Ceremony held in Minster for monarch

The Richard III Foundation staged a commemoration in the cathedral yesterday to honour the monarch, just over a year since his remains were discovered under a council car park in Leicester.

A wreath of white roses was placed in the Minster by Joe Ann Ricca, the foundation’s president and chief executive. The event also marked the 20th anniversary of the launch of the foundation, an international organisation dedicated to studying the life of Richard.

The Yorkshire Post revealed in October last year that the foundation had accused the Government of a “monstrous act” which could see the remains of Richard re-interred in Leicester, despite intense speculation that the monarch had wished to be buried at York Minster.

His descendants from the Plantagenet Alliance, have launched the legal challenge to the decision by the Ministry of Justice and the University of Leicester to push ahead with the burial in Leicester Cathedral.

Their campaign has gleaned support from the king’s descendants as far afield as the United States, South Africa and Australia. Two US descendants are set to travel to the UK for a judicial review hearing in London’s High Court on November 26.

It was confirmed in February that the remains, discovered under the Leicester car park in September last year, had been proven “beyond reasonable doubt” to be those of the king following DNA tests.

Richard, who grew up at Middleham Castle in the Yorkshire Dales and regularly visited York during his 26-month reign, died in the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire in 1485, effectively ending the Wars of the Roses.

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