The Last Days of Richard III and the fate of his DNA
THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE DIG
The Last Days of Richard III and the fate of his DNA
John Ashdown–Hill
In memory of Joy Ibsen,
Richard III’s niece in the sixteenth generation,
without whose help the final chapters could not have been written.
Duérmete, rosal, Sleep, my rose,
que el caballo se pone a llorar. for the horse is starting to weep.
Las patas heridas, Hooves wounded,
las crines heladas, mane frozen,
dentro de los ojos a silver dagger
un puñal de plata. in his eyes.
Bajaban al río. Down they went to the river.
¡Ay, cómo bajaban! Oh, how they went down!
La sangre corría The blood was flowing
más fuerte que el agua. faster than the water.
Federico García Lorca, Bodas de Sangre [Blood Wedding] act 1, scene 2
(translation J. Ashdown-Hill)
‘… the truth is that those of us who were alive then never knew what really happened’
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, p. 129
Front: Richard III Paston Portrait © Society of Antiquaries of London
First published in 2010
Second edition published in 2013
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved
© John Ashdown-Hill, 2010, 2011, 2013
The right of John Ashdown-Hill, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9866 9
Original typesetting by The History Press
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
1
‘Your Beloved Consort’
2
‘It Suits the King of England to Marry Straight Away’
3
‘Tapettes of Verdoures with Crownes and Rooses’
4
Tombs of Saints and Queens
5
‘Þe Castel of Care’
6
Bucks at Bestwood
7
Crossing the River
8
‘He has now Departed from Amongst the Living’
9
‘A Sorry Spectacle’
10
The Franciscan Priory
11
‘King Richard’s Tombe’
12
‘Here Lies the Body’
13
‘The Honour of a King’
14
Richard III’s Genes part I – the Fifteenth Century and Before
15
Richard III’s Genes part II – the mtDNA Line
16
The Future of Richard III
Appendix 1
Richard III’s Itinerary for 1485
Appendix 2
Calendar for 1485 (March to August)
Appendix 3
Approximate Timetable for Monday 22 August 1485
Appendix 4
John Speede’s Account of the Burial of Richard III
Appendix 5
DNA evidence relating to the putative remains of Margaret of York preserved in Mechelen, Belgium
Appendix 6
Richard III’s Epitaph
Notes
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Illustrations not otherwise attributed are the property of the author.
1. The royal family in 1484: Queen Anne Neville, King Richard III, and Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales. Engraving of 1844, after the Rous Roll.
2. Queen Anne Neville’s grave was originally marked by a brass memorial in the Abbey Church at Westminster. This lost monument – the only brass memorial to a queen in England – may once have carried a figure similar to that shown in one version of the contemporary Rous Roll.
3. Nowadays Anne’s place of burial is marked only by a plaque with this modern brass shield displaying her coat of arms.
4. The Gatehouse of the Priory of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitaller), Clerkenwell. Richard III came here on Wednesday 30 March 1485, possibly to perform the royal ritual of touching for the ‘King’s Evil’, and issued a public denial of rumours that he planned to marry his illegitimate niece, Elizabeth of York.
5. The seal of Richard III’s nephew, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. (© Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service)
6. Richard III’s nephew, Edward of Clarence, Earl of Warwick. Engraving of 1859, after the Rous Roll.
7. Richard III’s nieces (the four eldest surviving daughters of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville): Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne and Catherine. Fifteenth-century stained glass from Little Malvern Priory, Worcs. (© Geoffrey Wheeler). Unlike the figures from the Royal Window at Canterbury (which have been heavily restored), these are authentic contemporary representations of Richard III’s nieces.
8. Copy of Richard III’s earliest surviving portrait. © The Dean and Chapter of Leicester.
9. Richard III’s preferred prospective bride, Infanta Joana of Portugal (© Geoffrey Wheeler). Redrawn from the portrait attributed to Nuño Gonçalves in the Museu de Aveiro.
10. Richard III’s alternative prospective bride, Infanta Isabel of Spain (© Geoffrey Wheeler). Redrawn from ‘Our Lady of Grace with the family of the Catholic Monarchs’, painting of c. 1485, the Cistercian Monastery, Burgos.
11. Henry VI as a saint, from the fifteenth-century rood screen, Eye church, Suffolk.
12. A medieval Corpus Christi procession: a bishop, walking beneath a canopy, carries the Host in a monstrance.
13. & 14. Courtyard of St Mary’s Guildhall, Coventry, showing the northwest view and south-east view. Richard III probably stayed at the Guildhall while attending the Coventry Corpus Christi celebrations in June 1485. (© Robert Orland)
15. Kenilworth Castle, where Richard III stayed in May–June 1485. Engraving of 1829.
16. The approach to the hunting lodge, Bestwood Park (Sherwood Forest), where Richard III stayed for about a week in mid-August 1485. (© John Beres)
17. Deer were probably Richard III’s quarry at Bestwood Park. Fifteenth-century wood carving from the Guildhall, Eye, Suffolk.
