6th April 2013
This is a huge day for all of us who have any interest in medieval history. Today the researchers published the DNA results for the remains found in the Leicester car park which have been confirmed to be the body of Richard III.
This will make no difference to his reputation: whether or not he killed the princes in the Tower or was the rightful king of England will be unchanged by these findings, but those of us who cannot help but admire Richard will be glad his body was found and now can be laid to rest.
Early reports that speak of curvature of the spine in this skeleton seem to support the savage picture drawn by Shakespeare of a man bent in mind and body. This makes his achievements as a boy warrior and the last English king to be killed in battle even greater. Now that it has been proved to be Richard III we can give him a burial fit for a medieval king whatever he did in his life. This would have mattered to him. He gathered the remains of his own father and reburied them in the family vault in a great act of filial piety. We should do no less for him: sinner or hero.
This is Aneurin Barnard who plays Richard of Gloucester in The White Queen, the forthcoming BBC TV series, based on my three novels The White Queen, The Red Queen, and The Kingmaker’s Daughter due for release in May. The series follows my books’ view of Richard, as a fiercely loyal younger brother to the king. Only at Edward IV’s death did Richard think of the crown for himself and that was partly because of his fear of the power of the Rivers family, who gathered around Elizabeth the Queen and her son Prince Edward. Richard’s brutal and decisive actions against his enemies was typical of the violence of the times, and we may never know whether he was responsible for the death of the princes in the Tower. My view of the tragic events which led to the disappearance of the princes is told from three viewpoints, that of Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort, and Anne Neville, and they are as different as their narrators.
Of course there will be a great debate about what should happen to the remains of Richard III, now that archaeologists have confirmed that it was his body discovered in Leicester. He was a king of England, some people will want him to be laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. Leicester will probably want to keep the body in their town, the city of York, who loved him and remained loyal to him long after Henry Tudor had taken the throne has a good claim, the white rose of York is already displayed in the beautiful cathedral. I would choose to bury him with simple dignity at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire. It’s a little known little-visited castle that he loved and chose to make his home in the North. When I was last there I found white roses on the ruined altar. Some people still remember this tragic king of England.