The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA (35 page)

  
7
. See Edwards, ‘King Richard's Tomb at Leicester'.

  
8
. J. Blair and N. Ramsey, eds,
English Medieval Industries
, London, 1991, p. 37.

  
9
. Blair and Ramsey,
English Medieval Industries
, p. 35;J.C. Cox,
Memorials of Old Derbyshire
, London, 1907, p. 108.

10
. M. Hicks,
Richard III and his Rivals
, London, 1991, p. 342; NA, PROB 11/11, will of Richard Lessy, 1498. I am grateful to Marie Barnfield for these references. The hard stone tomb with brass memorials for Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, and his second wife cost 400 marks (or about £267) in 1524.

11
. The tomb of William Shore, erstwhile husband of Edward IV's last mistress, is marked by an incised alabaster effigy, similar in appearance to a ‘brass'. See
Beloved Cousyn
, figure 19.

12
. The Latin texts of these two royal epitaphs are given in appendix 6, for comparison with the Latin text of the Richard III epitaph.

13
. The manuscript texts give
vano
rather than
vario
(i.e. ‘vain' or ‘ostentatious' marble).

14
. Sandford and BL, Add. MS 45131, f. 10v: ‘Was by many called Richard the Third'.

15
. ‘Exactly' or ‘merely'. The word means ‘just' in both senses.

16
. The extant manuscripts give a variant version of this line: ‘… and caused a non-king to be revered with the honour of a king'.

17
. 2 x 5 = 10, -4 = 6. An alternative possible (but less likely) reading of this line would be: ‘When [in] twice four years less five' (i.e. 2 x 4 = 8, -5 = 3).

18
. 300 x 5 = 1500, minus the figure given in the previous line (either 6 or 3) would give 1494 (or – less probably – 1497). This dating technique is a complex numbers game. The punctuation given here assumes that the writer's intention was to convey the date of the inauguration of the tomb and epitaph. With different punctuation, however, one could argue that the intention was to give the date of Richard's death – in which case the writer evidently became so tied up in his own cleverness that he got it wrong!

19
. On 22 August.

20
. Sandford and BL, Add. MS 45131, f. 10v: ‘… the right it claimed'.

21
. Henry VII himself referred to this first Yorkist pretender simply as
spurium quemdam puerum
(‘some illegitimate boy'): J. Gairdner, ed.,
Letters and Papers illustrative of the reigns of Richard III and Henry VII
, London, 1857, p. 95, citing BL, Add. MS 15385, f. 315.

22
. The real identity of this person is not known for certain, but Henry VII later sought to establish that he was one Pierre Werbecque of Tournai, and he is therefore usually referred to as ‘Perkin Warbeck'.

23
. J. Ashdown-Hill, ‘Coins attributed to the Yorkist Pretenders, 1487–1498',
Ric.
19 (2009), pp. 69–89 (pp. 81–86).

12. ‘Here Lies the Body'

  
1
. Seventeenth-century inscription from Alderman Herrick's pillar marking the gravesite of Richard III: C. Wren,
Parentalia, or Memoirs of the Family of the Wrens,
London, 1750, p. 144.

  
2
. A tomb effigy which fits the description of Richard's, and which shows signs of weathering, is now preserved in Tamworth church. P. Tudor-Craig, ed.,
Richard III Exhibition Catalogue
, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1972, no. 172.

  
3
. Wren,
Parentalia
, p. 144; D. Baldwin, ‘King Richard's Grave in Leicester',
Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society
, vol. 60 (1986), p. 22.

  
4
. Richard III Society, Barton Library, personal communication from S.H. Skillington, Hon. Secretary, Leicester Archaeological Society, to Saxon Barton, 29 October 1935.

  
5
. In the present Social Services Department car park on the former Greyfriars site.

  
6
.  See Richard Corbet's
Iter Boreale
(c. 1620–25), cited in J. Ashdown-Hill, ‘the Location of the 1485 Battle and the Fate of Richard III's Body',
Ricardian Bulletin
, Autumn 2004, pp. 34–35.

  
7
. Such violent exhumations did sometimes occur in the seventeenth century, during the Civil War. It is perhaps significant, therefore, that the story of the digging up of Richard's body was disseminated at about that period.

