The Last Days of Richard III and the
fate of his DNA: the book that inspired the dig [Kindle
Edition]
by John Ashdown-Hill
192 pages
The History Press,
January 31, 2013
A must read for
Ricardians
In
August of 2012 a team of archaeologists from the University of Leicester went
digging in a social services parking lot with the idea of hopefully finding
evidence of the Grey Friars Friary. Not only did they locate the friary, they
found Richard III’s remains.
In 2003, before the dig was ever considered, John
Ashdown-Hill started his investigation of finding a living descendent from the
female line of Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville. The female line of descent is
necessary because children inherit an exact copy of their mother’s
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), but only the female passes this copy to the next
generation. The author describes the process of finding a living descendent of
one of Richard’s sisters and of the mtDNA analysis. The mtDNA was now available
for comparison to the remains’ mtDNA. As exciting as this information is (for
me), this is the present day science. This book is so much more.
Ashdown-Hill
paints a fresh picture of a man, who despite terrible personal tragedies—his
only legitimate son had died suddenly in April of 1484 and less than a year
later, his wife died after a long illness (probably tuberculosis)—looking
forward to remarrying and producing an heir and to a long reign as England’s
king. Although there can be no doubt that Richard genuinely grieved for his son
and wife, he nevertheless was planning for the future. This refreshing image is
different from what most historians and novelists have portrayed.
The
reader also gets a sense of what daily life was like for Richard, what some of
his duties were, and how he would execute them.
One
Ricardian myth the author dispels, is the one that purports Henry Tudor
antedated his reign to August 21, 1485 (the battle where Henry defeated Richard
was fought August 22). Ashdown-Hill could not find any extant contemporary
evidence to suggest Henry’s reign was backdated by one day. The suspicion is
the myth began ca 1647 from an error translating (from Latin to English)
Richard III’s Epitaph (Buck’s translation with the dating errors are presented
in Appendix 6).*
I
found this book to be rich in detail and informative about Richard III’s last
150 or so days and about the role of DNA in confirming the remains. Not only is
“Last Days” a significant historical reference, I found it a delight to read.
John Ashdown-Hill achieved what is rarely seen in such a scholarly work—a reference
that can be read from beginning to end without compromising the facts. I can’t
recommend this book enough.
*Note: Several on
Facebook who responded to this post pointed out that the antedating is part of
the Parliamentary Rolls from Henry VII’s first parliament in 1485. Per Chapter
9, footnote 10:
This interpretation is based on Crowland, pp. 194– 95.
However, the relevant passage does not, in fact, say that Henry antedated his
accession, and there is no evidence to support such a claim in the surviving
acts of attainder against Richard III’s supporters.
[Ashdown-Hill, John (2013-01-31). The Last Days of
Richard III and the fate of his DNA: The Book that Inspired the Dig (Kindle
Locations 3964-3966). The History Press. Kindle Edition.]
Pronay, N. & Cox, J., The Crowland Chronicle
Continuations 1459– 1486 (London, 1986).
My search of the digital edition of Parliamentary
Rolls for Henry VII’s first Parliament (November 1485), shows that Henry VII
antedated his reign by a day. I emailed this information to John Ashdown-Hill
and he is investigating this new (to him) evidence with the intent to amend the
edition to reflect this information.
