I hope all my American friends and readers are having a wonderful Memorial Day, with special good wishes to vets and their families.
After reading this article about Leicester’s plans for Richard III, several things struck me. Leicester is going all out to make Richard’s reburial a memorable event and I can’t help wondering if York would have shown as much enthusiasm. But it sounds as if all of the wrangling over Richard is going to cost British taxpayers a lot of money and that is a shame.
I am very pleased, though, that after five centuries, Richard will be getting a proper funeral and a final resting place worthy of the last Plantagenet king. I am not superstitious, but it seems almost miraculous to me that his lost grave was found for there was such a narrow window of opportunity to prove that the bones were indeed his. If it had happened a decade or two earlier, DNA technology would not have advanced to the point that a positive identification could be made, and if it happened twenty years down the line, there may not have been any descendants to test for their DNA, as the two individuals whose lineage was traced back seventeen generations to Richard’s sister are no longer young and neither have children.
Rest in peace, Richard, and even if you would have preferred York to Leicester had you been consulted, at least you are not buried near any of the Tudors or that Shakespeare chap.
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/VIC...
Published on May 25, 2014 06:35