Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Discovery and Burial of the Remains of Richard III

Starting point is 00:00:00 The death of a British monarch is a very big event. Thousands of people may take part in the funeral and procession, with millions more lining up to pay the respects, and billions more watching on television. But this didn't always use to be the case, however. In particular, there was one English king who not only did not get an elaborate funeral, nobody knew exactly where his body was for over 500 years. Learn more about the body of King Richard III and how it was lost

Starting point is 00:00:26 and then discovered again on this episode of Everything Everywhere Day. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. If you were to create a list of the greatest monarchs in British history, Richard III would probably be very close to the Buclein.

Starting point is 00:01:15 bottom of the list. For starters, he seized the throne in one of the most underhanded ways possible. If you remember back to my episode on The Princes in the Tower, in 1483, Richard had his nephews, the 13-year-old King Edward V, and his nine-year-old brother, Richard the Duke of York, sent to the Tower of London. Richard was the regent for the young king, a position he was entrusted to by his brother, King Edward V. The boys eventually just disappeared in the tower, never to be heard from again. Richard created some trumped-up charges about how Edward V and his brother were illegitimate and had himself crowned king. While nobody knows exactly what happened to the boys, pretty much everyone assumes that Richard had them killed, as he had the most to gain. It goes without saying that killing children is not a good look when you're starting a new reign as king.

Starting point is 00:02:04 There were many English aristocrats who supported Edward V and looked at Richard III very unfavorably. Not surprisingly, soon after Richard was crowned, he faced an unlawful. uprising known as Buckingham's rebellion, named after the Duke of Buckingham, who was one of its leaders. Buckingham supported the claim of Henry Tudor to the crown. Henry Tudor was the nephew of Henry the 6th, and Henry the 6th had been fighting Edward VIII for the Crown in a civil war known as the War of the Roses. The ascension of Richard S. King and the support of Henry Tudor was just the latest wrinkle in this conflict. This all came to a head, and the War of the Roses came to an end on August 22nd, 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, a little more than two years after Richard took the

Starting point is 00:02:47 crown. Richard was killed in battle, becoming the last British monarch to do so. According to legend, he was struck in the head with a halberd by a Welshman by the name of Reese App Thomas. Supposedly, the blow was so hard that Richard's helmet was driven into a skull. Richard was 32 years old. After the battle, his naked corpse was dragged by a horse to the nearby town of Leicester, where it was strung up in a local church. Afterward, it was discreetly buried without fanfare in the nearby Grey Friar's Priory. In particular, he was buried in the choir. The victor, now known as King Henry VIII, paid for a marble monument to mark his grave as befitting his position as king. So far so good.

Starting point is 00:03:31 He was a king. He died. He was buried, and there was even a nice little monument for him. History, mainly through the works of William Shakespeare, has not been kind to Richard III. He's been painted as a villain, a reputation which was well earned. However, Shakespeare also painted a physical picture of a man with significant physical deformities. In particular, Shakespeare claimed that Richard III had a hunchback, walked with a limp, and had a withered arm. These physical deformities were highlighted by Shakespeare to provide an analog to his moral failings.

Starting point is 00:04:02 Where this story really begins is in the reign of Henry the 7th son, Henry VIII. He banned the Catholic Church, and through a process known as the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII had most of the monasteries in England destroyed. This included the Greyfriars Priory in Leicester. In 1538, Greyfriars was completely destroyed and leveled. This included the monument to Richard III. The plot of land it sat on was subdivided, and over the course of centuries, several different buildings were built on the site.

Starting point is 00:04:34 Supposedly, one of the owners of the property did erect a very simple stone on the site of the grave in 1612, which said, quote, here lies the body of Richard III, sometime King of England. However, that stone eventually vanished. The burial site of Richard III was simply forgotten. Some said that his body was exhumed and thrown into the river when Greyfriars was destroyed. However, the more likely story was that Richard remained right where he was originally buried, It was just that now there was other stuff on top of it. Fast forward to the 21st century.

Starting point is 00:05:06 A group known as the Richard the Third Society wanted to rehabilitate the reputation of the long-maligned king. They felt that Richard's reputation was painted by the tutors and their supporters after Richard lost the war for political purposes. The Richard III Society was actually formed in 1924, and members call themselves Ricardians. In 2004, a British writer by the name of Philippa Langley was in Leicester. She was walking around a parking lot for a social services building which was believed to be the site of the former Greyfriars Priory. Her attention turned from writing about the life of Richard III to writing about his death and burial. The reason why Philippa Langley was walking around the Leicester City Council's car park was that it had been identified by several Ricardians as the possible resting place of Richard III. An article published in 1975 and another in 1986 both pointed to this spot.

Starting point is 00:05:58 As interesting as the idea was, there was no real push to actually try and find the body. However, in 2005, the British historian John Ashdowne Hill announced that he had found two matrilineal descendants of Richard's sister, Anne of York, one in Canada and one in Australia. This is important because mitochondrial DNA is only passed by women, even to men. That means they could compare the mitochondrial DNA of these living female descendants to identify the remains of Richard III should his remains ever be found. This led to the Looking for Richard Project. The goal of which was to, quote,

Starting point is 00:06:37 search for, recover, and re- bury his mortal remains with the honor, dignity, and respect, so conspicuously denied following his death at the Battle of Bosworth. End quote. The project quickly gained the support of the Richard the Third Society, the Leicester City Council, the University of Leicester and the Leicester Cathedral. In 2011, a more formal study of the car park was conducted with the University of Leicester Archaeology Department to try and narrow down where the exact spot might be, and this included the use of ground-penetrating radar.

