The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds (18 page)

On 22 June Richard’s own claim to the throne was publicly proclaimed in a sermon by Ralph Shaw at St Paul’s Cross. Shaw stressed that Richard – far smaller in stature than his brother Edward – most clearly resembled his father, Richard, Duke of York and was his only true heir. The bastardy of Edward IV was then alluded to; according to Mancini, Shaw said: ‘Edward was conceived in adultery, and in every way was unlike the late duke of York, whose son he was falsely said to be, but Richard, who altogether resembled his father, was to come to the throne as legitimate successor.’

Mancini believed that the disclosure of Cecily’s adultery was the real justification for Richard taking the throne. If so, it would mean putting the elderly duchess before an ecclesiastical examination, and although one later source confirmed that Cecily was willing to make such a deposition, this was something that Richard – who had stayed at his mother’s London residence of Baynard’s Castle during much of his Protectorate – was most reluctant to do. So the pre-contract issue was favoured instead. On 25 June Buckingham read out a petition to assembled lords and commoners at Westminster. It was later enrolled in the records of Richard’s parliament as the
Titulus Regius.
It began by attacking the corrupt influence exercised by the Woodvilles over Edward IVs government: ‘such as had the rule and governance of this land, delighting in adulation and flattery, and led by sensuality and greed, followed the counsel of persons insolent, vicious and of inordinate avarice.’ Richard had remained loyal to his brother, but the sense of alienation from Edward’s court, and the revulsion against his hedonistic lifestyle is here all too painfully apparent. The laws of the Church had been broken, the petition declaimed, and all justice set aside.

The petition then impugned the validity of Edward IV’s marriage. It had been done without the assent of the lords of the land, and through the practice of sorcery and witchcraft, both by Elizabeth and her mother Jacquetta. It had taken place in a private chamber, ‘a profane place’, rather than publicly in a church. And then the pre-contract issue was introduced. Because of this, Edward and Elizabeth had in fact been living in adultery, and their children were therefore bastards, and could not inherit the crown. Edward IV’s own bastardy was alluded to without being made explicit, Richard’s birth within the realm of England being praised, and finally the petition noted that because an act of attainder had been passed on Richard’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence, this also debarred Clarence’s offspring from inheriting. Clarence’s son and heir, Edward, Earl of Warwick, had been kept in the wardship of Thomas, Marquis of Dorset. Dorset had fled into sanctuary, and Richard now brought the boy up to London. But in contrast to the sons of Edward IV he was not imprisoned, instead being kept in the household of Richard’s wife, Anne Neville.

This was the potent mix of accusation, allegation and selfbelief that propelled Richard to the throne. The Tudors saw it as a web of fabrication, masking Richard’s cruel ambition to seize a crown never rightfully his. But in the powerful crucible of events in the summer of 1483 Richard was under serious threat. He quite possibly feared for his political future, and even for his own life. In these dramatic circumstances, Richard may genuinely have come to believe not only that taking the throne was the only way out of his difficulties, but a rightful claim was being presented to him by providence.

If this was so, the way Richard brought it into effect was undoubtedly as ruthless as others during this tumultuous era, including Henry Bolingbroke’s taking of the throne (as the future Henry IV) in 1399, his own father’s attempt to seize it in 1460 and his brother Edward’s regaining of it in 1471. It was a sign of the times. But Buckingham’s petition stunned many who heard it. Mancini related that there were some who believed that Richard had been overcome by ‘an insane lust for power’. And this tradition was drawn upon and amplified by the Tudor chroniclers. But others accepted the logic of realpolitik upon which it was based.

It was no longer desirable or safe to have a Woodville-dominated government. And although the
Croyland Chronicler
insinuated that the entire document had been drawn up by Richard in advance, its charges were not in fact without substance. Edward IV’s illegitimacy could not be entirely dismissed; the accusation had been made in 1469, and had featured in the act of attainder passed against Clarence in 1478. Edward was defensive about it. Tudor chroniclers glossed over this by saying that Richard chose to slander his mother, and that this was further proof of his wickedness. But if we follow the testimony of Mancini, Cecily herself was behind the revival of this issue in 1483.

