Talks to end discontent over Richard III

A CA LL has been made for a public consultation to decide where the remains of King Richard III should be reburied.

Distant relatives of the monarch, pictured, are asking three judges at the High Court in London to r ule Justice Secretary Chris Grayling is under a legal duty to allow a consultation, “and do it fairly”.

Richard’s battle-scarred bones were found unde r a council car park in Leicester and the plan is for them to be reinterred at the city’s cathedral.

However, the Plantagenet A lliance Ltd, formed by the distant relatives, want the remains to be buried at York Minster, claiming that was the wish “of the last medieval king of England”. Their counsel Gerard Clarke said yesterday that the alliance would be satisfied with a wideranging public consultation exercise on where the king’s final resting place should be. Mr Clarke suggested Leicester, York and Westminster could be among the choices.

He said the justice secretary had made a legally flawed decision that there was no obligation to consult.

He said: “Our lead point is the secretary of state’s decision is flawed because he did not suff iciently inform himself of the relevant factors before he made that decision.”

Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 — ending the Wars of the Roses and the Plantagenet dynasty.