Richard III to be buried in Leicester
A British High Court has decided that the remains of Richard III should be buried at Leicester Cathedral. Earlier today, a three-judge panel released its decision rejecting a claim put forward by some descendants of the 15th-century English king to have a wider public consultation over where his final resting place should be.
The judges explain, “Since Richard III’s exhumation on 5 September 2012, passions have been roused and much ink has been spilt. Issues relating to his life and death and place of reinterment have been exhaustively examined and debated. The Very Reverend David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester Cathedral, has explained the considerable efforts and expenditure invested by the cathedral in order to create a lasting burial place as befits an anointed King. We agree that it is time for Richard III to be given a dignified reburial, and finally laid to rest.”
A group known as the Plantagenet Alliance had gone to court asking for Britain’s Secretary of State for Justice to review his decision that if Richard III was discovered that he would be buried at the nearest Christian burial site, which was Leicester Cathedral. They had been hoping that the English king might be buried at York Minster.
The judges however disagreed that the king himself wanted to be laid at rest in the northern city: “In our view, the suggestion that Richard III was to have endowed a chancery at York with 100 chaplains falls short of any definitive or overriding expression of where he wished to be buried.”
Furthermore, they dismissed the notions that the Secretary of State for Justice was negligent in carry out his duties when he issued the permits for archaeological excavation of the Leicester car park where the remains of Richard III were discovered. The judges also noted that Queen Elizabeth II has made no comment on having Richard’s remains buried elsewhere, and that the Church of England supports the decision to have the burial take place at Leicester Cathedral.
Click here to read the full court decision
For the rest, see: http://www.medievalists.net/2014/05/23/richard-iii-buried-leicester/
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