Richard III's remains: Leicester car park dug up

CassandraW

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Richard III probably would have hated this decision. There's something sad about burying him where his enemies dumped him instead of interring him in a place he loved. But I suppose there's not much he can do about it, being dead and all.
 

Shakesbear

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Ghostly figures in a C of E cathedral? They would not allow them in!
 

dfwtinman

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Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this stone
Of North Yorkshire.
 

Shakesbear

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Alessandra Kelley

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Shakesbear

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Mike Pitts book may be worth a read - thanks for the link CassandraW.

Alessandra I do understand as I have the same mixed feelings. It does seem that his funeral service is going to be part RC and part C of E "Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Reverend Justin Welby, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols, will be present as the former monarch is laid to rest during a week of events in the spring."

What I do not understand is this: "The two religious leaders will join the Right Reverend Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, and representatives of other faiths to bury the Last Plantagenet king with “dignity and honour”." http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/R...es-announced/story-22889035-detail/story.html

Why? I know England is a multi-cultural and multi-religious society - but I think this is wrong. Though I suppose that it is a way of including everyone.
 

Haggis

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Mike Pitts book may be worth a read - thanks for the link CassandraW.

Alessandra I do understand as I have the same mixed feelings. It does seem that his funeral service is going to be part RC and part C of E "Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury the Most Reverend Justin Welby, and the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols, will be present as the former monarch is laid to rest during a week of events in the spring."

What I do not understand is this: "The two religious leaders will join the Right Reverend Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, and representatives of other faiths to bury the Last Plantagenet king with “dignity and honour”." http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/R...es-announced/story-22889035-detail/story.html

Why? I know England is a multi-cultural and multi-religious society - but I think this is wrong. Though I suppose that it is a way of including everyone.

I've kind of changed my thinking on it.

I expect that by now Richard's already gotten to wherever it is he was supposed to go (if anywhere) so the inclusion of the other clergy shouldn't matter to him. From an historical perspective, and probably a national one as well, it may not be such a bad idea to be all inclusive. I understand he's being reburied holding a rosary, which is proper, and if he only listens to the Catholic part of the ceremony he should be okay with it.
 

CassandraW

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That is really cool.

I'd love for them to do this kind of thing more often -- for example, with some of the remains in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London, where there is some dispute as to which of the remains belong to which buried victim. Or with the two children's skeletons found in the Tower of London -- were they Richard's nephews or weren't they? Now that they have Richard's skeleton, they should be able to tell.
 
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Alessandra Kelley

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It's him all right.

The maternal DNA confirms exactly the matrilineal line.

However, the paternal DNA shows a surprise.

It does not match the DNA of living relatives of the paternal line.

Somewhere between King Edward III and King Richard III, someone was not the expected father.

In other words, someone in the paternal line was fathered by someone else rather than the king.

If it happened early enough, it is possible that no one after Henry IV, including both King Richard III and King Henry VII and all the Tudors, was technically a legitimate heir to the throne.

Not that that really matters all that much when the throne is got by conquest and the sword anyway.
 

clintl

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Hanky panky among the nobility? Say it ain't so!
 

CassandraW

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I'd like to think the queen got it on with a handsome minstrel.
 

Rufus Coppertop

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Zounds and gadzooks!

Obviously, someone capered nimbly in a lady's chamber! And they were probably shaped for sportive tricks and made to court an amorous looking glass too.

Scandalous! Absolutely scandalous!

I wonder if it was to the lascivious pleasings of a lute?
 

Roxxsmom

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So is anyone making plans to exhume all the other dead kings to pinpoint when the, um, indiscretion might have happened?

When you think about it, it would be amazing if this sort of thing didn't happen at least once in every royal dynasty.

Matrilinearity really makes so much more sense, though even there, you can switch babies at birth and so on. There are some potential plot bunnies hopping around here.
 
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waylander

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It has been hypothesised in many quarters that Edward IV (Richard's older brother) was not the son of Richard of York as he was on campaign when Edward was conceived. Maybe the same is true of Richard II.
 

MaryMumsy

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Hanky panky among the nobility? Say it ain't so!

According to some stuff my aunt has found we are descended from Henry II, alas on the wrong side of the blanket. Oh well. The mother was some countess or other, but not his wife.

MM
 

Xelebes

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According to some stuff my aunt has found we are descended from Henry II, alas on the wrong side of the blanket. Oh well. The mother was some countess or other, but not his wife.

MM

Robert le Baron?