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Dramatic Development: Human Remains Discovered In Search For King Richard III
Credit:
University of Leicester
The search, which has entered a third week, has uncovered evidence of human remains – the first time in the search that this is disclosed.
The University of Leicester is leading the archaeological search for the burial place of King Richard III with Leicester City Council, in association with the Richard III Society.
Over the past two weeks, the team has made major discoveries about the heritage of Leicester by:
determining the site of the site of the medieval Franciscan friary known as Grey Friars;
finding the eastern cloister walk and chapter house;
locating the site of the church within the friary;
uncovering the lost garden of former Mayor of Leicester, Alderman Robert Herrick;
revealing medieval finds that include inlaid floor tiles from the cloister walk of the friary, paving stones from the Herrick garden, window tracery, elements of the stained glass windows of the church and artifacts including, amongst others, a medieval silver penny and a stone frieze believed to be from the choir stalls
The search team, popularly dubbed the Time Tomb Team, has now excavated the choir of the Grey Friars church – believed to be where King Richard III was buried – and has made some stunning discoveries. The dig is being filmed by Darlow Smithson Productions for a forthcoming Channel 4 documentary to be aired later this year.
Richard Taylor, Director of Corporate Affairs at the University of Leicester and one of the prime movers behind the project, said: “What we have uncovered is truly remarkable and today (Wednesday September 12) we will be announcing to the world that the search for King Richard III has taken a dramatic new turn.”
Leicester’s City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “This discovery adds a whole new dimension to a search which has already far exceeded our expectations. This is exciting news and I know that people across the world will be waiting to hear more about the University’s find.”
Philippa Langley from the Richard III Society said: “We came with a dream and if the dream becomes reality it will be nothing short of miraculous.”
child of Richard, third duke of York (1411-1460), and Cecily, duchess of York
(1415-1495). In December 1460, when Richard was only eight, his father and an
elder brother, Edmund, were killed at the battle of Wakefield. Earlier the duke
of York had successfully persuaded Parliament of his claim to the throne
of England in preference to the Lancastrian heir.
put Richard’s popular eldest brother on the throne as King Edward IV.
many of his young years at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire training for
knighthood under the tutelage of his cousin Richard Neville, earl of Warwick.
But Warwick in later years grew resentful of Edward IV and raised forces
to wrest the crown from him. Undaunted, Edward recaptured the throne with
crushing victories over Warwick and his French allies at Barnet (14 April
1471) and Tewkesbury (4 May 1471). The 18 year old Richard fought valiantly at
both battles and was singled out for special commendation.
the king appointed him governor of the north of England. In about 1472 Richard
married Anne Neville, Warwick’s younger daughter. From the former Neville
stronghold of Middleham Castle in Wensleydale, Richard established a
reputation for justice and piety which strongly attracted the loyalty of the northern
gentry and the City of York.
resulting in the recapture of the vital border fortress of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
But tragedy followed on the heels of Richard’s triumph – within months he was
thrown into the political turmoil that followed the death of Edward IV on 9
April 1483.
owing to his having contracted two secret marriages, the second one, which produced
the children being bigamous, Richard was petitioned by the representatives of Parliament
to assume the throne as rightful heir. Richard accepted on 26 June and was crowned
at Westminster Abbey on 6 July 1483.
a rebellion with the intention ofreversing this decision and restoring the
succession to his two sons, now residing in the royal apartments at the Tower
of London (the so-called Princes in the Tower). In September a rumour was
spread to the effect that the princes had been killed, inducing the rebel
forces to turn for leadership to the exiled Lancastrian pretender, Henry Tudor.
Richard’s royal forces comprehensively quashed the rebellion by early November
1483.
