Battle of

  Bolingbroke, Henry

  Bologna

  Boon, Dr Julian

  Bord, Dr Raymond

  Bosworth : Psychology of a Battle (book); see also Jones, Michael

  Bosworth, Battle of

  Bourchier, Thomas

  Bow Bridge

  Bowers, Mick

  Bracher, John

  Brackenbury family

  Brackenbury, Sir Robert

  Brandon, Charles

  Brandon, Sir William

  Brecon

  Brittany, Arthur of

  Brittany, duchy of

  Brittany, Francis, Duke of

  Britten, Nick

  Brooks, Colin

  Buck, Sir George; History of King Richard III

  Buckingham, Anne Neville, Duchess of

  Buckingham, Henry, Duke of

  Buckley, Richard

  Burgundy

  Burgundy, Charles, Duke of

  Burgundy, Margaret, Dowager Duchess of

  Burntoft, John Randson of

  Caerleon, Lewis

  Calais

  Calais Castle

  Cambridge University: King’s College; Queens’ College

  Camden, William

  Canterbury, Archbishop of

  Capwell, Dr Tobias

  carbon-14 dating

  Carmeliano, Pietro

  Carroll, Pauline

  Carson, Annette: Richard III: The Maligned King

  Cassidy, Ted

  Cassiman, Jean-Jacques

  Castle Rising

  Catesby, William

  Catholic religion

  Cely, George

  Centre for Human Genetics, University of Leuven

  Chandée, Philibert de

  Channel

  Charles II: reign

  Charles VII

  Charles VIII

  Charles the Bold

  Chastel, Guillaume du

  Cheney, Sir John

  Chertsey Abbey

  Cheshire

  Chester

  chivalry: warrior code of

  Christ Church

  Church of the Annunciation

  Church of the Greyfriars see Greyfriars

  Church

  Church law

  Churchill, Winston

  Clair, Piara Singh

  Clarence, George, Duke of

  Clarence, Lionel, Duke of

  Claxton, Sir Robert

  Cobham, Eleanor, Duchess of

  Gloucester

  Colchester, Richard Fox of

  Coldharbour, London house of

  College of Arms, London

  Colonna, Aegidius: De Regimine Principum

  Commynes, Philippe de

  Cooper, Nick

  Corbet, Sir Richard

  Cornwall, Richard of

  Coventry

  Coward, Jon

  Cramond Inn

  Crown Hill

  Croyland Chronicle
/>
  Dadlington Field

  Daily Telegraph

  Darlington

  Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP)

  Dartford

  deoxyribonucleic acid see DNA

  Derbyshire

  Desk-based Assessment, Archaeological (DBA)

  Desmond, Earl of

  Devon

  diet: results of stable isotope analysis

  DNA: hapoltype J; mitochondrial; Richard III’s; Joy Ibsen’s; contamination of; Michael Ibsen’s; ancient; analysis; in determining hair and eye colour

  Dokett, John

  Doncaster

  Dorset, Thomas, Marquis of

  Drayton, Michael

  Dublin Castle

  Dudley, William, Bishop of Durham

  Dudley, Lord

  Duncan Jordanstone College of Art and Design (University of Dundee)

  Dunnesmore

  Durham: bishopric of

  Durham Cathedral

  Durham, County

  Dymmock, Andrew

  East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit

  Eboracum see York

  Edgecote, Battle of

  Edinburgh

  Edward III

  Edward IV: marriage to Elizabeth Woodville; death; as Earl of March; buried at Windsor; bastardy of; sons Daughters; see also Princes in the Tower

  Edward the Confessor

  Edward V

  Edward, Prince of Wales

  Elizabeth I

  Elizabeth R (TV series)

  Ely, Bishop of

  Englezo, Lambis

  English Historical Review,

  Environmental Research Centre, University of Glasgow

  Estates, Three

  Exeter

  Exeter, Henry, Duke of

  exhumation licence

  Farnaby, Simon

  Fasland, Jacob

  Fastolf, Sir John

  Faull, Very Reverend Vivienne

  Fenny Drayton

  Fiddler, Dr Christine

  Finding the Lost Battalions (film),

  FitzGerald, John, Earl of Desmond

  Fitzherbert, Ralph