Where to bury the 500-year-old bones of England’s legendary King Richard III, made famous in infamy by William Shakespeare?
Well, nobody asked him, but Canadian furniture-maker Michael Ibsen has some strong feelings about that. And so he should, since King Richard is Ibsen’s great-uncle, 17 generations removed, as told in a story we aired on 16×9 last season.
The bones of King Richard were found last year near the grounds of the University of Leicester, and Ibsen’s DNA was critical in identifying those bones as belonging to the historical Richard—one of the most maligned of English monarchs.
Ibsen told 16×9 those bones should be buried in Leicester Cathedral, near where they were found by a group of university archeologists. He says it’s “somewhat unseemly” that a royal battle has erupted because of a group of distant relatives want him buried in the city of York.
“Why not Leicester?” Ibsen said. “His body was buried there for 500 years, he was killed there. I can’t see how anyone else has a greater claim on his remains than Leicester.”
The Plantagenet Alliance, a group of 15 “relatives,” wants a York reburial and a judge agrees there should be a full court hearing on Richard’s re-interment.
“When they talk about (Richard’s) family being buried there, I’m not aware of any of his immediate family being buried in York,” Ibsen said. “They’re all over the place, in true English tradition.”
“I don’t see the need for a squabble over this. But then I’m not from York.”
Last February, genetic testing confirmed that the bones were indeed the remains of Richard after comparing some of the skeleton’s 500-year-old DNA with that of Ibsen, a distant descendant born in London, Ontario, and now living in England.
And that triggered campaigns to have the bones reburied in either York, or in Westminster Cathedral in London.
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