26
Aug

Remembering Bosworth

   Posted by: Julia Redlich   in News, NSW Branch News

On Sunday, 25 August, a group of our members and friends gathered at St Mary’s Church, Waverley, for the morning service.  Sadly some who were coming were prevented by sudden events and others missed their public transport from far-flung areas of Sydney. Oh the tyranny of the Sunday time-tables! But  Rupert and his wife Susan made it (it was Rupert’s birthday), and Angela was able to join us too.

As always we were warmly welcomed by the Rector, choir and parishioners who have always appreciated our attendance on the Sunday nearest the anniversary of King Richard’s death at Bosworth Field. Not only was Richard’s own prayer from his Book of Hours read (abridged of course), but the parish letter for the week made especial mention of why this is such a special year for the Society. It was headed ‘A Message from the Richard III Society’.

This year has been an amazing one for the Society and its members around the world. I think all of us find it hard to believe that we have witnessed – even if from a distance – the discovery of the remains of the man who is the reason the Society exists. Until this year, because no-one knew where he was buried, we have remembered him on the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth Field at church services and by laying white roses at memorials to him.

We now have confirmation that the skeleton discovered during the recent archaeological dig in Leicester is indeed that of Richard III, who hitherto had been the only king of England without a tomb. He had been buried in the choir of the Greyfriars chapel in Leicester, but this was destroyed on Henry VIII’s orders during the Dissolution of the Monasteries between 1536 and 1540. The discovery of his skeleton led by Leicester University could not have taken place without the leadership of two members of the Richard III Society: Philippa Langley and John Ashdown-Hill. Ashdown-Hill is the historian who identified the car park as the site of the Greyfriars chapel, and who also meticulously researched the Richard’s DNA through tracing the descendants of his eldest sister, Anne, Duchess of Exeter. The astonishing match with that of the DNA extracted from the skeleton confirmed identification.

We hope that King Richard will be re-interred in 2014 with all the dignity and admiration that the last Plantagenet King of England deserves.

After the service we joined the parish for morning tea. This was a great opportunity to meet those who were longing to talk about car parks, scoliosis and the unfairness of the reputation that has been foisted on the last Plantagenet king. Copies of our brochure about the Society, and Richard’s life and times were collected, hopefully to counteract any doubts.

As for the morning tea, I doubt if any of us has seen such a splendid one! Delicious ribbon sandwiches, vol-au-vents and pizza slices, chocolate cakes, strawberries and cream – and fine teas and coffee that had never heard the word “instant” applied! Ricardians tried to control their appetites as we knew we had a lunch to attend …

A beautiful bonus to the morning was meeting someone who had just dropped in on the service on her way past. In case she was turned away because of her casual clothes, she thought she could sit in the gardens outside and read the book she had brought with her. She entered St Mary’s, was welcomed, and to her amazement saw a group of people all wearing white roses. Light dawned. The book she was reading was Philippa Gregory’s The Lady of the Rivers, so she knew very well what white roses meant! To cut a long story short, Maggi is about to fill in a membership application form.

Our remembrance of Bosworth Field is always special. This year it was highlighted by the pleasure others expressed that we now know where Richard III has lain for the past 500 plus years and there will be an opportunity to re-inter him with honour.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 26th, 2013 at 10:37 and is filed under News, NSW Branch News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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