  
8
. The Commons were protesting against Cardinal Wolsey's attempt to enforce a ‘benevolence', thus contravening a statute against these forced taxes, enacted by Richard III. Wolsey rebuked the MPs, saying: ‘I marvel that you speak of Richard III, which was a usurper and murderer of his own nephews.' They, however, responded robustly: ‘Although he did evil, yet in his time were many good Acts made': J. Potter,
Good King Richard?
London, 1983, p. 23.

  
9
. It would be interesting to compare the DNA of this skull with that of Richard III (as revealed below), were it not for the fact that carbon-14 dating has already shown the skull to date from before the Norman Conquest (A. Wakelin, ‘Is there a king under this bridge?',
Leicester Mercury
, 8 October 2002, p. 10).

10
. VCH,
Leicestershire
, vol. 2, p. 33. The superior of a Franciscan Priory has the title not of ‘prior' but of ‘guardian'.

11
. See, for example, the extensive but roofless remains of the former Greyfriars at Little Walsingham in Norfolk.

12
. Speede,
History
, p. 725 (see appendix 4).

13
. Wren,
Parentalia
, p. 144.

14
. Speede,
History
, p. 725 (see appendix 4).

13. ‘The Honour of a King'

  
1
. Richard III's epitaph.

  
2
. The bishop of St David's so described him, and in August 1485 the city of York noted in its records its deep regret at his death:
Road
, pp. 135, 223. We have also seen that the House of Commons recalled him as a good king in the presence of a rather astonished Cardinal Wolsey during the reign of Henry VIII.

  
3
. Although Richard III had two known illegitimate children, they seem to have been older than his legitimate son. They are thus likely to have been begotten before Richard married.

  
4
. ‘… our father, King Edward the Fourth, whom God assoile': letter from Henry VII to Sir Gilbert Talbot, quoted in J. Gairdner,
History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third
, Cambridge, 1898, p. 276.

  
5
. ‘Very truth it is and well-known that at such time as Sir James Tyrell was in the Tower for treason committed against the most famous prince, King Henry the Seventh, both Dighton and he were examined and confessed the murder [of Edward V and Richard Duke of York]': R.S. Sylvester, ed., St Thomas More,
The History of King Richard III
, New Haven & London, 1976, pp. 88–89. Tyrell was executed in May 1502 for his support of the Yorkist prince Edmund de la Pole (son of Richard III's sister, Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk, and younger brother of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln).

  
6
. See
R3MK; Eleanor; Beloved Cousyn.

14. Richard III's Genes part I – the Fifteenth Century and Before

  
1
. For Richard's books, see the series of articles by A.F. Sutton and L. Visser-Fuchs,
Ric.
9 and 10 (1991–96). For his handwriting, see B. Hickey, ‘Richard III – a character analysis', published by P. Stirling-Langley,
Ricardian Bulletin
, September 2000, pp. 27–34, and March 2001, pp. 16–22. This article also refers to earlier published material on the same subject. For Richard's horoscope, see J. Elliott, ‘The Birth Chart of Richard III',
Astrological Quarterly
, vol. 70, no. 3 (Summer 2000), pp. 19–37.

  
2
. Richard III certainly had two illegitimate children. His daughter, Catherine, was married but died childless. His son, John of Gloucester, was put to death by Henry VII. There is also the curious story of Richard Plantagenet of Eastwell, an old man who died in Sussex in the reign of Elizabeth I, and who reportedly claimed to be Richard's son. See P.W. Hammond, ‘The Illegitimate Children of Richard III',
Ric.
5 (1977–81), pp. 92–96.

  
3
. As far as is known. John of Gloucester might conceivably have had illegitimate offspring of his own, but if so, no record of them survives.

  
4
. A letter dated 20 February 1478 mentions plans for Clarence's burial at Tewkesbury.

  
5
. Bodl, MS Top. Glouc. D.2, f. 40r-v.

  
6
. R.K. Morris and R, Shoesmith, eds,
Tewkesbury Abbey, History, Art and Architecture
, Almeley, 2003, pp. 32–40.

  
7
. The account which follows is based upon P. De Win, ‘
Danse Macabre
around the tomb and bones of Margaret of York',
Ric.
15 (2005), pp. 53–69.