18. The outer wall and gateway of Nottingham Castle where Richard III stayed from late June to August 1485. (© Anne Ayres. Image courtesy of the Richard III Society Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Group)
19. The old Blue (White?) Boar Inn, Leicester, where Richard III reportedly spent the night of 20–21 August 1485. Engraving of 1788.
20. The supposed bed of Richard III from the Blue (White?) Boar Inn, Leicester, now displayed at Donington-le-Heath Manor House. Despite its Ricardian attribution, this bed, as now preserved, appears s
ignificantly later in date. (© Sally Henshaw. Image courtesy of the Richard III Society East Midlands Branch)
21. Chair from Coughton Court, Warwickshire, reputed to be made of wood from Richard III’s camp bed. (© NT/Simon Pickering)
22. Old Bow Bridge, Leicester. Engraving of 1861.
23. The author’s tentative reconstruction of the Leicester Greyfriars church, seen from the north, in the fifteenth century.
24. Tracery from a choir window of the Leicester Greyfriars church, discovered in August 2012. The tracery comes from a window similar to those shown in plate 23.
25. Alabaster tomb effigy of Richard III’s brother-in-law, John de la Pole. Duke of Suffolk, Wingfield Church, Suffolk, c. 1495. Richard III’s tomb of 1494–95 at the Leicester Greyfriars was probably very similar in appearance.
26. Richard III’s epitaph from Sir Thomas Wriothesley’s manuscript of c. 1510, BL, Add. MS 45131, f. 10v. (© British Library)
27. Richard III’s epitaph from Thomas Hawley’s manuscript of c. 1535, College of Arms, MS I 3, f. 4. (© College of Arms)
28. John Speede’s mistake as revealed by his plan of Leicester – proof of his unreliability regarding Richard III’s gravesite.
29. Opening Trench One at the start of the excavation of Greyfriars car park in Leicester, which occupies the site of the former Greyfriars church. The white rectangle marks the site where Richard III’s grave was discovered.
30. Engraving of the monument to Richard III’s sister, Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter, and her second husband, in St George’s Chapel, Windsor. The female-line descendants of this couple have preserved the mitochondrial DNA of Edward IV and Richard III into the twenty-first century.
31. Portrait in oils of Barbara Spooner (Mrs William Wilberforce) after the pastel portrait by John Russell. Barbara was Richard III’s niece in the twelfth generation. (Private collection, reproduced by courtesy of the owner)
32. Alice Strettell (Comyns Carr), at the age of twenty-three. Alice was Richard III’s niece in the fourteenth generation, the wife of an Edwardian theatre producer, a friend of Dame Ellen Terry and goddaughter of the author, Charles Kingsley. Photograph taken in 1873, at the time of her marriage.
33. Alice Strettell’s only daughter, Dorothy (‘Dolly’) Comyns Carr, at the age of three. Dolly was Richard III’s niece in the fifteenth generation. Photograph of a sketch by E.A. Abbey, published in Mrs J. Comyns Carr’s Reminiscences, 1925.
34. Alma Strettell (Harrison), Richard III’s niece in the fourteenth generation. Photograph of the portrait by John Singer Sargent published in Mrs J. Comyns Carr’s Reminiscences, 1925. Alma was a writer, a friend of the artists Sargent and Burne Jones, and a close friend of Queen Elisabeth of Romania.
35. Alma Strettell’s younger daughter, Sylvia Harrison, Richard III’s niece in the fifteenth generation. Photograph of the portrait by John Singer Sargent published in Mrs J. Comyns Carr’s Reminiscences, 1925.
36. Alma Strettell’s elder daughter, Margaret Harrison (Nowell; Armstrong), Richard III’s niece in the fifteenth generation. Photograph courtesy of Margaret’s granddaughter, Anna Lee Frohlich.
37. Charlotte Vansittart Neale (Mrs Frere), Richard III’s niece in the thirteenth generation, and niece of Barbara Spooner (Wilberforce). (Photograph courtesy of Mrs J. Ibsen)
38. Charlotte Vansittart Frere (Mrs Stokes), Richard III’s niece in the fourteenth generation. (Photograph courtesy of Mrs J. Ibsen)
39. Muriel Stokes (Mrs Brown), Richard III’s niece in the fifteenth generation. (Photograph courtesy of Jeff Ibsen)
40. Joy Brown (Mrs Ibsen), direct descendant in the sixteenth generation (and in an all-female line) of Richard III’s sister, Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter. (Photograph courtesy of Mrs J. Ibsen)
41. A tentative plan of the Franciscan Priory in Leicester, based on the excavations of August 2012, and on plans of similar priories. ‘X’ marks the site of Richard III’s grave.
