An Archaeologist's Dream

It truly is an archaeologist’s dream to find a complete skeleton in the first trench opened that turns out to be a missing King of England. Phillipa Langley, from the Richard III Society, personally raised over £10,000 to finance this dig. Many of the local archaeologists admit now that they thought it was a lost cause but they were wrong. The exact spot that Phillipa Langley had identified as having been where the choir of the Greyfriars Priory once stood, was THE spot.

Reconstructed head using scans of the skull.

We’ve had time to get used to the idea but even so, yesterday, with the confirmation of the DNA results, the whole City was buzzing. Everywhere we went people were saying, “Have you heard the news? It’s really him!” For those of you who want the finer details, they are well documented on the University of Leicester website so I won’t repeat them here.

The people of Leicester have long had a connection with Richard III. King Richard’s Road is a busy main street running along the West of the City. There are Richard III schools, Richard III pubs and Bosworth Field is only a few miles out of town. Now we learn that his body will be re-interred in Leicester Cathedral, beneath an inscribed stone that already bears his name and there will be a Richard III Visitors’ Centre opening very soon. We're really looking forward to welcoming lots of new visitors to the City. 

But there is one thing I must insist upon… when you come to visit, don’t forget to contact me [You can send me a tweet or mention it on this blog] and we’ll meet up for a coffee and cake. Now that IS a result!

Richard III - the results are almost in...

On Monday, 4th February, at 10am in the University of Leicester Council Chambers, a press conference will be held to announce whether the skeleton found under the Leicester City Car Park is really that of Richard III. [I can't wait!]

On Monday evening at 9pm on Channel 4 a programme called 'The King in the Car Park' will be shown. They'll be explaining all the procedures involved in the dig and subsequent scientific testing. If you can't receive Channel 4 programmes then watch this space and I'll post a follow-up blog about it on Tuesday. 

This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened in Leicester in all the years I've been living here [and as I was born in Leicester, that really is a lot of years!] 

If you're new to my blog and don't know what all the excitement is about then please nip over to my earlier posts about the archaeological dig and the discovery of the skeleton. You can find them by clicking on the titles:

      Digging for a King, 

      Richard III Part II 

      and 

      Richard III Exciting Update.

There are people all over the world who are dedicated to finding out the truth about Richard III. The Richard III Society has over 3,500 members worldwide and I met one of those members while I was waiting to view the dig all those months ago. She was from America and I had a fascinating discussion with her as we shuffled along in the queue. She pointed out that there is sufficient evidence to show that Richard III was not the evil hunch-back as portrayed by Shakespeare and that this was merely a Tudor strategy to strengthen their tenuous links to the throne. 

How sad to think that for so many centuries this man has been maligned. If it does turn out to be the King, [and I'm really hoping that it does] I suspect that Leicester Cathedral, only one street away from the dig, will provide him with a respectfully peaceful and sacred resting place...

...Then you could all come and visit Leicester. Now that would be exciting!

P.S. I've just been told that Matthew Ward will be live-tweeting from the press conference on @HistoryNeedsYou. So now we can all be there, [so long as we tweet which I do!]

STOP PRESS: the announcement was made this morning, Monday 4th February, confirming that it is King Richard III. I will be blogging in more detail tomorrow :-)