This year’s Mick Aston Lecture was given by Dr Richard Buckley of the University of Leicester on the subject of The King under the Car Park: Greyfriars, Leicester, and the Search for Richard III.
The event was well attended and after an opening preamble by our own Neil Holbrook, Dr Buckley launched into the remarkable findings made in 2012 under a rather unremarkable social services car park in Leicester.
To begin with we were taken on an informative gallop through the Roman to medieval history and archaeology of Leicester and how the city and its associated ecclesiastical institutions developed. The role of rescue archaeology in the 1970s and 80s and after that large scale commercial excavation within the city in telling Leicester’s story was then touched upon in order to provide a context in which to understand the location and importance of Leicester’s Greyfriars.
We were then taken through a masterclass on how to find the narrow confines of a priory chancel and nave utilising available historic mapping and other historic sources in conjunction with the targeting of evaluation trenches perpendicular to the east-west orientation of the church. Through this, the remains of what would later transpire to be Richard III were actually first noticed within six hours of the tarmac being broken, but it was only once the location of the nave had been pinpointed that detailed excavation of the skeleton began.
To make no bones about it, the Leicester team were very lucky that Richard III’s skeleton survived post medieval and modern disturbances of the site and even luckier that they were then able to make their dramatic find. However, it was also clear that to a great extent they made their own luck in the methodology deployed to pinpoint where he was most likely to be. It was also clear that even without finding Richard III, the work added considerably to the corpus of knowledge about Leicester’s Greyfriars Priory and thereby the wider history of the city of Leicester.
Dr Buckley then went through the details of how it became clear that the skeleton they had found bore the tell-tale signs of a congenital curvature of the spine and numerous blunt force and edged weapon traumas that appeared to have been inflicted at the time of, or soon after death. A number of the injuries to the back of the skull would clearly have been mortal.
The genetic links to known living descendants of close relatives of Richard III was then explored which when linked to carbon dating, the hastily excavated and poorly fitted grave, the curved spine and the grievous injuries apparent on the skeleton, indicated that the most likely explanation for the remains was that they truly belonged to England’s last Plantagenet King.
Interesting insights into Richard III’s life, likely areas of residence and diet before and after he became King were also revealed through isotope analysis of the remains. Information regarding his affliction by intestinal parasites was also yielded through a study of the samples taken from his grave.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable lecture about a remarkable piece of historical, archaeological and scientific detective work.
