That Time King Richard III was Found Buried Under a Parking Lot

Was feeling a bit under the weather and was unable to finish this by last Wednesday, my normal day for this series, but I decided to start posting these on Sundays- for now.

This week on "That Time..." we discuss the discovery of the remains of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England. I am American, but I have been interested in English Monarchs for as long as I can remember. Back in 2013 or 2014, I came across a documentary about finding King Richard III's remains and that is where my interest in him specifically began.

Portrait of King Richard III, artist unknown,
late 16th century

Who is King Richard III? Some may know him from the Shakespeare play about him In the play, he is portrayed as a villain. It's not the most accurate. The real King Richard III was born in 1452 during the Middle Ages. In 1483, Richard's brother Edward IV died, succeeded by his 12-year-old son, Edward V. Richard was named Lord Protector of the Realm. After the disappearance of Edward V and his brother, Richard assumed the throne. It is widely believed that Richard was behind his nephews' disappearance, but that's for another post. Richard was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485.

The king was killed in the Battle of Bosworth, which was one of the final battles of the Wars of Roses. His death marked the end of the Plantagenet reign and the beginning of the Tudor reign. He was succeeded by Henry VII, father of the infamous Henry VIII and grandfather of Queen Elizabeth I.

"Battle of Bosworth" by James Doyle, 1864 

After his death, his body was brought to the Greyfriars Friary Church in Leicester, England, where he was given a cruel burial, not fit for a king. The firary was dissolved and demolished in 1538 and it was believed his remains were lost. It was rumored that his remains were thrown into the River Soar. Normally that would be where the story ends, but for Richard, it was just the beginning.

Nearly half a century went by before there was an interest in finding King Richard III's remains. The Richard III Society was founded in 1924. Their website says that their aim is to "encourage and promote a more balanced view" of Richard III. Fast forward to August 2012, the Richard III Society launched the Looking for Richard project.

Site of where the friary once stood and where Richard III's
remains were found.

In September 2012, on the first day of the archaeological dig in the parking lot of Leicester City Council Social Services, they found the remains of a man with scoliosis. Thus began the analysis of the remains. The age of the remains matched the age Richard was at the time of his death. The fact that the remains had scoliosis supports that one of Richard III's shoulders may have carried higher than the other, which you can see in the portrait I included at the beginning of the post. They were able to figure out how the man had died and they were able to assign the bones to the era when Richard III had died. A lot of evidence pointed to these remains being the long lost king.

With the use of mitochondrial DNA, they were able to match the remains with DNA from two descendants of Richard III's sister, Anne of York. Michael Ibsen, Richard's nephew 16 times removed and Wendy Duldig, 19th generation descendant of Anne, were both close matches, confirming that the remains were indeed that of Richard III.

Bust of Richard III

The Richard III Society commissioned Caroline Wilkinson, Professor of Craniofacial Identification at the University of Dundee, to reconstruct Richard III's face and a bust was made.

King Richard III's horse drawn hearse

After confirmation that they had finally found King Richard III, plans of reburial were started. It was decided that the remains would be interred in the Leicester Cathedral. The remains were put in a led-lined ossuary, inside a wooden coffin created by Richard's nephew 16 times removed, Michael Ibsen. A funeral procession took place, retracing the last chapter of king's life. His coffin was put on a four-horse-drawn hearse, similar to the kind of hearse from the era of his death.

Leicester Cathedral

Once in the cathedral, his coffin was on display for the public to pay their respects. Waiting times reached over four hours. King Richard III was finally reburied on March 26, 2015. The day after, his tomb was revealed to the public.

If you would like to watch the reburial, here is a documentary I watched on YouTube! It's interesting and includes the full service.

That is the story of how an English king was found buried under a parking lot. Let me know what other odd historical stories you'd like me to dive into. I've been having a lot of fun with this series.

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