The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds (38 page)

Chapter 2: The Great Debate

On Richard’s use of cavalry against Tudor, I am indebted to Richard Mackinder of the Bosworth Battlefield Centre and Tobias Capwell, Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection. My survey is derived primarily from the introduction to Charles Ross’s
Richard III,
Keith Dockray’s
Richard III
and David Hipshon’s
Richard III.
For a chivalric reading of the Richard’s final battle see Jones,
Bosworth 1485,
and Tim Thornton, ‘The Battle of Sandeford: Henry Tudor’s Understanding of the Meaning of Bosworth Field’,
Historical Research,
78 (2005). Such was the power of Tudor and Shakespearean propaganda that when a copy of the Act of Attainder against Clarence was found in the Tower archives in the late eighteenth century, the manuscript annotation of the discovery suggested that rather than being drawn up by Edward IV, ‘this instrument was formed by Richard duke of Gloucester’: University of Nottingham Archives: Me 2L2/12.

Chapter 3: So It Begins

Edward of Middleham’s investiture as Prince of Wales in York from
Berdern College Statute Book
p. 48. Translated by Peter Hammond and Anne Sutton. I have taken Richard’s interment in the Greyfriars Church in Leicester as being 25 August 1485 based on the accounts of Polydore Vergil and Diego de Valera and the will of William Catesby, dated 25 August 1485. The Exhumation Licence from the Ministry of Justice also applied this instruction to shield human remains from the public gaze for the protection of the public.

Chapter 4: Yearning for a Noble Cause: Richard’s Early Career

The document is Christie’s Lot 47/Sale 5960. For the chivalric dimension to York’s clash with Henry VI’s government see Michael Jones, ‘Somerset, York and the Wars of the Roses’,
English Historical Review,
104 (1989) and Mercer,
Medieval Gentry.
York’s solemn oath at St Paul’s Cathedral in March 1452 is recorded in Durham Cathedral Muniments, Register IV, f.92v. The significance of Richard’s experience at Ludlow in 1459 has rightly been emphasized in Wilkinson,
Richard.
On York claiming the throne see Michael Jones, ‘Edward IV, the Earl of Warwick and the Yorkist Claim to the Throne’,
Historical Research,
70 (1997). Keith Dockray and Richard Knowles, ‘The Battle of Wakefield’,
Ricardian,
9 (1992) give us the best account of the terrible death suffered by Richard, Duke of York, Richard’s father. For the suspicion of Warkworth’s Chronicle that Richard had executed Thomas Fauconberg after he had received a royal pardon see Richard Britnell, ‘Richard Duke of Gloucester and the Death of Thomas Fauconberg’,
Ricardian,
X (1995). For a different view, of Richard executing Lancastrians in the aftermath of Tewkesbury on the authority and orders of the king, see The National Archives (TNA), SC1/44/61 (4 July 1471). Richard’s expansion of retaining, in the aftermath of the settlement of the dispute between him and Clarence, is well described in Horrox,
Richard III: A Study in Service,
and Pollard,
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower.
Richard’s letter to William FitzWilliam is in Sheffield City Archives, WWM/D/98. Richard, Duke of York’s astonishing feat of arms on 20 July 1441 is recorded on Guillaume du Chastel’s tomb in the Abbey of Saint-Denis. The commission for the monument is from Honoré Champion,
Prigent de Coëtivy, Amiral et Bibliophile
(Paris, 1906). For the importance this would hold for his son Richard see Richard Firth Green, ‘An Epitaph for the Duke of York’,
Studies in Bibliography,
41 (1988). On Richard’s literary interests see Sutton and Visser-Fuchs,
Richard III’s Books.
For Richard and his brother Clarence acting in common cause against Edward IV’s foreign policy, and its perceived manipulation by the Woodvilles, see Michael Jones, ‘1477 – The Expedition that Never Was: Chivalric Expectation in Late Medieval England’,
Ricardian,
XII (2001). The important new evidence of Richard mass-recruiting retainers within weeks of Clarence’s arrest is recorded in Durham Cathedral Muniments, Halmote Court Rolls, 1476–7 (which I owe to Professor Pollard). Chunxiao Wei, ‘Richard Duke of Gloucester’s Petition, 1478, and the Fate of Clarence’,
Notes and Queries,
58 (2011) reminds us that Richard receiving a share of Clarence’s lands does not mean he was complicit in his death. On Richard’s arbitration awards see Pollard,
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower.
Richard and his brother Edward sometimes clashed over Richard’s aggressive stance over Scotland, particularly in 1474–5: Peter Booth, ‘Richard Duke of Gloucester and the West March towards Scotland, 1470–83’,
Northern History,
XXXVI (2000). But his resumption of aggressive raiding tactics late in the reign was highly praised and his conduct of the 1482 campaign a triumph. For an important reappraisal of the latter: Jackson Armstrong, ‘Local Society and the Defence of the Frontier in Fifteenth-Century Scotland: The War Measures of 1482’,
Florilegium,
25 (2008).

Chapter 5: The Discovery of the Church and the Location of the Nave

Thanks to Peter O’Donoghue, York Herald at the College of Arms, London, for supplying the artwork for Richard III’s banner and standard. In 2000, Ken Wallace discovered the Hallaton Treasure in Leicestershire, the largest hoard of Iron Age coins.