The pre-contract matter brought up the deeply divisive issue of the Woodville marriage, which many of the English aristocracy had never been able to accept fully. According to the French chronicler Philippe de Commynes, Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was the real source for the revealing of the precontract, rather than it being conjured up by Richard, as the
Croyland Chronicler
imagined. When the
Titulus Regius
was overturned in the first parliament of Henry VII’s reign, it was clearly stated there that ‘it was Stillington’s bill’; in other words, that the bishop was behind the allegation. Parliament wished to question Stillington on the matter, but strikingly Henry, who had arrested the bishop in the aftermath of Bosworth, refused their request and instead gave Stillington a free pardon. It seemed that Henry, rather than seeking a chance to discredit Richard, was uncomfortable about what might be disclosed, and chose instead to let the matter pass.

While Buckingham was delivering the petition to an assembled audience at Westminster, Rivers, Grey and Vaughan were executed at Pontefract. The next day, 26 June, after formally receiving a further petition from lords and commons, Richard symbolically chose to occupy the king’s chair in the court of the King’s Bench at Westminster. He was now monarch and rightful heir of the Yorkist dynasty. The reign of Richard III had begun.

7

The Discovery of the Skeletal Remains

Day Eleven

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

I
T’S
7.45
A.M
. at the Social Services car park. A few clouds are floating around but it’s going to be another warm, sunny day. I’m introduced to Simon Farnaby, presenter of the Channel 4 TV documentary who, like me, is from Darlington and we rattle on about familiar places. It’s good to have this bond. Farnaby’s only prior knowledge of Richard III came from Shakespeare’s play so the research has been something of a revelation for him, but he’s up for the challenge to try to uncover the real Richard III.

I go across to say hello to Dr Jo Appleby, the osteologist who’ll be working with Dr Turi King on the exhumation. She’s young but Richard Buckley assures me her knowledge is top-notch. Carl Vivian from the university is filming again, which makes three cameras in the car park, including DSP’s new cameraman. I’m on edge. I don’t want the cameras here, yet I know they have to be to record whatever we find, but I can’t stop myself being anxious to protect these remains.

I phone Mick Bowers, Head of Greyfriars Property Services, and Luke Thompson in security because I want the blinds down at all the windows facing on to the site. While Mathew Morris and I put more tarpaulin over the fencing all the blinds are lowered; the gravesite is now protected from any visual intrusion. I walk over to the northern end of Trench One, and look down at the plastic sheeting poking through the earth that covers the remains. It’s a sad and vulnerable sight.

Turi King and Jo Appleby, clad in their white masks, suits and gloves, head towards me and Trench One. Meanwhile Richard Buckley is excited about Trench Three, telling me it’s full of finds and the team is enjoying excavating it. The western slot in Trench Three will be dug this morning to try to expose more of the grave cuts there, so it may get a bit noisy with the excavator. He asks me what I’ll be doing. I reply that I’ll be watching the exhumation; I’m not going anywhere else. He gives me his ‘Are you all right?’ look. I say I’m fine and I’ll enjoy sitting in the sunshine watching the girls do their stuff. He gives me a shoulder hug before sauntering off to Trench Three. I watch him go, this big bear of a man with such a big heart, and thank God that he agreed to come with me on this car park adventure.

I fetch another bucket from Morris’s van at Turi King’s request, then pull up a chair for myself from the gazebo. It’s going to be a long day. King and Appleby kneel in the earth below me and set to work. I take a deep, steadying breath; it’s 10.30 a.m.

The painstaking work of scraping away at each morsel of earth proceeds slowly, not helped by last night’s rain, which has made the soil dark, wet and sticky. The tiny tools they are using remind me of implements in children’s plasticine kits. King laughs at my remark and says they are exactly like that, but have been thoroughly sterilized to protect any DNA and avoid contamination. Appleby explains that the foot and hand bones are tiny and can be easily overlooked, so they must feel every small bump, every minute piece of soil before it goes into the buckets. They can’t afford to miss anything; the smallest piece could prove crucial in the lab analysis.

The top layer of earth has been removed. It doesn’t seem to have made much of a dent in the layers over the remains, yet the buckets have produced a large spoil heap beside me. As I lift the buckets to help, they are heavy, not only because the Leicester earth is thick clay with largish stones but also because a good part of the loads is rubble from the Victorian building work.

