Search for Richard III's Remains

The past couple of weeks have been extraordinarily exciting for Ricardians around the world. The University of Leicester has been leading an archeological dig for the remains of Richard III, who, according to historical records, was to have been buried in the choir of the Greyfriars' friary. However, evidence of the tomb was lost and it was suspected that the area where he might have been laid to rest could be under a municipal parking lot in Leicester.

Today, September 12, 2012, there is strong circumstantial evidence that Richard's remains have indeed been found. My thanks to Annette Carson, author of Richard III: The Maligned King, for this copy of this statement from University of Leicester, which the University has now allow to be released:

STATEMENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

On Friday 31st August 2012 the University of Leicester applied to the Ministry of Justice under the 1857 Burials Act for permission to commence the exhumation of human remains found at the Grey Friars site in Leicester.

Exhumation commenced on Tuesday 4th September 2012 and has continued to this morning. The work was conducted by Dr Turi King from the University’s department of Genetics and Dr Jo Appleby & Mathew Morris of our School of Archaeology & Ancient History.

We have exhumed one fully articulated skeleton and one set of disarticulated human remains. The disarticulated set of human remains was found in what is believed to be the Presbytery of the lost Church of the Grey Friars. These remains are female, and thus certainly not Richard III.

The articulated skeleton was found in what is believed to be the Choir of the church.

The articulated skeleton found in the Choir is of significant interest to us. Dr Jo Appleby has carried out a preliminary examination of the remains. There are five reasons for our interest:

1. The remains are in good condition and appear to be of an adult male.
2. The Choir is the area reported in the historical record as the burial place of King Richard III. John Rous, reports that Richard ”at last was buried in the choir of the Friars Minor at Leicester”.
3. The skeleton, on initial examination, appears to have suffered significant peri-mortem trauma to the skull which appears consistent with (although not certainly caused by) an injury received in battle. A bladed implement appears to have cleaved part of the rear of the skull.
4. A barbed metal arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the skeleton’s upper back.
5. The skeleton found in the Choir area has spinal abnormalities. We believe the individual would have had severe scoliosis – which is a form of spinal curvature. This would have made his right shoulder appear visibly higher than the left shoulder. This is consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard’s appearance. The skeleton does not have kyphosis – a different form of spinal curvature. The skeleton was not a hunchback. There appears to be no evidence of a “withered arm”.

Both sets of remains are now at an undisclosed location where further analysis is being undertaken.
I need to be very frank with you. The University has always been clear that any remains would need to be subjected to rigorous laboratory and DNA analysis before we confirm the outcome of the search for Richard III. We are not saying today that we have found King Richard III. What we are saying is that the Search for Richard III has entered a new phase. Our focus is shifting from the archaeological excavation to laboratory analysis. This skeleton certainly has characteristics that warrant extensive further detailed examination.

Dr Jo Appleby is undertaking further work to examine the remains. Dr Turi King from our department of Genetics will lead the laboratory analysis. The results of this analysis are expected to take up to 12 weeks.
I should emphasise that all human remains found at the site are being treated in full accordance with the University of Leicester’s ethical policy for dealing with human remains

Clearly we are all very excited by these latest discoveries. We have said finding Richard was a long-shot. However it is a testament to the skill of the archaeological team led by Richard Buckley that such extensive progress has been made. We have all been witness to a powerful and historic story unfolding before our eyes. It is proper that the University now subjects the findings to rigorous analysis so that the strong circumstantial evidence that has presented itself can be properly understood.

This is potentially a historic moment for the University and City of Leicester.

I will now turn to colleagues for comments before moving to Q&A.

