Now, I have always had a fascination for the story of Richard III, the man who made a power grab for the throne in 1483 and along the way may have murdered his two nephews, and sundry other people, including a brother and close political allies.
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| Richard III, circa 1520 |
This is less because I am fixated by the history of kings and queens, but because from a very early age it offered up a set of mysteries, and challenges to conventional history.
More so because of the suggestion that here was a late Medievial King who was villified by the dark arts of his Tudor successors.
The counter story caught the imagination of a fourteen year old, and was matured by academic biographies, and that excellent novel, "The Daughter of Time", by Josephine Tey.*
So I shall be listening to Finding Richard III from that excellent Radio 4 series, The Reunion.**
And today "Kirsty Wark reunites the archaeologists, scientists, a religious leader and a distant relative involved in the remarkable search for, identification, and reburial of the last Plantagenet king.
Richard III was the last English king to die in battle and the first to have his genome sequenced. The discovery and identification of his remains is one of the greatest archaeological detective stories ever told.
After his death on Bosworth Battle Field in 1485, Richard's body was hastily buried in a Friary in Leicester. But over the years, rumours spread that his bones had been dug up and flung into a nearby river.
Others believed that his body could still be in its original burial place, now under a council car park. Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society wanted to know for sure.
The dig started on 25th August 2012 and, within hours, bones had been found. Dr Richard Buckley lead the University of Leicester's archaeological team and confesses that no-one really believed they would find him. But as osteologist Dr Jo Appleby uncovered more of the remains, she discovered he had a curved spine and serious head wounds.
Richard III and Ann Neville, 1483
More research was needed to be sure they had got their man. Professor Turi King, an expert in DNA, and Jo Appleby explain the painstaking process to identify the remains and to match the DNA with relative Michael Ibsen, and how they found out more about the way the King lived.
David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester, became embroiled in a legal battle over where the remains should be re-interred – York or Leicester – as some distant relatives of the King challenged how the University had looked after the remains.
As well as giving a DNA sample, Michael Ibsen was also a carpenter and reveals how he ended up making his first ever coffin – fit for a medieval king.
Historian and writer Thomas Penn explains the impact of this momentous discovery on our understanding of history and of the man himself.
Producer: Karen Pirie
Series Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4"**
Pictures; Portrait of Richard III of England, painted c. 1520, after a lost original, for the Paston family, owned by the Society of Antiquaries, London, since 1828, source Richard III Society website via English Wikipedia and detail from the Rous Roll showing King Richard III in the centre with his wife Anne Neville on the left and his son Edward, Prince of Wales on the right. Showing his various heraldic crests and his white boar badge, with the Warwick bear of his wife, 1483, digitized image, Add MS 48976, British Library, John Rous
*The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, 1951
**Finding Richard III, The Reunion, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000tvgf
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