Stirling said she thought the Richard III story would be a big bonus for the city: “I think it will boost the economy and bring visitors in – he’s got quite a fan club, after all.” We lived close to Bow Bridge, so we know all the legends about him.” “We grew up with all the stories of Richard III. “This is history, isn’t it, it’s never going to happen again,” said Foster. “Leicester born and bred” sisters Susan Foster and Sharon Stirling were among the crowds waiting outside the cathedral to listen in on the service and catch a glimpse of the guests arriving. I hope there’s perhaps some joy, that something has been done well and right and that we’ve made peace with the past.”īut Ibsen admitted he found Sunday’s service at which the remains were carried in to the cathedral surprisingly moving: “there was a slight dampening of the eyeballs, which caught me completely unawares,” he said phlegmatically. Speaking before the commemorations, Philippa Langley, founder of the “Looking for Richard” project, said she did not expect to feel upset at the reinterment: “Richard died over 500 years ago, so I don’t think there will be a sense of sadness there at all. Now Richard’s bones, accompanied by a specially-crafted rosary, recognizing his Catholic faith, rest in a lead-lined coffin of English oak, his grave marked by a 2.3 ton block of pale Swaledale fossil limestone resting on a plinth of black Kilkenny marble carved with his name, dates, coat of arms, and his symbol: a white boar. Instead, the aim of the service was to offer Richard III a fitting farewell, and a lasting memorial – neither of which he was granted following his death at Bosworth in 1485.īack then, his body was slung over a horse and carried back to Leicester – legend has it that his head struck Bow Bridge on the way – before being put on display for three days, to prove to friends and foes alike that he really was dead, before being slung into a hastily-dug grave at the Church of the Grey Friars. “This is not a funeral at which we mourn,” said Professor Gordon Campbell, of the University of Leicester, welcoming the congregation to the cathedral, just yards from that famous parking lot. “Today we recognize a King who lived through turbulent times and whose Christan faith sustained him in life and death,” it read.īut though it bore many of the hallmarks of grief – polished coffin, empty tomb, relatives clad in gloomy, pitch-dark suits – this was not, the organizers insisted, a sad occasion. Queen Elizabeth, represented at the ceremony by the Countess of Wessex, sent a special message to mark the reinterment, which she hailed as “an event of great national and international significance.” “My bones, scripted in light, upon cold soil,Ī human braille. Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch, a distant cousin of England’s last Plantagenet King, read a poem dedicated to Richard III, written by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. It was standing room-only at Leicester Cathedral – which had been partially rebuilt for the occasion – as Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby led prayers for the long-dead King, swinging incense and sprinkling holy water over the casket, before scattering it with earth from key locations marking his birth, life and death. They have been pored over by scientists at the city’s university ever since, but after more than two years of legal wranglings, the bones were finally laid to rest Thursday in a coffin built by Richard III’s distant relative, Michael Ibsen, whose DNA helped prove their identity. The remains of the medieval monarch were sensationally rediscovered beneath a blanket of tarmac in the center of Leicester in August 2012. Richard III, the King found beneath a car parking lot, has been reburied in a solemn but celebratory service, 530 years after his death in battle.
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