Friday 23rd May 2014
Page last edited: 27th May 2014.
LEICESTER Cathedral will be the final resting place for King Richard lll, it was confirmed today.
The Royal Courts of Justice announced this morning that there are no public law grounds for the court to interfere with the reburial of the king, and for that reason the application for judicial review put forward by the Plantagenet Alliance has been dismissed.
The decision was reached by three High Court judges who had reviewed whether the exhumation licence obtained by the University of Leicester was lawful.
The Plantagenet Alliance had called for the judicial review, arguing that consultation should have taken place on the king’s reburial place, once it was confirmed that the bones exhumed by the University of Leicester were those of Richard lll.
Leicester City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “I am delighted that Leicester Cathedral can now proceed with its plans to give King Richard lll a dignified reburial here in the city.
“With the support of the city council and the University of Leicester, the cathedral is now planning for the king’s reinterment to take place in the spring of next year.
“This will be a momentous event for the city and county, and an opportunity to show the rest of the world that Leicester is the rightful resting place for the last Plantagenet King of England.
“I have always said that Leicester needs to be more self-confident if it is to thrive, and this news gives us yet another reason to celebrate all that is good about our city, and to look forward with confidence and pride.”
King Richard’s remains were discovered in August 2012 during a project involving the University of Leicester, Leicester City Council and The Richard III Society. In February 2013, the University of Leicester announced overwhelming scientific evidence that the remains were those of the last Plantagenet king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
[Source Leicester City Council]
See also
Our report on the announcement of the #HighCourt