An academic from the Management School is backing a campaign to keep Richard III’s remains in Leicester.
Professor Dominic Elliott, is supporting the online petition, which has gathered more than 20,000 signatures in support of the interment at Leicester Cathedral, prompted by his discovery that he is a 14th generation nephew of King Richard after researching his lineage in the 1990s.
Discovery
Dominic grew up in the Leicester area and attended Alderman Newton’s School whose grounds border the car park where the skeleton was discovered in 2012.
He said: “I attended the school from 1974 until 1981 and was based in the junior school, near Richard’s grave for the first two years. At break times I would play football in the playground not knowing that a king, and my distant uncle, lay just a few feet away. I think it is only fitting he should be laid to rest in Leicester Cathedral, as agreed in the license granted for the archaeological dig… bizarrely this has been contested by some equally distant relatives on the grounds that a failure to consult with Richard’s living relatives was a human rights infringement.”
Support
If you wish to support this, please help by signing the e-petition at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/39708
Richard III was King of England for two years from 1483 until his death in 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field.
The license may be waived in certain circumstances. The case for York as the burial site is overwhelming historically.