Reg Little meets an academic who found a document showing the correct way to conduct a royal reburial

The choice of Richard III’s final resting place continues to cause bitter divisions. But thanks to an Oxford University academic there should be less warring over how the last Plantagenet king is reburied.

For after her discovery of a long forgotten medieval document, Dr Alexandra Buckle has been able to draw up an authentic order of service for Richard III’s reburial.

Dr Buckle, an expert in medieval music, made her highly timely find in the British Library while working on her doctorate. The manuscript that she discovered, a late 17th-century copy of a late 15th- century document, is said to be the only known document explaining how a medieval reburial would have been carried out.

It means it should now be possible to rebury the king, who met a violent death on Bosworth Field in 1485, in a way that both he and his ancestors would have recognised. Dr Buckle, 33, of St Anne’s and St Hilda’s colleges, has now been invited to join the committee that is planning Richard III’s interment next year, known as the Richard III Liturgy Group.

She found the reburial document while undertaking research into another mighty medieval Richard — Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who lies in great splendour in the Beauchamp Chapel of St Mary’s Church, Warwick. The earl, a patron of the arts and music, had been reburied in 1475, just eight years before Richard III came to the throne.

During her research in the British Library she uncovered a document written by the eminent copyist Humfrey Wanley, who worked as an assistant at the Bodleian Library, which set out full details of the earl’s reburial ceremony. The original source had not survived but, as she translated the long forgotten copy into English from Latin, she realised its significance. For the ceremony had not been specifically designed for Beauchamp.

At several points the letter ‘N’ appears for nominee or name, indicating the instructions were to be applied more generally. At the same time, the fact that a bishop is specifically required as celebrant, indicated that the elaborate service was designed for people of high status. When she became aware of the discovery of Richard III’s remains in a car park in Leicester, she contacted the cathedral to see if they were interested in making use of her medieval find two years before. She was immediately invited to brief the cathedral chapter and was invited to join the Richard III task force. Dr Buckle said: “This is an historically important document, as it details precisely what the reburial service around the time of Richard III’s death would have involved.

“From how the bones should be cleansed, washed and blessed, to what prayers should be said, what clergy should be involved and what music should be sung. Little is left to the imagination.” Since DNA tests on the skeleton confirmed it was the king in the car park, a legal battle has been launched over Richard’s final resting place.

With the Plantagenet Alliance wanting to see him buried in York Minister, and a judicial review to decide whether the decision to reinter his bones in Leicester Cathedral was properly conducted, Dr Buckle has wisely chosen to stay neutral.

“It is best for me not to comment. I have something of a conflict of interest because I have got to know the people at Leicester very well.” Her involvement is likely to continue wherever Richard III is reburied next year.

Reburials, uncommon today, occurred more regularly among the elite in medieval England and Dr Buckle believes that Richard himself would have been familiar with the service. She said: “Richard was involved in two high-profile reburial services. He was chief mourner at his father Richard, Duke of York’s reburial, and ordered the reburial of his ancestor Henry VI. His father’s reburial was a major event with a procession across the country.

“He honoured a long tradition of kings reburying kings and nobles reburying nobles, and this suggests he would have liked to have been honoured in a similar way today. “I believe that I have put together a service which very closely resembles the way Richard would have reburied his father and, presumably, given the nature of his own undignified burial, reflects the sort of reburial he would have wanted for himself.”

It means the ceremony could well go on for more than two hours. While some of the prayers will draw on passages of the Bible familiar to us, such as the famous “dry bones” passage from Ezekiel, other parts of the medieval service may cause unease. At one point, the bishop asks for the departed to be protected from “the savagely burning fire of hell”.

Such words might further fuel debate about how close the real Richard was to Shakespeare’s murderous crook-backed villain.

Saint or sinner, though, his final great scene should be true, combining drama and authenticity.