A Lost King is Found

A Lost King is Found

NOTE: The final installment of the Wake Island series will be presented on my next blog entry.

Every English monarch has a known burial place.  All save one, that is.  The burial place of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, has been lost to history - at least until now.

A stained glass in Leicester honoring Richard and his queen

In 1485 Henry Tudor defeated King Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field.  Richard was killed and his enemies stripped and desecrated his body.  He was the last English monarch to be killed in combat.  The Greyfriars, who were sympathetic to the Yorkist cause, brought his body to Leicester where he was buried under the choir of the Greyfriars Church.  You can read more about Richard and Henry in this earlier blog entry that was presented on the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth Field:  http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/08/bosworth-field-and-demise-of.html

From: http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2012/september/richard-iii-pictures

In the late 1530s, Henry VIII seized and broke up the Greyfriars Friary during the dissolution of the monasteries and the break from the Catholic Church.  All Greyfriars property was sold off by the Crown.  Over time the exact whereabouts of the Greyfriars church became lost.

Earlier this month I was excited to learn that my old alma mater, The University of Leicester, was leading a project to determine the exact location of the old Greyfriars Church.  They even had a wild hope that they might discover the lost remains of Richard III.  Two exploratory trenches in a parking lot in Leicester England revealed the walls and floors of a medieval church.  Greyfriars had been found.  With the walls located, the architectural layout was relatively easy to determine. 

The parking lot in Leicester where Greyfriars was thought to be. 
From: http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2012/august/searching-for-richard-iii

Medieval floor tiles recovered from the Greyfriars site.
From: http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2012/august/searching-for-richard-iii

 

Dr.  Richard Buckley tells about the intent of the search and what he hopes to find in this short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpkzuIj7BMk&feature=player_embedded

Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley with a piece of tracery which once held a window.

Is seems that the wild hope my not have been so wild after all.  On September 12^th the university announced that a fully articulated male skeleton was found under what would have been the choir area of the church. (The remains were first discovered on September 4^th, but the university completed a cursory examination before they announced the find.)  The skull showed signs of lethal trauma from a bladed weapon and an iron arrowhead still remained embedded in one vertebra - plain indicators of death in battle. Furthermore, the skeleton showed clear signs of scoliosis, a spinal condition that Richard was known to have suffered. 

Only extensive laboratory scrutiny and DNA analysis can determine if Richard has actually been found.  I’m proud of the University of Leicester’s archaeology department.  Hats off to Dr. Buckley!  He exhausted all of this historical research before he ever stuck a spade into the soil.  He knew exactly where to dig.  The excavation proceeded quickly and found results swiftly.  The site is sure to yield other data, just as important, about the Greyfriars and their medieval role in Leicestershire.

I’ll be pay close attention to this project.  Should the university make any determination regarding the identity of the remains, I’ll post them here.


Official University of Leicester web site on the project
http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/greyfriars

September 12^th announcement about the discovery of remains:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2012/september/search-for-richard-iii-enters-new-phase-201cmomentous-discovery-has-potential-to-rewrite-history201d

Graphic Art Slide Show inspired by the Greyfriars Project
http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2012/september/richard-iii-pictures

Bosworth Field and the Demise of the Plantagenents

August 22 marks the anniversary of one of those pivotal days in British History (or "American History - Part One" as I like to call it.)  The year of 1485 does not stand out like other important years in British history such as 1066, but it was very important just the same.  On this day, 427 years ago, the War of the Roses ended in the strategic battle of Bosworth Field. The war between two rival houses of the Plantagenet dynasty, had raged off and on for thirty years. It is ironic that when it was over, neither the house of York or the House of Lancaster would hold the crown. Instead, a new family would rule the country. The reign of the Plantagenet kings ended with the death of Richard III on Bosworth field.  Henry Tudor, only remotely related to the Plantagenets, established a new dynasty when he left the battlefield as the victor. 

See more about Bosworth Field here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bosworth_Field

So ended over three hundred years of Plantagenet rule. From 1154 to 1485 fifteen monarchs of this dynasty held the crown.  Among those fifteen were some of the best and worst kings in English history.  See more here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet

Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII when he came to the crown after Bosworth Field, established a short, but dynamic dynasty.  Some of the most tumultuous events of English history would occur under his son Henry VIII and Granddaughter Elizabeth I, including the reformation, discovery of the new world and the emergence of England as a true European power.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_dynasty

Henry Tudor (Henry VII) founder of the Tudor dynasty

I had two distant cousins who fought for Henry at Bosworth Field, Sir Edward Courtnenay of Powderham and Piers Courtenay the Bishop of Exeter.  But I am also a Plantagenet descendant.  I guess I should mourn for my other distant cousin, Richard III, and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty.

See my update on this subject at this later blog entry:  http://erasgone.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-lost-king-is-found.html