The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA (40 page)

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. This 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)