Chapter 6: Seizing the Throne

For the general outline of events see Charles Ross,
Richard III;
Pollard,
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower;
Cunningham,
Richard III;
and Hicks,
The Prince in the Tower.
John Gigur’s comments are from Colin Richmond, ‘A Letter of 19 April 1483 from John Gigur to William Wainfleet’,
Historical Research,
65 (1992). For Richard, Duke of York’s use of a reduced retinue of 300 men in 1450 see the letter of Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, recently discovered in Surrey County Record Office, LM/ COR/1/19, and discussed in Ralph Griffiths, ‘Richard, Duke of York, and the Crisis of Henry VI’s Household in 1450–51: Some Further Evidence’,
Journal of Medieval History,
38 (2012). A fresh insight into the politics of this period is offered in Carson,
Richard III.
For Richard’s genuine fear of witchcraft see John Leland, ‘Witchcraft and the Woodvilles: A Standard Medieval Smear?’ in
Reputation and Representation in Fifteenth-Century Europe,
ed. Douglas Biggs, Sharon Michalove and Albert Compton Reeves (Leiden, 2004); for his reaction to the sexual immorality of Edward IV’s court: David Santiuste, ‘“Puttyng Downe and Rebuking of Vices”: Richard III and the Proclamation for the Reform of Morals’, in
Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook,
ed. April Harper and Caroline Proctor (London, 2008). Cecily Neville’s well-deserved reputation for piety in her later life does not preclude the possibility of an indiscretion in her youth. The issue of an adultery hearing is echoed in the one book of Cecily’s she dispensed with before her death: Mary Dzon, ‘Cecily Neville and the Apocryphal
Infantia Salvatoris
in the Middle Ages’,
Medieval Studies,
71 (2009); and for the papal indulgence found in her coffin: Sofija Matich and Jennifer Alexander, ‘Creating and Recreating the Yorkist Tombs in Fotheringhay Church (Northamptonshire)’,
Church Monuments,
XXVI (2011).

Chapter 7: The Discovery of the Skeletal Remains

At the time of writing, the unidentified female remains discovered in the charnel in Trench Three would, after investigation, be reinterred in a nearby church in Leicester. For the physical description of Richard see Chapter 8. Information on the former grammar school building in Leicester from Leon Hunt,
Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment for Land at Greyfriars, St Martin
s
(NGR: SK 585 043),
ULAS, 12 April 2013, commissioned by Philippa Langley for the Looking for Richard project. The 10,000-square-foot neo-gothic building was built as Alderman Newton’s School in 1864 and extended in 1887 and 1897. In 1979 the buildings became Leicester Grammar School. See also I.A.W. Place,
The History of Alderman Newton’s Boys School, 1836–1914,
University of Leicester (1960). In December 2012 Leicester City Council announced its purchase of the former grammar school for £850,000:
Leicester Mercury,
Monday, 3 December 2012. It seems that the sarcophagus found in Trench Three had been located on the Ground Penetrating Radar Survey. Its shape is clearly marked in the central area of the former grammar school car park: Robbie Austrums,
Geophysical Survey Report, Greyfriars Church, Leicester, for Philippa Langley,
Stratascan, September 2011. On 1 April 2013 it was announced that a four-week dig would take place at the Greyfriars site, Leicester in July 2013. The dig will now be part of the city council’s continuing work on the new Richard III Visitor Centre that is due to open in spring 2014 in the former grammar school building. The work is to be undertaken by Richard Buckley and the team at ULAS who hope to uncover much more about the Greyfriars Church and its buildings.

Chapter 8: Richard as King

For Richard, Howard and Berkeley see Hicks,
The Prince in the Tower.
On the coronation: Sutton and Hammond,
Coronation of Richard III.
The witness list is Berkeley Castle Muniments (BCM)/A/5/5/2. On Richard’s kingship see Charles Ross,
Richard III;
Pollard,
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower;
Hicks,
Richard III;
Horrox,
Richard III: A Study in Service.
On the fate of the princes I have followed Charles Ross,
Richard III
and Pollard,
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower.
For more recent sources see John Ashdown-Hill, ‘The Death of Edward V – New Evidence from Colchester’,
Essex Archaeology and History,
35 (2004), and Nigel Saul,
The Three Richards
(London, 2006), citing Bodleian Ashmole 1448, a source written in the immediate aftermath of Bosworth, with Henry Tudor still referred to as ‘earl of Richmond’: ‘Richard … removed them from the light of the world … vilely and murderously.’ Some believed they had already been killed before Richard took the throne; others, shortly afterwards: Philip Morgan, ‘The Death of Edward V and the Rebellion of 1483’,
Historical Research,
68 (1995). On the legal rights of Elizabeth of York’s three surviving younger sisters in the Tudor period, which inhibited Henry VII from thoroughly investigating the princes’ survival, see T.B. Pugh, ‘Henry VII and the English Nobility’, in
The Tudor Nobility,
ed. George Barnard (Manchester, 1992). On Richard’s increasing identification with his father: Shropshire Record Office, 3365/67/60, a memorandum of the king’s instructions for setting up a perpetual chantry at Wem (10 September 1484). Ashdown-Hill,
Last Days of Richard III,
is valuable on Richard’s marriage negotiations with the House of Portugal. Richard’s gathering of artillery is from Ross,
Richard III;
information on the Milanese armour has kindly been provided by Tobias Capwell.

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.