Back in the land of Richard III

Remember this scene?

Wednesday 12th September 2012...the scene in the Guildhall in Leicester as the archaeology team from the University of Leicester announced the discovery of a skeleton at the Greyfriars dig.

I can still oh so vividly recall the delicious tingle as I heard the evidence so far about their find.

You can see the back of my head in shot on the left hand side ...it looks as if the TV camera is resting on my shoulder....

Well, since then , millions of words have been written about the discovery of Richard III in newspapers and journals across the world, but I'm pleased to say that the two leading archaeologists involved have now written a book about the startling series of events before and after the discovery.

Their book "Richard III, the King under the Car Park" was launched two weeks ago yesterday at the University of Leicester, and books were literally being grabbed off the tables , money being thrown at the university bookshop sales and assistants, and the authors must have been getting cramp from all the copies they were signing.

One of the authors is the unassuming Mathew Morris, I remember meeting him first thing in the morning at the dig  the day the first announcement was made. I was with the radio car doing live broadcasts, he was quietly checking the site...and there was a security guard. Just the three of us...and it really was the calm before the storm...

 

It was great to see Mathew last Friday, enjoying the drinks and the canapés, yet finding time to talk to everyone.

 

 

And of course Richard Buckley was there too...the project director and lead archaeologist for the Greyfriars project, as well as being the co director of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team. I can't remember how many times I've interviewed Richard, yet he always finds something fresh and interesting to say and he still hasn't lost a  genuine sense of wonder about the whole discovery.

 

 

And here's the book!

 

What I like about this is the way both Mathew and Richard have managed to straddle the difficulty of producing a book which satisfies their peers and yet makes this archaeological find so accessible to everyone. At a very affordable price and published by the University of Leicester, it's the first to tell the story from those who actually found the King, sharing  what happened at the dig, the mood there, and putting the find into context with mediaeval Leicester.

Luckily I managed to fight off others and buy some copies from a quickly dwindling pile on the night and get them signed.

Meanwhile in other Richard III news, the University of Leicester has received royal recognition for the excellence of the work on the discovery of the King, with the award of the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. 

 

And there's more good news....yesterday,  the University of Leicester was also awarded "Research Project of the Year" at this year's Times Higher Education Awards for it's work on the discovery of Richard III.

 

 

But, and here's a big but, everything is not hunky dory in Richard III land here in Leicester. The legal battle over where his remains should be buried was adjourned at the High Court on Wednesday.

It's all getting very complicated. A judicial review will now judge whether the procedure which led to his bones being excavated here in the city was done correctly .

Before the dig even began, a licence to carry out the dig, issued by the Ministry of Justice, gave the authority to decide where to rebury the king to the university.

The latest hoo ha  still involves the Plantaganet Alliance...whose members want Richard buried in York Minister, and who are challenging the Justice Secretary's decision not to consult further before granting a licence to the University of Leicester to excavate the King's remains.

 They were given permission to bring  judicial review proceedings against both the Justice Secretary and the University of Leicester a while back by a High Court judge.....but now an adjournment has been declared so that the Leicester City Council can play a role too in the decision regarding what happens to the remains. (It was in their car park that the King was found.)

Well, I did warn you it was getting very complicated and long winded and it looks as if this is one story which just keeps running.

Meanwhile, this song has been running through my head as I've been writing this.....Finders Keepers by the Chairman of the Board from 1973 ....

And as far as I and thousands of other people, in this city and beyond, are concerned, Richard was found here, and should be kept here....

 

 

 

 

The day they found King Richard III

A week ago today I was up early ...at 4.30am to be precise. Up early to cover a story which has captured the imagination of the world's press......and at the centre of the story, a location two minutes walk away from the BBC studios.

 

That's why I was in all alone in a car park at 6.45am, radio car mast up, raring to go on a story which has made my heart sing. Was the body of poor, much maligned Richard III really found under a car park owned by Leicester City Council?

 

 

 

At that stage, we didn't know...the University of Leicester had issued a press release saying human remains had been found at the archeolgical dig hunting for the body of the King, and that there would be a press conference at 11am .

 

So for my first four pieces on air, all I could do was talk about the dig, describe the three trenches that had been dug by archaeologists,

 

 

 

give a potted history about the King, his last battle and his death, and reiterate that the remains found could be his.

 

But for the University to hold such a press conference, there had to be some real news, and I was so keen to find out. After eight, I interviewed Sir Peter Soulsby, the City Mayor of Leicester live on air...and all the time we spoke he was grinning from ear to ear with a barely suppressed excitement. He still wouldn't tell me whether it was Richard III 's body which had been found of course, but by now, I couldn't wait for 11am.

 

Meanwhile, it was still quiet in the car park....Matthew Morrison , the archaeologist who was there when they found the skeleton and a few of his team were there at 8am...but it was the lull before the storm.

 

Here's the exact spot where the remains were found

 

 

 

By half past ten, the beautiful, mediaeval Guildhall in Leicester was heaving with people, lights, cameras. Most of the daily newspapers had sent down  reporters, TV camera crews were there from all the major news networks here in the UK and from Canada.

 

A panel of experts, from the University of Leicester , led by Richard Buckley, were on stage to give us the news we had all been waiting for......that the remains appeared to be of an adult male.

 

The remains were found in the choir of the fransciscan friary, and that the Choir was the area reported in the historical record as the burial place of King Richard III.

There was a pause....then we were told the skeleton appeared to have suffered significant peri-mortem trauma to the skull consistent with an injury received in battle, and a bladed implement appeared to have cleaved part of the rear of the skull.

 

Notice, at this stage we were getting a lot of "appeared to", but we were already on the edge of our seats. But Philippa Langley, an author, screnwriter and a member of the Richard III Society, told us, in breathy and emotional tones, that a ballad written just after the Battle of Bosworth claimed that Richard III died after being hit on the head with a poleaxe.

 

We were also informed that a barbed iron arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the skeleton’s upper back.

And then came the killer line....the skeleton found in the Choir area had spinal abnormalities and the individual would have had severe scoliosis – which is a form of spinal curvature. This would have made his right shoulder appear visibly higher than the left shoulder. This was consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance.

 

There were audible intakes of breath around the Guildhall, and the panel were grinning. However, the experts are still hedging their bets, saying that they cannot confirm anything until the results of DNA tests.

 

A direct descendent of Richard III has been found...Michael Ibsen is a seventeenth generation descendent through the female line.....and his DNA tests will be compared to those of the body found under the car park.

 

I really can't wait to hear the results.

 

So after the press conference, it was back to the dig in the car park to interview Richard Buckley who is heading the dig and archeologist Matthew Morrison. ...which by now was crowded with people, camera crews, the City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby and a couple of his bodyguards..

 

 

 

What a genuinely exciting day it was .....with a 500 year old mystery which is within a whisker of being solved.

 

Mind you, there's a more modern mystery connected with the find. Since the discovery of the body , there's a new account on twitter @richard_third

 

I don't know who's writing it, but the tweets are hilarious,  topical and make my day in a surreal sort of way.

 

 

 

 

There's another question which is already being debated - IF the body IS that of Richard III where should his body be reburied? Many say he should stay here in leicester...in the Cathedral, a stone's throw away. But after 527 years in Leicester, could it be that Richard III could finally leave the city?

 

Today's track could be no other than this by Supergrass = Richard III!