A burial fit for a (villainous) KING!
Found under a Leicester car park, he’s our most maligned ruler. But in a five-day extravaganza starting tomorrow, Britain will watch enthralled as Richard III has...
albeit a rudimentary one, when his body was bundled into a shallow grave by the monks of Greyfriars in 1485. so, it’s a ‘service of reinterment’.
Nor can his coffin be covered by a royal standard because that was not the custom in the 15th century. so, instead, he will be draped in a specially-embroidered ‘pall’.
A bigger question is the nature of the service. some have questioned why the church of england should be hosting the reburial of a catholic king (the c of e did not exist when richard died).
both Anglican and roman catholic leaders have approved the arrangements, however, and britain’s most senior catholic priest, the cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, will preach in front of the coffin at a special service tomorrow night.
the Archbishop of canterbury will then preside at thursday’s reburial, along with a military band, ViPs, descendants of bosworth warriors and 200 members of the public drawn by ballot from 14,000 applicants.
Among those in pride of place will be Michael ibsen, the North london cabinet-maker who played a key role in the hunt for richard iii.
to confirm the bones were those of richard — the skeleton’s curved spine was a good omen but not conclusive — leicester University’s Dr turi King needed special DNA.
richard left no heir, and male lines can be notoriously unreliable anyway. it would have to be from someone descended exclusively down the female line from one of richard’s sisters. A painstaking hunt led to Joy ibsen, a retired canadian journalist. ‘When we were growing up, she created this huge family tree going all the way back up the male side of her family. it included the founder of the south American Missionary society,’ canada- born Michael recalls with a smile at his Holloway workshop.
‘but the female side just ran out after three or four generations. little did we know!’
sadly, Joy died in 2008 before richard’s remains were found, but Michael’s DNA was conclusive.
He was ‘stunned’ when the university summoned him to leicester to give him the news in private and took him into the secure vault to inspect the remains. Poignantly, he has been invited to build richard’s coffin.
MICHAEL says: ‘ to stand next to someone, knowing you share the same essence, and then to see those terrible injuries and to know all that history — it really hits you.’ All those involved have felt something similar. ‘i hate the way that “unique” is now used to describe everything, but this really is unique,’ says the earl of Derby, who will be among the ‘bosworth peers’ welcoming King richard to the cathedral tomorrow.
it was his ancestor who switched sides at bosworth and did for richard. but ‘reconciliation’, not the War of the roses, is the theme of all these ceremonies.
‘i’m not sure that richard was as cuddly as some of his supporters argue he was,’ adds lord Derby. ‘but the fact is that we are burying a king. And this has just been the most amazing story.’
indeed it has, even if one key figure remains steadfastly detached from it all. richard’s present successor will not be there on thursday. the Queen has asked the countess of Wessex to represent her, preferring to spend her day in Kent, unveiling the new battle of britain learning centre at capel-le-Ferne.
As reigning sovereign, she has no wish to be drawn into an event which might raise impudent questions, however ancient, about regicide, succession, pedigree and the treatment of a monarch’s mortal remains
Nonetheless, she can enjoy the quiet satisfaction of knowing that these things still matter to her people. And they matter a very great deal.