11 things you might not know about Richard III

ENGLAND’S last Yorkist king will finally get the burial he deserves next week. Admittedly, it will be 500 years late, and in the wrong city – but even royalty can’t have everything.

The body of Richard III, which was discovered beneath a car park in Leicester in August 2012, will be officially laid to rest at Leicester Cathedral on Thursday.

Before then, however – as befits a king, even one who died 530 years ago – his remains, in their lead-lined oak coffin, will be taken on a symbolic procession, to allow people to pay their respects.

The ceremonies begin on Sunday, when Richard’s coffin will form part of a cortege that will proceed from a building at the University of Leicester to Fenn Lane Farm, near where experts believe he died.

Following a tour of nearby villages, the cortege will return to Leicester, where Richard’s coffin will be transferred to a horse-drawn hearse to be taken to Leicester Cathedral for a ‘service of compline’.

His remains will then lie in state at the cathedral for people to pay their respects until Thursday, when he will be officially re-interred at a service attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, other senior Church of England clergy, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster.

It will, at last, be a send-off fit for a King.

Here in York, meanwhile – the city which took Richard to its heart, both during and after his short reign – we will be commemorating the last Plantagenet king in our own way, with a choral evensong at York Minster.

Richard was one of the most controversial and divisive kings in English history: demonised by the Tudors (and Shakespeare) as a hunchbacked monster who murdered his nephews, the princes in the tower, but remembered affectionately in York as a wise ruler who reduced the city’s taxes, established his power base in the north, and had his son Edward installed as Prince of Wales right here in York Minster.

So who was the real Richard III?

We’ll probably never know. But here is our own list of 11 things you might not know about him... plus a few unanswered questions...
 

1. Richard was NOT a northerner.

He was born at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire in 1452, and before he became king in 1483 he was the Duke of Gloucester, not the Duke of York. As a boy, however, he was sent to live at Middleham Castle, the stronghold of his older cousin Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick.

He later married Warwick’s daughter Anne Neville, acquiring through her vast lands and estates in the north.

2. The head of Richard’s father was once displayed as a traitor on Micklegate Bar. Richard’s father was Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of York, also known as Richard of York: a man who himself had a claim to the English throne.

He was, however, killed at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, after which his head was displayed on Micklegate Bar. A few months later, following the battle of Towton, Richard of York’s son Edward (the future Richard III’s older brother) became king.

When the new King Edward IV visited York, the chastened city fathers welcomed him with as much pomp and ceremony they could. “His father’s head was ceremoniously removed (from Micklegate Bar) and given to him,” says York’s city archivist Victoria Hoyle.

“How quickly things change.”

3. During the reign of his brother Edward IV, Richard, although still only a teenager, effectively controlled the north of England.

Edward set up the Council of the North in 1472, and Richard served as its first Lord President until he himself became king.

“The presence of the King’s Council in the North made York the effective capital of northern England,” says York’s city archaeologist John Oxley.

“Richard was generally well thought of and highly regarded in York.”

4. Before he became king, one of Richard’s favourite places to stay was the Augustinian friary which once stood between Lendal and the River Ouse. The friary was renowned for its library of books on philosophy, theology and other subjects, including music. Richard, it seems, was a cultivated man.

5. He was also a very pious man. Not only did Richard choose to stay at a friary when he visited York, he also, as king, endowed a college at York Minster.

“It was intended to be populated by one hundred priests to pray for the souls of the king and royal family,” says John Oxley.

“It has been argued that this college was where Richard III intended to be buried. Alas, there is no documentation that supports this argument.”

6. He may have been pious, but Richard certainly wasn’t Church of England: the C of E didn’t exist for another 60 years. Richard was Roman Catholic.

7. Following the untimely death of his brother Edward IV, and the convenient declaration that Edward’s two sons, the ‘princes in the tower’, were bastards, Richard was crowned king at Westminster Abbey on July 6, 1483.

He then set off on a royal progress around the country, making a triumphal entry to York, the true seat of his power, on August 29, 1483.

He entered through Micklegate Bar, where his father’s head had once been displayed, then “made his way to York minster through a city decked out with banners and hangings, pageants acted on the streets, singing and music on every corner,” says John Oxley. Amid the cheers, there may have been a few jeers, however.

