Poor Richard III, still getting the short end of the stick

"Richard III" Society of Antiquaries, ca. 1515 AD

Imagine you are the devout Catholic king of a famous country until one day you are killed in a battle, which your side loses.  Imagine further that the guy who led the other side in the battle becomes king.  That much seems seems fair enough.  The other guy's son also becomes king after him, which also seems fair.  However, one of the most important things the son does is to start a new religion that everybody in the kingdom is forced to join.   Meanwhile, your body is never recovered from the battlefield, and remains lost for centuries.  Finally, your body is found, under a parking lot.  [A reader kindly points out that Richard's body was indeed recovered from Bosworth field and buried in Greyfriars church, Leicester.   Henry VIII, the son of the guy who defeated Richard, dissolved the friary in 1538 and sold the real estate to developers.  The developers demolished the buildings and sold off the stones, making it much harder to figure out where Richard's body lay, which is how eventually a parking lot came to be placed above it.] 

Everyone agrees that your bones should be interred with suitable ceremony.   Would you want that ceremony to be according to the rites of the Catholic religion, the religion you practiced devoutly, or according to the rites of some crazy new religion started by the son of the guy who defeated you in the battle in which you got killed?   You'd want Catholic rites, right?   Well, so undoubtedly would King Richard III (1452 - 1485 AD), to whom all the things in my imaginary story actually happened, but that's not what he's going to get.

Now that we've found Richard III's bones

Where to next?

We are faced with the question of where and how to bury them.  Richard himself, a pious Catholic notwithstanding  Shakespeare and Holinshed's depictions, wished to be buried in Yorkminster, which at the time of Richard's death was a Catholic cathedral, Protestantism having not yet been invented.  Wherever Richard is buried, it ought to be done according to a Catholic rite.  The estimable Dr. Oddie has more here.

Sign the petition to have Richard buried in a Catholic site here. 

Update: unless you're one of Her Majesty's subjects, or reside in the UK, you will not be permitted to sign the petition.

What do the Big Bad Wolf and Richard III have in common?

Both Disney's big bad wolf and Olivier's characterization of Richard III are said to have been based on theatrical producer Jed Harris.   George S. Kaufman once said when he died, he wanted to be cremated so that his ashes could be thrown in Jed Harris' face.  Must have been quite a guy.

Battle of Bosworth Field

                                                         Tudor propaganda?

The pivotal battle between the House of Lancaster/Tudors and the House of York/Plantagenets was fought on this date in 1485 AD.   Henry Tudor and his supporters were victorious, defeating the Plantagenets led by Richard III.  Henry is glowingly portrayed in the famous drama depicting the battle, Shakespeare's "Tragedy of Richard III."  It is difficult to share Shakespeare's enthusiasm for the Tudors, in view of the disasters that would befall the Church in England under that dynasty.  Perhaps the Plantagenets would have been as bad for the Church, though it is hard to imagine they would have worse.  

Clearly, these people are convinced Richard III deserved better from Shakespeare.  Every year on this date, they pay for a notice in the New York Times like this one:

PLANTAGENET-Richard III, King of England, misrepresented and maligned by history, maliciously killed by treason on 22 August 1485. He appealed to the ideals of loyalty, lordship and honor. He knew how to command, how to reward, but most of all, he knew how to inspire. Lovingly remembered by The International Patrons of the Richard III Foundation, Inc.,