University of Leicester Staff Available for Interview or Comments

• Richard Buckley, lead archaeologist from the University’s School of Archaeology & Ancient History and co-Director of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services.
• Dr Turi King, leading the DNA analysis and academic in the University’s Department of Genetics
• Professor Lin Foxhall, Head of the School of Archaeology & Ancient History at the University of Leicester 0116 252 2773/07740 540 264
• Dr Sarah Knight, scholar of C16 & C17 English literature and academic in the University’s School of English
• Dr Mary Ann Lund, scholar of C16 & C17 English literature and academic in the University’s School of English
• Deidre O’Sullivan, Lecturer in Archaeology in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History and expert on friary churches
• Dr Jo Appleby, Lecturer in Human Bioarchaeology in the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History
• Dr Helen Foxhall-Forbes, Honorary Research Associate in the University’s School of Historical Studies and Lecturer in Medieval History at Exeter University
• Richard Taylor, Director of Corporate Affairs at the University 0116 252 5386

For background information please visit www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/media-centre/richard-iii

After 527 years, the hunt for Richard's body is on!

On the 527th anniversary of the burial of King Richard III at Greyfriars, Leicester, the search for his remains begins -- under a Leicester City Council car park. Carried out by the University of Leicester Department of Archaeology in association with the Leicester City Council and the Richard III Society (our parent society), the dig will continue for two weeks and culminate in a public event over the weekend of 8-9 September. Details and links to press coverage can be found here. For the Richard III Society's news item on the subject, choose the "news" link from their site: http://www.richardiii.net/

"Dark Sovereign" play by Robert Fripp

Playwright slams Shakespeare, defends Richard III

Toronto – December 22, 2011 – For the first time in four centuries a modern writer has challenged William Shakespeare by writing a full-length play in the Bard's Renaissance English—fluently. Shakespeare wrote The Tragedy of Richard the Third as Tudor propaganda for the Court of Queen Elizabeth I, portraying King Richard III as a misshapen sociopath and killer. Author and copywriter Robert Fripp, the former series producer of CBC-TV's long-running investigative program, 'The Fifth Estate', took four years to pen his counter-attack on Shakespeare's play. Fripp's Dark Sovereign tells the real tale of Richard's troubled reign.

"At last!" comments New York director Nathaniel Merchant. "Here is the antidote to the scurrilous but seductive play by Shakespeare. Fripp shocks with his skillful and uncanny use of verse and his portrait of Richard as a man, not a caricature or stock villain".

"It's not wildly revisionist", says Fripp. "Just wildly different. Dark Sovereign seldom gives Richard's character more benefit of the doubt than you find in reliable histories. Dark Sovereign runs close to the northern English counties' long-held view that Richard was a benign, capable ruler: He was caught between a rock and a hard place in a smouldering civil war (England's Wars of the Roses) that went up in flames. Dark Sovereign dramatises the snake-pit of that conflict with a human, not a demonic, face. It's a stronger story without Shakespeare's character assassination".

Then why put the word 'Dark' in the title? "The word carries the sixteenth century sense you find in dark horse and dark star," says Fripp. "It suggests a quality unknown; and that is certainly true of Richard III, smeared with his enemy's propaganda for four centuries".

Art historian Claude Marks, who moved from London to lecture at New York's Metropolitan Museum, called Dark Sovereign "a cultural accomplishment of the highest order". Not only that: Dark Sovereign is longer than Hamlet. Overnight it becomes the longest play written in Renaissance English. No wonder Samuel Liff, Senior Theatrical Agent at the William Morris Agency, described Dark Sovereign to the author's agent, Jennifer Watts, as "The most courageous thing I ever saw in theater. A good play, too."

"Many authors, including Shakespeare, Francis Bacon and the six teams of scholars who produced the King James Bible were writing in what we call 'the Golden Age' of the English language", says Fripp. "It's a beautiful language. It's mine and it's yours. It's yours to read, too". He should know. As a boy, Fripp won a choral scholarship into Salisbury Cathedral choir where he chanted and sang sixteenth century English for five years.

Fripp took an earlier foray into history using the language of that period. Introduced by novelist John Fowles, Fripp's The Becoming, (Let There Be Life in North America), is an audacious retelling of the Genesis creation story from a scientific point of view. Later, in Power of a Woman. Memoirs of ... Eleanor of Aquitaine, Fripp wrote the first-person memoirs of one of Europe's most charismatic women. Now a copywriter and consultant at The Impact Group in Toronto, he will soon publish New Wessex Tales, a short story collection set in his native English county, Dorset. RobertFripp.ca offers excerpts and reviews of several works.

email: rfripp@rogers.com
website: RobertFripp.ca