Medieval loyalties were complex.

“Although York and Yorkshire were at the heart of Richard’s power base, he was by no means universally popular in the city,” Mr Oxley says.

8. He nevertheless proved himself a good friend to York.

During the three weeks he initially spent here as king, he halved the taxes the city corporation had to pay – and had his son Edward of Middleham invested as Prince of Wales at York Minster: a real statement of intent about how important York was to him.

9. Richard’s son, Edward the Prince of Wales, died at Middleham at the age of just ten years old. He is thought to be buried in the tomb of the Nevilles, his mother’s family, at Sheriff Hutton Church.

10. On April 5, 1485 – just months before his death at Bosworth, and with rumours of Henry Tudor’s planned invasion already circulating – Richard was forced to display a ruthless side. He wrote a stern letter to the city fathers of York, ordering them to take down any inflammatory bills and newsletters, and requiring citizens to arrest anyone saying anything negative about him.
 

11. Nevertheless, York as a whole remained loyal. When the ‘usurper’ Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) challenged Richard for the throne, Richard confronted his forces at the Battle of Bosworth.

York’s city fathers sent 80 men on horseback to help him: the city was in the grip of a plague at the time, according to Visit York, so couldn’t spare more men.

Sadly, the York contingent didn’t reach the battlefield in time. John Spooner, York’s sergeant-at-mace, galloped back with news of Richard’s death, whereupon the city fathers ordered an extraordinary tribute to Richard to be set down in the City House Book: the council minutes of the day.

“King Richard, late mercifully reigning over us, was through the great treason of the Duke of Norfolk piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this City,” it said.

It was a courageous thing to do, given that they were essentially accusing the new king of treason – and clear proof of just how fondly Richard was regarded in York.

FOUND: The skull and bones of King Richard III, as discovered in Leicester

And some questions

Did he kill the princes in the tower?

It depends who you speak to.

The princes were the sons of Richard’s brother, King Edward IV. When Edward died, his eldest son, also Edward, briefly became Edward V.

Richard ‘lodged’ the young king and his younger brother (another Richard) in the Tower of London for their own safety. They were then conveniently declared illegitimate, Richard himself was crowned king – and the two princes mysteriously disappeared.

Popular historian Alison Weir thinks Richard probably did have them killed; although that doesn’t make him the monster of tradition, she once told this newspaper. This was the middle ages: a dangerous time when there was no room for doubt about the succession.

“It was 15th century realpolitik,” she said.

Others don’t believe Richard did kill his nephews. That would have been plain stupid, believes historian David Baldwin.

“And while he could be ruthless, no one has ever suggested that he was also stupid.” Sandra Wadley of the York-based Society of Friends of King Richard agrees. “In my opinion Richard was not involved with their disappearance,”

she says. “It was the Duke of Buckingham together with Margaret Beaufort and John Morton.” The suggestion that Richard killed his nephews was, Sandra believes, “all Tudor propaganda.”

Was he a hunchback?

Not exactly, although the skeleton unearthed at Leicester showed evidence of scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. It is unclear how noticeable this would have been during Richard’s lifetime.

DNA tests on his remains have revealed that, contrary to what many long thought, Richard was actually blond and blue-eyed.

Did he really shout: “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”on the battlefield at Bosworth?

No. Don’t be silly. That was just Shakespeare putting words in his mouth. Actually he seems to have died bravely, fighting to the last.

He was the last English king to die in battle, and his skeleton revealed that he received several wounds, including eight to his head. Experts believe these show the king may have lost his helmet on the battlefield.
 

How York will honour its favourite king

While the eyes of much of the world will be on Leicester for Richard’s re-interment next Thursday, York will remember its favourite medieval king in its own way.

A choral evensong will be held in the Minster from 5.15pm on Thursday and following the service, the civic party and senior clergy will leave the Minster at 6.20pm and walk in procession along Stonegate to the Mansion House. The people of York are being invited to line the route to pay their respects to Richard.

A new display about Richard – Richard III: Man & Myth – will open at the Yorkshire Museum next Friday.