The late morning sun is creeping over the tarpaulin, and the girls are beginning to sweat. The western side of the slot, where the skull will be if it is a fully articulated skeleton, looks a little short. King chips away at it with her mattock, similar to a pickaxe, but it’s difficult in her protective gear. By lunchtime, when they down tools, she’s done most of it, leaving another great mound of earth, rocks and rubble on the burial site which will need checking this afternoon. If we’re looking at a complete set of remains, I can’t see how they’ll be ready to remove today. Neither can King and Appleby, but suggest that things may speed up in the afternoon.

There’s a buzz of news from Trench Three adjacent to us. The two grave cuts in the central flooring have been exposed further and it looks as if there is more flooring and what might be an internal wall. The Church of the Greyfriars is coming to life, slowly revealing its secrets. We in Trench One are the ‘also-rans’ in today’s news. We discuss the remains in our trench and agree that they should be taken out of this smashed-up place. The others think they’re unlikely to be of interest even if they do turn out to be a fully articulated set of bones and complete burial. I nod but say nothing. For the academics and scientists evidence is paramount.

After lunch, King and Appleby get back to work. Suited up again, they look like investigators at a crime scene, which I find somehow appropriate. As the only non-scientist/academic, I always seem to be quietly apologizing for my beliefs and intuitions. It’s an isolating thought. But then I look around. There is such a feeling of camaraderie and everyone is so excited by the dig that I realize we are a real team and I am part of it; in a sense it’s
my
team, after all.

King and Appleby are working almost directly below where I had my intuition and only a few feet from the letter ‘R’ that led me here. I haven’t felt that instinct since the first day when we exposed the bones. It was that sensation that began my quest for the king and has brought me to this moment. And now, after nearly four years of fighting, it’s all quiet – serene even. The excavator is silent, Richard Buckley and the film crew are all in Trench Three, the blinds are down in the windows all around, and I think how perfect it is. If these bones are Richard’s, his exhumation will be peaceful. And, I suddenly realize, carried out by women. I wonder what he would have thought of that.

The layers of earth are solid as the sun makes its way round the car park. The two women won’t manage to uncover the remains today but will get as much soil off the area as they can. Tomorrow Turi King will be in Switzerland at a conference so Jo Appleby will do the exhumation, with Mathew Morris overseeing it. As I try to contain my disappointment that we won’t exhume the remains on this perfect day and set-up, I hear clanking behind the tarpaulin. I investigate and see a ladder going up at a window; it’s a pest control company come to remove a wasps’ nest. I manage to persuade them to come back at the end of the week. If news of the exhumation gets out, any hope of it being peaceful will be lost.

At 4 p.m., while King and Appleby are recovering the lower leg bones to protect them and finishing up for the day, we hear about the discoveries in the new slot in Trench Three. They’ve found more flooring and tiles from what seems to be two levels, so a new medieval floor may have been put in at a later date. They also found what look like human bones, probably discovered by the Victorian builders and returned to a hollow dug into the ground, which the archaeologists call a charnel burial. From the street, the public could see the length of the trench but not into it so no fencing and tarpaulin were needed to shield the removal of the remains found in the charnel.

Simon Farnaby is filming as Leon Hunt works round the bones. Jo Appleby arrives, minus her
CSI
wear as Hunt has said that he thinks the remains are female so no DNA analysis will be needed to confirm if these are the remains of Richard III. After investigating the skull and pelvis, Appleby confirms that the remains are indeed female. I have only one female on the list of potential burials in the Greyfriars Church: Ellen, wife of Gilbert Luenor, a possible founder of the friary, who may have died about 1250. I look at the grave cuts. As man and wife, they would have been buried together, so is this Ellen? If not, who? There can’t be many single female burials in a priory church.

Mathew Morris brings a finds box, a simple brown rectangular cardboard container, long enough to fit a femur bone. It’s rather sad: mortal remains reduced to a cardboard box. Hunt asks how it’s going in Trench One, and I explain that the remains won’t be recovered today. Simon Farnaby asks me why I’m so fixated on them when there’s so much happening here, in Trench Three. I tell him briefly about my intuitive experience in 2005 and the ‘R’ on the tarmac: the reasons why I began this search in the first place. ‘Interesting one,’ he says. ‘Bonkers one,’ I reply. He laughs. ‘Sometimes bonkers is good. It got us here, didn’t it?’ I want to hug him for that.