Starting point is 00:07:07 They identified three spots where they thought they should dig. Two were in the car park, and one was in a nearby playground. Almost everyone in the project felt that the odds of them finding the body were low. This was their first attempt at excavation for the body, and there was a good chance that they wouldn't even find the remains of the church. The first spot they were going to dig was in a parking spot that had the letter R painted on the ground. And R is the initial used for kings and queens. So, for example, Elizabeth II signed her name, Elizabeth R.

Starting point is 00:07:39 The R in this case just meant that the parking spot was reserved. On August 25th, 2012, the digging began. Normally with this sort of story, I would tell you how this was the start of a multi-year search for Richard body. I would tell you how archaeologists suffered many setbacks and frustrations before finally stumbling upon the discovery of a lifetime. That is not what happened. On the very first trench they dug, on the very first day, they found the remains of a man in his 30s. The skull of the man suffered severe trauma. The spine of the man was shaped in an S, showing severe scoliosis. The position of the head and the arms indicated that the body was buried quickly. Other artifacts found

Starting point is 00:08:22 in the trench confirmed that this was the Grey Friars Priory, and in particular, the choir. The remains were exhumed so that they could be studied. On February 4, 2013, a team at the University of Leicester announced their findings. All of the evidence, including radiocarbonating, DNA analysis, the consistency of the wounds, and the surrounding artifacts, led them to conclude that these were the remains of King Richard III. The big question now was, what do they do with the remains. The Ricardians wanted him buried in York Minster, aka the York Cathedral. The descendants of Richard, if that even holds any weight 500 years after the fact, also wanted him buried in York Minster. York Minster, on the other hand, didn't want anything to do with the remains of King Richard.

Starting point is 00:09:09 The royal family was consulted, and the Queen also didn't want anything to do with it and rejected the idea of a full royal burial. Other people suggested Westminster Abbey in London, and others yet suggested a Catholic church would be more appropriate as Richard was Catholic and died before Henry V. Afe's break with the Catholic Church. It was debated in Parliament and all over the media. Eventually, the courts got involved, and the decision was made that he would be buried in Lester Cathedral. This was consistent with British law, which required that any Christian remains found in an archaeological dig to be reburied in the nearest consecrated ground to the dig site. In March 2015, the reburial took place. For three days,

Starting point is 00:09:50 is Richard's coffin lay in state where it could be viewed by the public. There were lines up to four hours long of people to pay respects. The burial service took place on March 26th. It was shown on live TV and had several dignitaries present. A poem was read by one of Richard's distant relatives, Benedict Cumberbatch, who actually went on to play Richard III on TV the next year. The royal family was represented by the Duchess of Wessex and by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester,

Starting point is 00:10:16 which was the title held by Richard before he was king. The service was explicitly not a funeral, as it was considered to have already occurred during his first burial. Today you can visit the tomb of Richard at the Lester Cathedral yourself. The discovery of Richard's corpse and its reburial has been great for the city of Lester. There is now a Richard the third visitor center that tells you of the king's story, and the discovery of his remains. It is located exactly where the car park was, where his body was found.

Starting point is 00:10:46 With the discovery of Richard's remains, the only English king that doesn't have an identified grave is Henry I. He's buried somewhere in the Redding Abbey, but the exact spot isn't known. A similar project has been proposed to find his remains. Richard Buckley of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services said that he would eat his hat if the remains of Richard were ever found. He honored his promise by eating a hat-shaped cake. He also probably best summarized the entire saga of Richard III when he said, quote, it is of course an incredible story. He's a controversial figure. People love the idea he was found under a car park.

Starting point is 00:11:24 The whole thing unfolded in the most amazing way. You couldn't make it up. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I have some more boostograms to acknowledge. Big shoutouts to Petar, Joel W., Taylor Johnson, and Peanut Butter Life, who have been sending Satoshi's My Way every episode.

Starting point is 00:11:50 Also, thanks to Ninja, Dave Jones, Phoenix, Headloon, Boomy, Andrew Bowley, One R. R. Shackleford, T&T, Mom, and Harrington's dad. Petar also sent a message with his Moustagram from the Shakespearean English episode and said, Thy podcast is most wondrous. Thank you, Petar. Thou hast good taste. Peanut Butter Life sent a message saying, love the show. Listen almost daily why I take my dog for a walk. Perfect amount of time to learn something new. Thanks, Peanut Butter Life. The show is like Dorita. If you keep listening, I'll keep making more. T&T Mom left a comment on the football, soccer and rugby episode and said,

Starting point is 00:12:29 I'm a huge fan of American football and coached a few seasons of grade school soccer when my daughter was younger. We often teased each other over which was the true football. This episode is really interesting. Thanks for the brief history. It's my pleasure, T&T Mom. I always like tossing in a few sports episodes just to keep things interesting. And remember, if you leave a review or send me a boostagram in one of the modern podcasts, apps like Fountain, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Discovery and Burial of the Remains of Richard III

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