The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA

THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE DIG

In memory of Joy Ibsen,
Richard III's niece in the sixteenth generation,
without whose help the final chapters could not have been written.

Federico García Lorca,
Bodas de Sangre
[
Blood Wedding
] act 1, scene 2

(translation J. Ashdown-Hill)

‘… the truth is that those of us who were alive then never knew what really happened'

J.K. Rowling,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
, p. 129

Front
: Richard III Paston Portrait © Society of Antiquaries of London

First published in 2010
Second edition published in 2013

The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire,
GL
5 2
QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved
© John Ashdown-Hill, 2010, 2011, 2013

The right of John Ashdown-Hill, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN
978 0 7524 9866 9

Original typesetting by The History Press

Contents

List of Illustrations

Illustrations not otherwise attributed are the property of the author.

1. The royal family in 1484: Queen Anne Neville, King Richard III, and Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales. Engraving of 1844, after the Rous Roll.

2. Queen Anne Neville's grave was originally marked by a brass memorial in the Abbey Church at Westminster. This lost monument – the only brass memorial to a queen in England – may once have carried a figure similar to that shown in one version of the contemporary Rous Roll.

3. Nowadays Anne's place of burial is marked only by a plaque with this modern brass shield displaying her coat of arms.

4. The Gatehouse of the Priory of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitaller), Clerkenwell. Richard III came here on Wednesday 30 March 1485, possibly to perform the royal ritual of touching for the ‘King's Evil', and issued a public denial of rumours that he planned to marry his illegitimate niece, Elizabeth of York.

5. The seal of Richard III's nephew, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln. (© Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service)

6. Richard III's nephew, Edward of Clarence, Earl of Warwick. Engraving of 1859, after the Rous Roll.

7. Richard III's nieces (the four eldest surviving daughters of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville): Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne and Catherine. Fifteenth-century stained glass from Little Malvern Priory, Worcs. (© Geoffrey Wheeler). Unlike the figures from the Royal Window at Canterbury (which have been heavily restored), these are authentic contemporary representations of Richard III's nieces.

8. Copy of Richard III's earliest surviving portrait. © The Dean and Chapter of Leicester.

9. Richard III's preferred prospective bride, Infanta Joana of Portugal (© Geoffrey Wheeler). Redrawn from the portrait attributed to Nuño Gonçalves in the Museu de Aveiro.

10. Richard III's alternative prospective bride, Infanta Isabel of Spain (© Geoffrey Wheeler). Redrawn from ‘Our Lady of Grace with the family of the Catholic Monarchs', painting of
c.
1485, the Cistercian Monastery, Burgos.

11. Henry VI as a saint, from the fifteenth-century rood screen, Eye church, Suffolk.

12. A medieval Corpus Christi procession: a bishop, walking beneath a canopy, carries the Host in a monstrance.

13. & 14. Courtyard of St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry, showing the northwest view and south-east view. Richard III probably stayed at the Guildhall while attending the Coventry Corpus Christi celebrations in June 1485. (© Robert Orland)

15. Kenilworth Castle, where Richard III stayed in May–June 1485. Engraving of 1829.

16. The approach to the hunting lodge, Bestwood Park (Sherwood Forest), where Richard III stayed for about a week in mid-August 1485. (© John Beres)

17. Deer were probably Richard III's quarry at Bestwood Park. Fifteenth-century wood carving from the Guildhall, Eye, Suffolk.

18. The outer wall and gateway of Nottingham Castle where Richard III stayed from late June to August 1485. (© Anne Ayres. Image courtesy of the Richard III Society Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Group)

19. The old Blue (White?) Boar Inn, Leicester, where Richard III reportedly spent the night of 20–21 August 1485. Engraving of 1788.

20. The supposed bed of Richard III from the Blue (White?) Boar Inn, Leicester, now displayed at Donington-le-Heath Manor House. Despite its Ricardian attribution, this bed, as now preserved, appears significantly later in date. (© Sally Henshaw. Image courtesy of the Richard III Society East Midlands Branch)

21. Chair from Coughton Court, Warwickshire, reputed to be made of wood from Richard III's camp bed. (© NT/Simon Pickering)

22. Old Bow Bridge, Leicester. Engraving of 1861.

23. The author's tentative reconstruction of the Leicester Greyfriars church, seen from the north, in the fifteenth century.

24. Tracery from a choir window of the Leicester Greyfriars church, discovered in August 2012. The tracery comes from a window similar to those shown in plate 23.

25. Alabaster tomb effigy of Richard III's brother-in-law, John de la Pole. Duke of Suffolk, Wingfield Church, Suffolk,
c.
1495. Richard III's tomb of 1494–95 at the Leicester Greyfriars was probably very similar in appearance.

26. Richard III's epitaph from Sir Thomas Wriothesley's manuscript of
c.
1510, BL, Add. MS 45131, f. 10v. (© British Library)

27. Richard III's epitaph from Thomas Hawley's manuscript of
c.
1535, College of Arms, MS I 3, f. 4. (© College of Arms)

28. John Speede's mistake as revealed by his plan of Leicester – proof of his unreliability regarding Richard III's gravesite.

29. Opening Trench One at the start of the excavation of Greyfriars car park in Leicester, which occupies the site of the former Greyfriars church. The white rectangle marks the site where Richard III's grave was discovered.

30. Engraving of the monument to Richard III's sister, Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter, and her second husband, in St George's Chapel, Windsor. The female-line descendants of this couple have preserved the mitochondrial DNA of Edward IV and Richard III into the twenty-first century.

31. Portrait in oils of Barbara Spooner (Mrs William Wilberforce) after the pastel portrait by John Russell. Barbara was Richard III's niece in the twelfth generation. (Private collection, reproduced by courtesy of the owner)

32. Alice Strettell (Comyns Carr), at the age of twenty-three. Alice was Richard III's niece in the fourteenth generation, the wife of an Edwardian theatre producer, a friend of Dame Ellen Terry and goddaughter of the author, Charles Kingsley. Photograph taken in 1873, at the time of her marriage.

33. Alice Strettell's only daughter, Dorothy (‘Dolly') Comyns Carr, at the age of three. Dolly was Richard III's niece in the fifteenth generation. Photograph of a sketch by E.A. Abbey, published in
Mrs J. Comyns Carr's Reminiscences
, 1925.

34. Alma Strettell (Harrison), Richard III's niece in the fourteenth generation. Photograph of the portrait by John Singer Sargent published in
Mrs J. Comyns Carr's Reminiscences
, 1925. Alma was a writer, a friend of the artists Sargent and Burne Jones, and a close friend of Queen Elisabeth of Romania.

35. Alma Strettell's younger daughter, Sylvia Harrison, Richard III's niece in the fifteenth generation. Photograph of the portrait by John Singer Sargent published in
Mrs J. Comyns Carr's Reminiscences
, 1925.