A list of ten facts that were taught at school but are no longer true has been published at this site. It’s a very interesting list with some things that I really didn’t know about, but at number 8 is the following:-
“[Untrue fact} NO-ONE KNOWS WHERE RICHARD III’S BODY IS.
“Correction: He was buried under a car park in Leicester.
“For over 500 years, historians and archaeologists had been searching for the body of King Richard III, who died from injuries sustained in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The long mystery was solved in 2013 when researchers from the University of Leicester announced that they’d discovered the controversial monarch’s remains beneath a car park in the city.”
Well, it’s not strictly true that no one knew where Richard’s remains were. There was a myth about them being thrown into the River Soar, but that was just a yarn. At the time of his death he was recorded as having been lain to rest at Grey Friars, Leicester, and that is indeed where he was found in 2012. So Richard wasn’t buried under a car park. They didn’t have car parks in 1485! He was buried at Grey Friars, which was later razed and by the 21st century had been replaced by a car park. Rather different.
But that isn’t why I have a gripe about this entry in the list, more that the University of Leicester and its researchers get sole credit for finding him, with no mention of Philippa Langley et al. The university didn’t do all the finding and wouldn’t even have embarked on the project if it weren’t for the hard work and determination of those who DID have the conviction that Richard’s remains lay were they were eventually found.
The illustration above is the one from the above site. Not one of Richard’s most flattering.
murreyandblue 
I don’t think the truth about Richard will ever be properly recorded, there’s so much animosity against him. People would rather idolise the treacherous murdering Tudors, than a good man who was in so many ways ahead of his time.
As for Philippa, aside from within Ricardian circles, she’s never received the recognition she deserved, but as you say, Richard would never have been found without her tenacity and perseverance.
Regarding the awful picture used above, that’s no surprise either. It helps people forget what a vibrant young man Richard was, and cements in their minds that he was much older than he actually was, and deserved all that happened to him. (In the same way the infamous paintings of “the Princes in the Tower” makes them look younger than they were, garnering the sympathy vote.) This all helps perpetuate the lies and untruths that have grown up around Richard’s tragic story.
I long for the day when the true facts about Richard will be recognised.
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Hear, hear, Glenis.
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What Philippa and John Ashdown Hill did is AWESOME. Heart and brain, rare combination. And this painting is awful.
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Well if you sleep with dogs (Leicester Uni) you end up with fleas.,eh Phillipa?
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