Richard introduced laws and improved justice for the people in ways which are
still recognised as progressive and enlightened. Meanwhile the rebel Henry Tudor,
in the pay of the hostile French government, was being equipped with money and
men to invade and destabilize England. When the two sides met at the battle of
Bosworth on 22 August 1485, Richard died fighting heroically in the thickest press
of his enemies. He was the last English king to be killed in battle and his
demise was followed by the reigns of the infamous Tudor kings Henry VII
and Henry VIII.
portrayal of King Richard III depicts a monster: murderous, brutal, unscrupulous
and without conscience. More than a century after Richard’sdeath, the
playwright conjured up a tyrant who coveted the crown from an early age
andmercilessly destroyed anyone who stood in his way. Shakespeare’s dramatic
genius created acharacter who is imprinted in our national psyche, yet this
image of Richard would have beentotally unrecognisable to anyone who lived
during his lifetime.
himself and the sources he relied on.Neither Shakespeare nor his sources had
any first-hand knowledge of the 15th-century king.They simply recounted and
embellished the defamatory stories that circulated among his opponents and
were fostered by the Tudors who defeated him.
16th century was the accusation thatRichard III murdered the sons of Edward IV.
The (unsubstantiated) rumour of their death was initially reported as being
spread, at a critical juncture, among the rebels whose aim was torestore them
to the succession; if true, it required an alternative candidate to be
urgently sought. At this point Henry Tudor stepped forward at what might be
described as a convenient moment in an otherwise floundering career.
contemporary reports of varying reliability, is that some time in 1483 the
princes were no longer seen at the Tower of London, resulting in
speculation as to their fate.
obviousprecaution when rebellion was brewing, some doubt must accrue to the Tudor
story that theywere murdered inside the Tower, no matter how touchingly
portrayed in Victorian paintingsand enthusiastically repeated by some Tower
tourist guides.
Shakespeare’s affecting scenes ofmurderers smothering them in
their beds seem to derive from a single item of Tudor-eraliterature,
written perhaps 40 years after the supposed event, which was reproduced in
avariety of popular ‘histories’ in the reigns of Edward VI, Mary I and
Elizabeth I.
elsewhere seems to have underlain the appearance, after Richard’s death, of
teenaged pretenders to challenge Tudor rule – the most successful
claiming to be the younger of the missing princes. The Tudor claim that
their murderer had confessed put an immediate stop to all this, although no
record of any such confession has been found, nor of the alleged murderer’s
named confederates beingprosecuted, nor of the burial place of the boys being discovered. No matter how impressivelycircumstantial these stories, there is no
shred of evidence behind them. The fate of the princesremains a mystery to this
day.
encouragement of the exciting newtechnology of printing that publishers of the
tales used by Shakespeare were able to printmultiple copies of any tract,
however scurrilous. By contrast, in Richard’s day any writtenmaterial had
to be laboriously copied by hand, thus records were few and easily destroyed.
Asa result, modern attempts to uncover the truth are bedevilled by a lack of
reliable, unbiaseddocuments. Yet a detailed examination of Richard’s
actions, both personal and political,reveals that much of what we think we know
about this maligned monarch suffers from misinformation.
and to ensure that it was madeavailable to all ranks of society. His first act
as king was to summon his judges and commandthat justice be administered
impartially and without prejudice or corruption. In December1483 he initiated
the Court of Requests, a system of legal aid which enabled those who couldnot
afford representation to have their grievances heard.
rudimentary bond system so thatit provided the same protections on arrest that
we enjoy today as bail – a measure grantingconditional freedom until conviction,
designed to allow the accused to protect himself and hisfamily against many widespread
abuses such as the unlawful seizure of his property in hisabsence. Richard
also introduced the use of English in many contexts, including his courts
oflaw, where previously French and Latin were the official languages.During his
life Richard forged extremely close links with the neglected and unruly north
ofEngland, both as duke of Gloucester and later as king.
of Middlehamand Barnard Castle to collegiate status, championed the interests
of the City of York, foundedthe Council of the North, and planned a large
chantry chapel in York Minster consisting of100 priests. His retaliatory
raids into Scotland, which culminated in the successful campaignof 1482, were
welcomed by people in border villages who had suffered at the hands
of theScottish Border Reivers.
was received with great sadnessby many whose lives had been improved,
especially in the north. The council minutes ofYork’s mayor and aldermen record
that King Richard, late mercifully reigning over us, wasthrough
great treason … piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this
city.Afew days later these same men commemorated King Richard as the
most famous prince of blessed memory.
2012-09-12 00:41:17
Source: http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.com/2012/09/dramatic-development-human-remains.html
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