Richard III & The Greyfriars Project 6: The Cortege

Richard III's Coffin Approaching Bow Bridge (With Car Park Beyond), West Leicester,
March 2015

I’m not normally a big fan of official or royal pageantry, or for the Monarchy in general.  However, it would have been bad manners not to watch Richard III’s remains being borne back into Leicester for the second time, last weekend, (the two events being separated by half a millennium).  The cortege passed only a couple of hundred metres from my own front door, after all.

Bow Bridge (With Distant Dignitaries), West Leicester, March 2015

I’ve taken only a passing interest in the whole palaver over Richard since the discovery of his skeleton, famously - “beneath a Council car park in Leicester” [1.], in 2012.  I was genuinely intrigued at the time, and wrote several posts on the subject of the University of Leicester's Grey Friars Project.  Certainly, it was interesting to watch how what initially felt like a fairly low-profile local event, became a major international news story focused on my own back yard.  However, much of the period since has been taken up with dispiriting and unseemly disputes over whether Richard’s final resting place should be in Leicester or York, (or, possibly, Westminster Abbey); also over the disruption to the city centre caused by the redevelopment of the area around the Cathedral and new Ricardian Visitor Centre [2.]; and even over the austere aesthetics of his newly-designed tomb.

Onlookers And Car Park Signage, West Leicester, March 2015

Richard’s reputation since his brief reign appears to have been almost entirely made up of sub texts.  Five hundred years later, - the major sub text, (even as this much-maligned monarch was being rehabilitated [3.]), was the question over which city would cash in on the tourism bonanza his name might inspire.  For better or worse, Leicester won that contest, (an unusual event in itself), and Mayor Soulsby’s vision of a redeveloped historical portal to the city centre - with the new royal tomb at its heart, is largely complete.  Finally then, it’s time to reinter the bones, - this time with rather more dignity than Richard’s battered corpse enjoyed after his defeat at Bosworth Field; and to get on with re-writing the history books all over again.

Bow Bridge, West Leicester, March 2015

Thus, I strolled round the corner, in gorgeous early Spring sunshine and lengthening shadows, to join a few thousand others who had gathered to watch Richard’s cortege pause at Bow bridge to be officially welcomed back into the city.  The bridge marks the historical boundary between city and county, (as ever, I find myself just beyond the pale), and, as the cast iron plaques on its Victorian masonry attest, holds a particular place in the whole Richard III mythology.

Richard-Related Signage, West Leicester, March 2015

Interestingly, this location seems to attract commemorative plaques and information boards in ever-greater numbers, effectively becoming Information (or Misinformation) Central.  A few feet away is the old, ornate carved legend, suggesting that the discredited king’s body may have been thrown into the water below; the Richard III Society’s small panel - seeking to redress that propaganda slight; and an even more recent information board, dedicated to the bridge and its role in the whole story as it’s now understood.  To all this can be added the local street names, many of which, (including my own address), relate to Richard and the Battle of Bosworth.

Richard-Related Signage, West Leicester, March 2015

Naturally, this links in with my fascination with urban texts, and the multiple, layered meanings and historical interpretations that might be read into our surroundings, in a psychogeographical sense.  In reality, my genuine historical interest in the period, is largely focused: firstly, - on the ways that historical evidence or ‘the facts’ (however sparse), are managed to reflect one current orthodoxy/vested interest or another; and secondly, - on how those stories we tell ourselves become monumentalised in our surroundings.

Photo Opps., Bow Bridge, West Leicester, March 2015

The Florists Will Have Done Well From All Of This.

In the event, the crowds, whilst not immense around Bow Bridge, were deep enough to prevent me obtaining unobstructed views of the coffin and the dignitaries who assembled to greet it [4.].  As it was always likely to though, my interest became somewhat Meta, and shifted rather to the contexts surrounding the processing of the royal remains.  Most of my photos became about the audience themselves [5.], about the jostling for photo opportunities next to the old cast-iron plaque, or just about the other associated signage.

Car Park Signage, West Leicester, March 2015

Given the location of King Richard’s rediscovery, it seemed ironic that his coffin should be overlooked by a couple of other workaday car parks as it paused at Bow Bridge.  At least one of these is on the site of a vanished factory building, - itself symbolising the radical shifts in Leicester’s economy over recent decades.  In this context, the Council’s attempts to remodel the city as another hot spot on the A-Level History trail [6.] might make some sense.  Intriguingly, another claims to offer ‘Simple Intelligent Parking’, (that’ll be the day), whilst appealing for more vacant land.  In fact, if their plans pay off, The Council may need all the parking spaces it can get.  Disputes over that issue in the city is, however, a whole other story.

Car Park Signage, West Leicester, March 2015

Perhaps predictably, as the shadows lengthened and the crowds dispersed, all this yellow parking signage, (and some relating to the logistics of King Richard’s ceremonials), eventually became my main subject.  T’was ever thus…

Richard-Related Signage, West Leicester, March 2015

[1.]:  How often have I heard this slightly derisory buzz-phrase repeated in the media over recent months?  It does, of course, play directly to the image, in the general public imagination, of Leicester as a singularly drab, uninspiring kind of town

[2.]:  Let’s face it – many of the denizens of Leicester do love a good moan, given the opportunity.

[3.]:  Of course, we can never really know the true nature of Richard's character, or how much validity there may or may not be in the accusations levelled at him.  For what it's worth, my own hunch is that he was probably just another power junky with a sense of entitlement, living in a period of civil war, (pretty much like the rest of his class, in fact).  He also appears to have been capable of quite enlightened rule during his short reign.  A flawed but multi-faceted personality, perhaps, then, - rather than a pantomime villain.

[4.]:  I’d be lying if I claimed the noble words declaimed over the P.A. by the City Fathers will live long in my memory.  I will, however, always associate the event with scrambling amongst crackling undergrowth (and the occasional abandoned rough sleeper’s camp), to gain a slightly elevated view from the adjacent patches of wooded landscaping.

[5.]:  Amongst the enthusiastic, the quietly respectful, and the just plain curious, was the usual occasional drunk, naysayer or proselytising eccentric.  I’m sure it was much the same the first time round, and to a greater extent.  At least, this time, no one was trying to further disfigure the corpse of a perceived villain.

[6.]:  Stratford, Warwick and Kenilworth Castles, Lady Jane Grey’s Bradgate Park, and indeed, Bosworth Field, are all just up the road.  You can see how this isn’t an altogether bad plan, and how somebody may be trying to join a few dots.