King Richard III makes final journey to battlefield

Agencies/LondonThe remains of Richard III, the last English king to die in battle, was taken along the route of his final journey yesterday ahead of his reburial more than 500 years after his death.Bearers carried the Plantagenet king’s coffin from Leicester University, where archaeologists examined his bones after they were discovered under a car park in 2012, to Fenn Lane Farm in the village of Dadlington, the site believed to be the closest to his death. Richard III died at the Battle of Bosworth near Leicester in 1485 while fighting the Lancastrian forces of Henry Tudor, who later became Henry VII, ending England’s War of the Roses. After his death his body was taken to the Grey Friars Church in the nearby city of Leicester and buried in a hastily dug grave which was too small to house his body.The location of his grave became a mystery until it was found under a municipal car park in a discovery which stunned archaeologists and captivated the world.Scientists who examined his bones found eight serious head wounds that indicated a brutal death by blows from swords or other weapons. Richard fell fighting to hold onto his crown against the invading forces of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII. William Shakespeare famously depicted him going down fighting shouting “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” Philippa Langley, a screenwriter who led the search for Richard III, said it was the end of an “extraordinary journey”. “It’s re-ignited our interest in this period of history,” she said in an interview.“It’s got people talking and it’s got people debating and it’s got people reading widely about Richard III, and realising that there’s far more to this man than people ever knew.”His remains were taken to Bosworth yesterday in an oak coffin made by Canadian carpenter Michael Ibsen, a 17th great-grandnephew of the king.The coffin will be displayed at the cathedral until the king’s reinterment in a special tomb inside Leicester Cathedral on Thursday, when a message is expected to be read from Queen Elizabeth. “We’re looking forward to the opportunity to remind people of the extraordinary moment in English history the death of Richard III marks,” said Tim Stevens, the bishop of Leicester. “It was a change of dynasty, an end of a period of violent civil war, the beginning of the period in which Shakespeare was to write his great tragedies, including Richard III, and a different way of governing the country,” Bishop Stevens said. The cathedral said the reinterment was “an event of national and international importance, funded from private donations.”  The donors have provided £1.54mn for alterations to the cathedral and the building of Richard III’s tomb, it said. The public will be able to view the coffin for the next few days.