Grudging upgrade from car park not fit for king

ACCORDING to reports, it appears that Leicester’s ecclesiastical authorities are thinking of nothing more splendid to mark the final resting place of Richard III than an incised stone set in the floor of their unremarkable cathedral.

Such timidity will strike many as a grudging upgrade from the car park where the last of the Plantagenets was found.

A more fitting solution to the tussle over Richard’s bones would be for them to lie in state at Leicester for a while before being moved to York, where he explicitly wished to be buried and have a hundred Masses sung for the repose of his soul.

But since York Minster has turned its back on Richard and since it no longer celebrates the Masses he desired, the right and decent place for his remains must be the nearby Catholic church of St Wilfrid in Duncombe Place.

Richard would then be restored to the county and city he loved and which loved him in turn. Middleham Castle, where he spent much of his youth and met Anne Neville, and where their son was born, would be just an hour or so away for visitors on the trail of brave Richard. They might also be drawn to the enchanting Markenfield Hall, near Ripon, the home of Sir Thomas Markenfield. One of Richard’s trusty knights of the body, Sir Thomas, would have been at his royal master’s side in that last, desperate charge at Bosworth to extinguish the usurper Henry Tudor. His handsome tomb is in the Markenfield Chapel at Ripon Cathedral.

If Richard’s tragic story is to be rounded with a seemly ending that has an authentic historical and spiritual context, there can be no satisfying alternative to his return to our shire. Leicester will have to find another tourist attraction while Yorkshire honours this great son of York.