  
8
. Her heart and intestines were buried in the Carthusian monasteries at Herne and Scheut respectively.

  
9
. 
Sub limine ostii huius chori.
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, fr. 5234, f. 146.

10
. P. De Win, ‘
Danse Macabre
rond graf en gebeente van Margareta van York',
Handelingen van de Koninklijke Kring voor Oudheidkunde, Letteren an Kunst van Mechelen
, 2003, pp. 61–86; English version published as ‘
Danse Macabre
around the tomb and bones of Margaret of York',
Ric.
15 (2005), pp. 53–69.

11
. The precise location of the original tomb was somewhat unclear. See De Win,
‘Danse Macabre', Handelingen
, p. 63 (
Ric.
15, p. 55) &
passim.

12
. Three skeletons found, one of them female; the latter aged between 50 and 60, and 1.54 metres in height.

13
. Two skeletons found, one of them female.

14
. Partial skeleton (secondary burial?), with hair, belonging to a woman of about 50.

15
. 
Dienst Archeologie.

16
. Information supplied by Dieter Viaene, Mechelen Town Archives, 29 June 2007.

17
. B. Sykes,
The Seven Daughters of Eve
, New York & London, 2001, p. 27.

18
. E. Hagelberg, B. Sykes and R.E.M. Hedges, ‘Ancient bone DNA amplified',
Nature
, vol. 342 (1989), p. 485.

19
. A.J. Klotzko,
A Clone of Your Own?
Oxford, 2004, p. 52.

20
. J. Marks,
What it means to be 98% Chimpanzee
, London and Berkeley, 2002, p. 34.

21
. The designations, lifetimes and places of origin of the clan mothers as given here are derived from Sykes,
The Seven Daughters of Eve
, p. 195 and
passim.
It was Professor Sykes who named the clan mothers.

22
. D. Brewer,
Chaucer and his World
, London, 1978, p. 89.

23
. 
Ibid.

24
. These adjectives of nationality are, of course, anachronistic in a fifteenth-century context, but it is convenient to employ them.

25
. One recent writer suggests the contrary, stating that ‘it is possible to speculate that, given [Gilles'] time in the court of the English King and Queen, his wife or wives were of English origin'. J. Lucraft,
Katherine Swynford, the History of a Medieval Mistress
, Stroud, 2006, p. 2. However, there is actually little evidence that Gilles spent a great deal of time at the English court.

26
. J. Gardner,
The Life and Times of Chaucer
, London, 1977, p. 118.

27
. J. Perry, ‘Philippa Chaucer's Tomb' (2002),
http://members.cox.net/judy-perry/Philippa.html
(consulted June 2009), p. 2. The tomb, with an effigy of a lady in a wimple, is uninscribed. It is identified as Philippa's on the basis of the de Roët wheel badge which the lady wears on her breast. Philippa's son, Thomas Chaucer, held the manor of East Worldham from 1418–1434.

28
. 
ODNB
, vol. 30, pp. 888–89.

29
. Later Marquess of Somerset and Dorset.

30
. G.C. Coulton,
Chaucer and his England
, London, 1908, p. 31. Chaucer's sons were apparently proud of their de Roët heritage. It has been claimed that they abandoned their father's coat of arms, preferring to use the de Roët arms which came to them from their mother. G.K. Chesterton,
Chaucer
, London, 1932, p. 80.

31
. Reported in J. Ashdown-Hill, ‘Alive and Well in Canada – the Mitochondrial DNA of Richard III',
Ric.
16 (2006), pp. 1–14.

15. Richard III's Genes part II – the mtDNA Line

  
1
. Kendall,
Richard the Third
, pp. 261, 274.

  
2
. 
ODNB
, vol. 13, p. 22.

  
3
. 
ODNB
, vol. 13, p. 22.

  
4
.  J.D. Mackie,
The Earlier Tudors, 1485-1558
, Oxford 1952, p. 387.

  
5
. 
ODNB
, vol. 13, p. 22.

  
6
. All of Margaret Babthorpe's (Cholmley) daughters married, some of them more than once, however, only one bloodline – the one followed here – has successfully been traced to the present day.

  
7
. One who conformed in public as an Anglican, but who was a Catholic in private.

  
8
. 
ODNB
, vol. 50, p. 939, quoting Slingsby's diary.