42. Richard III’s grave, showing the position in which his body was found. The feet were missing, due to nineteenth-century trenching. The skeleton in this photograph is not the original.
43. Facial reconstruction, based upon Richard III’s skull.
Illustrations in the Text
FAMILY TREE 1: The heirs of the house of Lancaster (simplified)
MAP 1: The Battle of Bosworth
IMAGE 1: Conjectural reconstruction of Herrick’s pillar, based on an architectural engraving of 1596
FAMILY TREE 2: The female line of descent from Catherine de Roët to Joy Brown (Ibsen)
FAMILY TREE 3: The Chaucer connection
FAMILY TREE 4: The first six generations of Anne of York’s line of descent
FAMILY TREE 5: The line of Barbaras
FAMILY TREE 6: The Wilberforce connection
FAMILY TREE 7: The Strettell connection
FAMILY TREE 8: The Plantagenet Y-chromosome
FAMILY TREE 9: The mtDNA family tree of the ‘princes in the Tower’ (simplified)
TABLE 1: The mtDNA sequence of Richard III and his siblings
TABLE 2: DNA test results on the Belgian bones
Introduction
There have been innumerable books about Richard III, but this one is unique because it combines the true story of the last five months of Richard’s life with the true story of the fate of the king’s body and DNA after his death.
First and foremost, my study focuses upon a detailed exploration of the last 150 days of the life and reign of England’s most controversial king, examining in detail what Richard did from Friday 25 March 1485 (the first day of the medieval English New Year) up to Monday 22 August that same year. It also considers what thoughts may have preoccupied Richard during those last five months of his life.
It is surely a great mistake – almost bound to lead to errors – to view historical events in the light of hindsight. Yet most accounts of Richard III have been greatly overshadowed by the Battle of Bosworth – an event of which Richard himself never heard. The fact of that final battle cannot, of course, be ignored – but neither should Richard’s unawareness of it. Therefore, this book deliberately seeks to see things as they might have appeared to contemporaries, most of whom must simply have assumed, at the beginning of 1485, that Richard III still had many years of life and reign ahead of him.
It then becomes clear that Richard himself also assumed that he would continue to reign victoriously. Despite the gloomy view presented by previous writers, during what we now know to have been the last months of his life the king was not simply winding down and waiting for his cousin, known as Henry ‘Tudor’, to come and defeat him.1 On the contrary, he was preoccupied with ordinary events and activities, with his own day-to-day life, and with the proper government of his country. At the same time he was also busy with important plans for the future – real plans at the time – even though ultimately destined to come to nothing.
This study also consciously seeks to avoid overshadowing Richard’s actions with reports of the doings of his rival, the so-called Henry ‘Tudor’. Since the latter was ultimately victorious (with the result that he and his supporters were around subsequently to talk to early historians), it is unfortunately the case that most previous books about Richard III actually tell us more about what the future Henry VII was doing between March and August 1485. By contrast, this book concentrates on Richard’s activities.
In order to establish the context for some of the important happenings and concerns of those last 150 days, the account actually opens about ten days earlier, thus encompassing the sickness and death of Richard’s consort, Queen Anne Neville. It also glances back even further, to the death of Richard’s only legitimate son and heir, Edward of Middleham, thereby setting in context the problem of the succession, which was unquestionably one of the principal concerns occupying Richard’s mind during those last few months of his life.
But this book also differs from every other book on Richard III in another respect. Its story does not simply end o
n Monday 22 August with Richard’s death. The second part of this study goes on to cut through five centuries of persistent mythology and recount the true fate of Richard’s body.
First, we examine the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Bosworth: how Richard’s dead body was transported back to Leicester, placed on public view, and subsequently buried in the choir of the Franciscan Priory Church. New insights into the handling of the corpse are offered, based upon a careful consideration of the most contemporary accounts available, and informed by the recorded treatment of the remains of other vanquished leaders, both in England and elsewhere in Europe, at about this period. Detailed evidence of Richard’s burial is drawn from the recent excavations on the Greyfriars site in Leicester – an archaeological project which was principally inspired by the first edition of this very book.
We also examine the subsequent commemoration of Richard’s burial in Leicester. We trace the erection, about ten years after Richard’s death, of his alabaster tomb – exploring when, why and by whom this monument was constructed, and what subsequently became of it. As a result, a new and more subtle interpretation of Henry VII’s attitude to his predecessor emerges. Then we look at the post-Dissolution monument, which was erected in Richard’s honour, and on his grave site, by a former mayor of Leicester after the Greyfriars church had been destroyed.
Finally, the reader is taken on into totally new territory, exploring the ultimate fate of Richard III’s mortal remains, and revealing the fascinating story of how his DNA was found by the author, alive and well, and living in Canada. The penultimate chapter recounts the fascinating history of that key all-female line of descent, which permitted DNA evidence to be used to confirm the identity of the body excavated from the now-famous Greyfriars car park in Leicester.
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