British headlines on Monday morning revealed a story that would appeal to both history buffs and fans of C.S.I.-style forensic crime shows.
The body of Richard III, slain at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, has been found buried deep beneath a Leicester car park, scientists confirmed today.
Unlike the deaths of the two young princes that Richard will forever be linked to, his own death was not shrouded in mystery. He died on the battlefield that many historians mark as the end of the Middle Ages in England. To be sure, the battle did end the long-running “War of the Roses” as Richard was the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. But although the location of Richard’s death was ne ver in doubt, the exact location of his burial was lost to history. His enemies did not give him a royal burial.
The University of Leicester confirmed on 4 February 2013 that a skeleton found in the excavation was, beyond reasonable doubt, that of Richard III, based on a combination of evidence from radiocarbon dating, comparison with contemporary reports of his appearance, and a comparison of his mitochondrial DNA with two matrilineal descendants of Richard III’s eldest sister, Anne of York.
Looking at the pictures of Richard’s bones in the dirt, you cannot help thinking of William Shakespeare’s lines written for Hamlet as he held a skull unearthed by a comical gravedigger. Prince Hamlet discovers that the skull once belonged to his very own childhood court jester:
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
abhorred in my imagination it is!
All this leads Hamlet to philosophize with the gravedigger about the common fate of death that awaits all – rich or poor, royalty or peasant. He says (in modern verbiage):
Just follow the logic: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returned to dust, the dust is dirt, and dirt makes mud we use to stop up holes. So why can’t someone plug a beer barrel with the dirt that used to be Alexander? The great emperor Caesar, dead and turned to clay, might plug up a hole to keep the wind away. Oh, to think that the same body that once ruled the world could now patch up a wall! But quiet, be quiet a minute.
Scripture teaches that no one can add even an hour to the length of his life (Matthew 6:27), does not have power over the day of death (Ecclesiastes 8:8), and should pray for God to teach how to number his or her days.
King Richard III died on an important battlefield. Most of us will die in a less historic manner, and it is doubtful that our bones will be dug up and put into a museum 500 years from now – with much fanfare or publicity.
But at the point of death, eternity levels the earthly social strata of all humanity. Earthly kings will all stand before the King of Kings on the same ground as a muddy gravedigger.
On that day, well, as the songwriter says “I can only imagine.”
As Hebrews 9:27 says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”
1 Comment. Leave new
Carmen,
I enjoyed your blog on “The Bones of Richard III.” He was quite a dark character in English history wasn’t he? Have you read Josephine Tey’s “The daughter of Time”? It is a masterful whodunnit on whether or not Richard murdered the two young princes in the Tower. I have a copy from the Folio Society.
Thanks again for your piece,
Bob Bullock
PS WIPC will be dismissed from New Covenant March16 to ECO.