The New Murrey and Blue blog

Here is an interesting post from Annette Carson (originally posted on Facebook)

I’ve just watched the first Michael Portillo programme on Portugal, where he visits Aveiro and films the beautiful tomb of The Holy Princess Joana.

This is the Portuguese princess with whom Richard III was in negotiation to marry, a marriage which she and her Royal Council happily agreed to.

It seems Channel 5 harbours some prejudice against King Richard, because here once again we hear disparaging language used to describe him: “A curiosity is that the NOT very saintly King Richard III of England wanted to marry her” [her willingness to marry him not being mentioned]. “These two, who never came together in life, remained separated in death. She in this magnificent tomb. What are thought to be [thought to be!] HIS bones were discovered in a municipal car park in 2012 and he’s now reinterred in Leicester cathedral.”

This perpetuates the ‘car park’ trope that I tried so hard to stop Leicester University’s press office from using, because it totally suppresses the important fact that Richard’s grave was actually discovered in a prestigious position in the choir of the church of the Franciscan Friars, and he ALSO was commemorated with a tomb.

It’s irrelevant that the land use ended up with tarmac on top. Indeed, if the family of Princess Joana had spawned their equivalent of England’s monstrous Henry VIII, then her tomb in the monastery at Aveiro would have been stripped and despoiled exactly like the monasteries in England, and who knows – it too might have ended up under a municipal car park centuries later.

Anyone interested in the story of Richard and Joana can read further on my website under ‘Ricardian Topics’, item number 9 in the Contents, ‘Joana and her Three Kings’

Ricardian Topics – Contents