Still arguing over Richard III’s bones

(Getty Images)

If Richard III had been half as popular in his lifetime as he is today, he could have reigned for many happy years. The never ending argument about where to bury him spilled onto the floor of the House of Commons during the slot reserved for any questions MPs might wish to direct towards the Church Commissioners. The commissoners’  spokesman, Sir Tony Baldry, was not asked about anything butt the impending funeral of the last Plantagenet king.

The York MP, Hugh Bayley, insisted that the decision on where to lay him to rest should “Take into account the wishes of Richard III (difficult, when the ex-king has been dead for 528 years). The Durham MP Helen Goodman wants him buried in Barnard Castle “where he lived happily for many years” and the Tory MP Edward Leigh, who is a Catholic, argued for “some element of Catholicism” in the funeral service.

This is all academic, because it is up to Leicester University to decide what to do with Richard’s bones, and they have already decided to bury them in Leicester cathedral.

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• wallhousewart

  Sorry, I apologize. I know that. Richard as Duke of Gloucester, residing in Yorkshire, as Lord of the North, assumed he would remain there while Edward IV lived a long happy life and handed the throne to his son Edward V. He didn’t anticipate inheriting the crown and moving to London. That’s why his wife is buried in Westminster. As Westminster is now closed to burials (I think I heard that), then Yorkminster it must be.

• Gary_Bristol

  Again, I say there is NO documented evidence that he wished to buried in York or anywhere else. I’ve heard this time and time again as if it would become fact if said often enough. We must not speak for the dead.