A high court judge has given permission for descendants of Richard III’s relatives to challenge plans to rebury the king’s remains in Leicester rather than York…

Recently a high court judge ruled in favour of the Plantagenet Alliance which claims to represent a group of fifteen descendants from the relatives of Richard III. This group of people have lodged a complaint against the decision made by the justice secretary in connection with the excavation of Greyfriars in Leicester, where the remains of Richard III were found. The license to excavate was given under the condition that the king’s remains – should they be found – were to be “deposited in [Leicester’s] Jewry Wall museum or else be re-interred at [the city’s] St Martin’s Cathedral or a burial ground in which interments may legally take place”.

The group, represented by the Yorkshire firm, Gordons, has won the right to get a judicial review of the matter of the re-interment. The alliance argues that there should have been a consultation on the appropriate future location for the burial of the remains of the king, who is believed to have wanted the Cathedral of York to be the site for the graves of his son and his wife as well as himself.

In the ruling, The Hon. Mr Haddon-Cave said, “the archaeological discovery of the mortal remains of a former King of England after 500 years is without precedent. In my judgment, it is plainly arguable that there was a duty at common law to consult widely as to how and where Richard III’s remains should appropriately be re-interred.” According to The Lawyer, the judge added that the Government should have consulted a wide range of consultees, including UK citizens “who have an interest in the place of reburial of the remains of a King of England”, Richard III’s living descendants, civic and ecclesiastical bodies, the Queen and also “the wishes of Richard III himself, in so far as they can be ascertained or inferred”. On the other hand he counselled both sides against “embarking on the (legal) Wars of the Roses Part 2.” In his view, it would be unseemly, undignified and unedifying to have a legal tussle over these royal remains, said Haddon-Cave.

The ruling has been met with some consternation in Leicester, where plans for the future re-interment of the remains of the king in the Cathedral has already moved well ahead.

At stake here is a drawn-out feud between two Ricardian societies, one of which – The Richard III Society  – was the prime mover in organising the archaeological excavation. The other, which is based in York is called “The Society of Friends of King Richard III” .

Another issue is future tourist income. Leicester, which has trouble competing with the more well-endowed city of Medieval York hopes to develop cultural tourism centering on the battle of Bosworth and the remarkable find of the body of Richard III. Already the Cathedral of Leicester had registered a 20-fold increase in their footfall since the identification of the “King in the Carpark”. The city of Leicester is currently planning a new visitor-centre at the sum of £4.5 mill.

York on the other hand was where the Yorkists stemmed from and where Richard spend a large part of his life before he was crowned king of England in 1483. It is also the only place, where the local council apparently dared to mourn his demise in public, claiming that he was “through great treason of the duke of Norfolk and many others that turned against him, with many other lords and nobles of this north parts, was piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city.” (York Memoranda from the York City Archives, House Book, B2-4, f.169v)