Archaeologists to dig under car park for Greyfriars - and lost grave of Richard III

[wfgodot]

"There are kings under our carparks": author Charlie Connelly celebrates the find:

I Love It When A Plantagenet Comes Together

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From where I write this, for example, if I crane my neck a little bit I can see the birthplace of Elizabeth I and Henry VIII. If I get up and perform an ill-advised – yet daring – leap from window ledge to drainpipe I can see the construction site of Brunel’s Great Eastern. If the drainpipe detaches from the wall and lowers me Harold Lloyd style into the river I’ll end up doggy paddling above roughly where the Golden Hind moored after Drake’s circumnavigation. History is everywhere and it’s all out there to be explored, whether it’s visiting, say, an Historic Royal Palace, standing on a battlefield (I recommend the Battle Of Hastings site for example) or noticing a blue plaque on a building, we can see it, touch it, breathe it.
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the rest at the link above

 

[wfgodot]

Also, although curvature of the spine was found, another part of the RIII myth, the withered arm, was disproven.

 

[wfgodot]

Guardian has this and almost a dozen other articles devoted to the investigation:

Richard III skeleton raises bone of contention over DNA evidence
A mitochondrial DNA match does not always yield perfect
results as two people could have the same type simply by chance

 

[badhorsie]

Richard III recon from last night's programme

 

[wfgodot]

The REAL face of Richard III: King who died in battle at 32 is brought back
to life with reconstruction of 500-year-old skull found beneath council car park

Daily Mail's lengthy accounting, with all sorts of pictures, sidebars, etc. etc.

 

[badhorsie]

And we still have Alfred the Great and Henry I still missing. What is it about the English losing their kings?

 

[Kat]

A very handsome young man.

I'm not knowledgeable about scoliosis do you think that his would be considered moderate or severe?

The article said it would have decreased his height up to about a foot, making him stand about 4' 7" or 4' 8"ish? I wonder if this effected his gait and if when he stood one of his shoulders would have appeared higher? Just curious.

I also wonder if he had any pain from this?

I still adore Shakespeare's Richard III because he created a magnificently malevolent character.

 

[wfgodot]

5 Remarkable Things Discovered Under Parking Lots (Mental Floss)

 

[Kat]

Reminds me of that song wfg. "paved paradise and put up a parking lot" for some reason

 

[Perodicticus potto]

By coincidence, the announcement of the skeleton's identity happened just after I'd finished Josephine Tey's novel The Daughter of Time, which argues fairly convincingly that Richard was innocent of the princes' murder and that his reputation was smeared by the Tudors.

I hoped they would re-bury him in London so I could pop along to the service, but it looks like it'll be up north.

 

[wfgodot]

Some articles from the last week-plus:

The Shape of a Life (The New Yorker)

A mystery fit for a king (Washington Post)

Richard III: Greatest archaeological discovery of all? (BBC News)

Battle Over Richard III’s Bones…And His Reputation (Smithsonian)

University of Leicester wins battle over Richard III burial (itv.com)

First images of tomb where Richard III could finally be laid to rest (Daily Mail)

Richard III's Bones: Is This the Beginning of an Exhumation Craze? (The Atlantic)

 

[Kat]

Thanks wfg. This event happens to coincide with a class I'm taking on renaissance english lit.

 

[wfgodot]

Thanks wfg. This event happens to coincide with a class I'm taking on renaissance english lit.

To name two who fit there, I wish they could find the graves of Christopher Marlowe and Edward de Vere - both lost.

 

[LaborDayRN]

Also, although curvature of the spine was found, another part of the RIII myth, the withered arm, was disproven.

I would imagine with that degree of curvature, his left shoulder would drop significantly when standing (unlike the way the skeleton is positioned). It may have appeared his arm was affected in some way.

 

[wfgodot]

Shakespeare loved the malignant image the word helped summon:

Then be your eyes the witness of their evil.
Look how I am bewitched! Behold mine arm
Is like a blasted sapling withered up;
And this is Edward’s wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have markèd me.

 

[wfgodot]

Disclos'd (by Ian Frazier, in The New Yorker)

Act V, Scene 6
Alarums. Enter King Richard.
King Richard
And so at last I find an empty space
Wherein to leave my much fatiguèd horse.
Enter Richmond.
Richmond
Great God of Heav’n, thou foul and ill-made dog!
Canst thou not see this empty space is mine?
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and the rest at the link above

 

[wfgodot]

Richard III to be laid to rest in £1 million tomb after being found in a car park

• Remains of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, were discovered under a car park among the ruins of a church in Leicester last September
• Leicester Cathedral, which will raise the money itself, said the design for the new tomb will be ready in September

article, pictures at the DM link

 

[Donamena]

Richard III to be laid to rest in £1 million tomb after being found in a car park

• Remains of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, were discovered under a car park among the ruins of a church in Leicester last September
• Leicester Cathedral, which will raise the money itself, said the design for the new tomb will be ready in September

article, pictures at the DM link

I was mistaken, I see, in my belief that the Tudors had all of the Plantagenets murdered.
I hope I can get to England next year, if only to see where my great-grandfather was born.

 

[Donamena]

Wfgodot- where do you feel he should be buried?

 

[wfgodot]

Wfgodot- where do you feel he should be buried?

Not sure; haven't given it quite the thought I should, though I suppose Leicester Cathedral's as good of spot as any really. Not far from the scene of his final battle.