King's burial creates buzz

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Members of the public queue outside Leicester Cathedral to view the coffin of Richard III in Leicester, England, Monday.

Richard III is England's comeback king.

The 15th-century monarch was killed in battle, buried in anonymity, vilified for centuries and discovered under a parking lot. On Thursday, he will be reburied with dignified ceremony in the presence of royalty, religious leaders — and Hollywood star Benedict Cumberbatch.

"Sherlock" star Cumberbatch is scheduled to read a verse by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy during the service at Leicester Cathedral. University of Leicester genealogists, leaving no Richard-related stone unturned, have identified Cumberbatch as the late king's second cousin, 16 times removed.

The service is the culmination of a wave of Richard-mania that has been building since archeologists dug up a battle-scarred skeleton in 2012. Scientific sleuthing — including radiocarbon dating, bone analysis and DNA tests — confirmed the remains belonged to the long-lost king.

The discovery has brought people flocking to Leicester, 160 kilometres north of London, to see the once-in-half-a-millennium event.

Many felt vindicated that the king long regarded as a despot and murderer was being given his due.

"He suffered such indignities after death," said May Doherty, who had flown from Northern Ireland to stand outside the cathedral. "This is brilliant to see. It's how a king should be buried."

Doherty and a friend had come dressed in 15th-century garb — or as close as they could find on the Internet.

"I might be Elizabethan," a hundred years too modern, she said. "I'm not sure."

On Sunday, thousands lined the streets as the king's coffin was borne by horse-drawn carriage through town and out to the site of the Battle of Bosworth, where he fell in 1485, the last English monarch to die in battle.

Thousands more have lined up for hours to view the former monarch's coffin inside the cathedral.

"It was one of those queues where you don't mind queuing," said Michele Wild, from the central England city of Birmingham. "You feel like you're part of a silent protest about the Tudor propaganda that has been maligning him for 500 years."

The coffin was built by Michael Ibsen, 57, a Canadian-born cabinetmaker whose DNA helped identify the remains of the king after they were discovered. Ibsen is a 17th-generation descendant of Richard's older sister, Anne of York. He agreed to allow his genetic profile to be compared with the historic skeleton.

Phil Stone, chairman of the Richard III Society, said a bronze statue of the monarch in the city was "dripping with white roses," symbol of the late king's House of York.

"People are beginning to realize the injustice that has been awarded to King Richard," said Stone, who has campaigned for years to overturn the king's reputation for villainy.

Richard was defeated and deposed by the forces of Henry Tudor, who reigned as King Henry VII, ending a tussle for the throne known as the Wars of the Roses. Richard was buried, without a coffin, in a church that was later demolished.

He was portrayed as a hunchbacked villain in Shakespeare's play "Richard III" and accused by many historians of murdering his two young nephews, who were potential rivals to the throne.

The discovery of Richard's remains has emboldened those who hold a more positive view. Some historians claim Richard was a relatively enlightened monarch whose reign between 1483 and 1485 saw reforms including the introduction of the right to bail and the lifting of restrictions on books and printing presses.

Thursday's service of re-interment — not a funeral, organizers stress, since he probably had one in 1485 — will be led by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and attended by dignitaries and descendants of the combatants at Bosworth.

The Queen — a distant relative of Richard, though not a descendant — is not attending the service, but has written a message to be printed in the order of service. The Royal Family is being represented by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, wife of the Queen's son, Prince Edward.

The king's remains will lie inside the lead-lined oak coffin, its lid carved with a rose and the words "Richard III 1452-1485."

At the end of the service, the coffin will be lowered into a tomb made of Yorkshire Swaledale stone.

The cathedral has said the week of ceremony offers the king the "dignity and honour" he was denied immediately after his death.

But others think the parade of pomp is a bit unseemly.

Medieval historian Sean McGlynn wrote in the Spectator magazine that it was distasteful that "a notorious child killer" was receiving such an honour.

"It seems that royalty can literally get away with murder," he wrote.