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Relics from Richard II's tomb

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boswellbaxter
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Relics from Richard II's tomb

Post by boswellbaxter » Tue November 16th, 2010, 8:19 pm

The sketches of the skull and bone are especially intriguing:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... llery.html
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Libby
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Post by Libby » Tue November 16th, 2010, 10:32 pm

How interesting. Thanks for that link. The Victorians seem to have been very keen on opening up tombs.
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Post by LoveHistory » Wed November 17th, 2010, 12:56 am

Richard II, the one I know almost nothing about.

I should interview him. Maybe ask him how he feels about being overshadowed by the other Richards.

Really cool find. Wish there'd been more pictures to go with the article.

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Post by annis » Fri November 19th, 2010, 3:58 am

He made an appearance in Martyn Whittock's novel The Dice in Flight, which I read recently. It covers the years from 1377-1381- the time of unrest culminating in the Peasants' Revolt, though Richard is only seen at a distance. He also appears in Jennifer Lang's book The Crowning Glory. Richard II always seems a puppet figurehead, dominated by his powerful uncles, especially John of Gaunt. I think a lot of people expected Uncle John to dispose of him and were surprised that he made it to adulthood. John’s son, and Richard’s cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, probably did for him later, though. Who needs enemies when you have family? Richard II is an obscure figure and the only thing I really remember about him is that in typical kingly fashion he went back on his promise to give the peasants more freedom: "Villeins you are, and villeins you shall remain".

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Post by Margaret » Fri November 19th, 2010, 6:24 am

Richard is also a strong posthumous presence in Edith Pargeter's superb novel A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury (see review). He is dead when the novel opens, but there is a question about how he died that haunts the story from beginning to end, and his personality comes across almost as strongly as if he had appeared in the novel as a living character.
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Post by annis » Fri November 19th, 2010, 5:24 pm

There is a picture of the skull drawing here
http://elogedelart.canalblog.com/archiv ... 26707.html

I note that the archivists feel they could do a reconstruction of Richard II's actual appearance from this drawing. RII was described as handsome so it would be interesting to see what they come up with.

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Post by chuck » Fri November 19th, 2010, 9:01 pm

Creepy.... but it must have be interesting to take part in the opening of ancient tombs.....

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Post by annis » Fri November 19th, 2010, 9:36 pm

One of the creepiest stories is that of poor Catherine de Valois. She was in the way of some renovations Henry VII was making and was exhumed, put in a wooden coffin and left to one side for 200 years! The cover of her coffin could be lifted for the curious to have a gawk at her remains. Samuel Pepys went one further and kissed her corpse- eeuw!

"Queen Catherine de Valois - King Henry V's wife, died in January 1437. She was buried with much pomp and circumstance in Westminster Abbey, where according to the custom of the time, her wooden effigy was carried before her coffin.

When Henry VII was buiding his great chapel her coffin was found decayed and Catherine’s body was put in a wooden box and placed near her Henry's tomb, where its ‘badly apparelled’ state was left open to the curious gaze. She remained indecently exposed for 200 years and it was a favourite game for the boys of Westminster School to steal bits of her skin and bone.
She was reburied in 1776, but it wasn’t until 1878 that she got a final resting place in the Chapel of Henry V.

Samual Pepys recorded in his famous diary that on his 36th birthday in 1669, when Catherine had been dead 200 years, he had knelt down and kissed Queen Catherine's lips."

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