The New Murrey and Blue blog

A list of ten facts that were taught at school but are no longer true has been published at this site.  It’s a very interesting list with some things that I really didn’t know about, but at number 8 is the following:-

“[Untrue fact} NO-ONE KNOWS WHERE RICHARD III’S BODY IS.

“Correction: He was buried under a car park in Leicester.

“For over 500 years, historians and archaeologists had been searching for the body of King Richard III, who died from injuries sustained in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The long mystery was solved in 2013 when researchers from the University of Leicester announced that they’d discovered the controversial monarch’s remains beneath a car park in the city.”

Well, it’s not strictly true that no one knew where Richard’s remains were. There was a myth about them being thrown into the River Soar, but that was just a yarn. At the time of his death he was recorded as having been lain to rest at Grey Friars, Leicester, and that is indeed where he was found in 2012. So Richard wasn’t buried under a car park. They didn’t have car parks in 1485! He was buried at Grey Friars, which was later razed and by the 21st century had been replaced by a car park. Rather different.

But that isn’t why I have a gripe about this entry in the list, more that the University of Leicester and its researchers get sole credit for finding him, with no mention of Philippa Langley et al. The university didn’t do all the finding and wouldn’t even have embarked on the project if it weren’t for the hard work and determination of those who DID have the conviction that Richard’s remains lay were they were eventually found.

The illustration above is the one from the above site. Not one of Richard’s most flattering.