‘History in the making’: Reflections on the reinterment of Richard III, ten years on
It was early morning of the 22 March 2015 and already journalists were jostling for position on the stage assembled on the Fielding Johnson lawn for the occasion. They weaved around the ranks of TV cameras watching the entrance to the Fielding Johnson Building, where a huge marquee shielded a slowly growing crowd of staff and guests from the elements. There was a palpable sense of anticipation in the air, for this would be the first time that the mortal remains of King Richard III would be viewed in public, albeit sealed within his coffin.
This was the day that Richard III would finally leave the custody of the University of Leicester, who had been the legal guardian of his remains since they were unearthed in the Greyfriars district of the city in August 2012.
The previous week, Richard’s remains had been placed into his coffin ready for their final journey by Dr Jo Appleby, the osteologist who worked on the Greyfriars project, and archaeologist Mathew Morris who excavated the remains. Mathew saw it as a “fitting symmetry, with the archaeologists who excavated the remains also being the last to see them before the reinterment.”
Now, the mortal remains of the last Plantagenet King of England were to start their journey to Leicester Cathedral following a short ceremony at the University. Among the processional party were members of the Richard III Society, descendants of King Richard’s sister, Anne, members of the University Project Team and the Chaplaincy, and senior staff of the University.
During the course of the ceremony, key figures involved in the rediscovery of Richard III’s remains each placed a white rose upon his coffin, designed and built by his modern living relative Michael Ibsen. Among them were Dr Appleby, Mathew Morris and Professor Turi King, who led the genetic analysis and is now an honorary professor at Leicester.
“For me it felt it was good to finally lay Richard III to rest again.” Professor King recalls. “We had been the caretaker of his remains since the excavation and to finally reinter him felt that we were doing our best by him. In some ways, it was all a bit of a blur, there was so much happening, so many news interviews to do. It was such a momentous week.”
Dr Appleby from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History says: “The project itself gave us an opportunity to learn so much more about an important historical figure. We were able to show the strengths of a truly collaborative approach, bringing in multiple experts in different fields, which of course is what archaeology is all about, and that is something that I think the public really engaged with.”
From the University, the coffin would head to Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre before tracing a route through Market Bosworth and the villages closely associated with the battle, before returning to Leicester. Crowds filled the city’s streets all the way to Leicester Cathedral to greet its return.
Mathew remembers the experience vividly: “Standing in the crowd in Leicester with colleagues, watching the coffin go past, with the dawning realisation that video clips of the dig kept appearing on the big screen in Jubilee Square and the crowd knew who we were; and being recognised in the pub later that week was also memorable, and beneficial! Talking to people who had travelled from all around the world to be in Leicester, who had queued for hours to pay their respects to Richard III when he lay in repose, and hearing about why they wanted to be there; walking through the streets of Leicester in procession to the Cathedral on the day of the reinterment; and the carnival atmosphere of the concluding fire festival and fireworks. So much went on that week!
“It was exhausting, exhilarating and truly felt like history in the making, and for someone who wasn’t born and raised Leicester, proud to be part of my adopted city’s story.”
Mathew was Fieldwork Director on the Greyfriars dig and has since led the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project for University of Leicester Archaeological Services. He will be giving two talks for the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre for the anniversary: Richard III: the king under the car park and Richard III: Bloody will be thine end on 23 March. He will also join other members of the Greyfriars team for a panel discussion at Leicester Cathedral on 27 March.
He says: “Ten years on, we still feel the impact of Richard III’s discovery. If I stand in front of the Cathedral, I can see how the area has transformed, from the creation of the Cathedral Gardens and Heritage Centre, with the King Richard III Visitor Centre nearby and Jubilee Square around the corner. It is doubtful if any of these projects would have occurred had it not been for the discovery of a King of England under a Leicester car park!”
Lead Archaeologist on the Greyfriars dig Dr Richard Buckley OBE would formally hand over custody of the remains into the care of Leicester Cathedral later that day. Their arrival was marked with a service, in which a 500-year-old Bible from the University’s Special Collections played a key role, before the coffin would lie in ‘repose’. For three days, thousands upon thousands of people queued to view it and pay their respects to the king.
On the day of the reinterment, many members of the Richard III project team joined the congregation for the service. Opening it was Professor Gordon Campbell who delivered the eulogy and was one of the liturgists who wrote the services. These were loosely based on a fifteenth-century reburial service from Warwick, originally two days long and written in Latin but cut down to 50 minutes and translated into English for Richard III’s service.
Professor Campbell recalls: “Delivering the eulogy was much easier at a reburial that it would have been at a funeral for someone who had recently died: we were not mourning, but rather reinterring an anointed king, the last king of England to have died in battle.”
“It was a beautiful service!” Dr Appleby recalls of the day. “It was a chance to see the newly renovated cathedral and to enjoy the beautiful music.”
Professor King says: “What I love is that the reinterment was the culmination of all the hard work from the project from start to finish. It had involved so many people, all bringing their expertise to the table, to make it the tremendous success that it was. It was tremendously hard work. No one person could have done it on their own and I think that really was the beauty of it: the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.”
Professor Campbell adds: “Richard is a controversial figure, but he had the greatest following of all English monarchs, apart from our late Queen. He deserved dignity, honouring his good qualities - he was a faithful son of the church, committed to equity and legal process - and acknowledging his suffering when his only legitimate son, Prince Edward, died about the age of nine in 1484.
“The Cathedral has always had worshippers and visitors, but the presence of Richard means that there are also pilgrims, especially members of Richard III organisations. For the city, it has meant new visitors, who assist our economy in their expenditure while they are in the city. And for the University, the occasion shone a spotlight on the work of our excellent archaeologists and scientists.”
Mathew Morris concludes: “Whether his rediscovery and reinterment has radically altered our view of Richard III or not, we are still talking about him today, igniting people’s interest in history, science and archaeology, and that is a good thing.”