I once dreamed of this, your future breath985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGtkjpwXcBs
in prayer for me, lost long, forever found;985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe7HtvEaPOy
or sensed you from the backstage of my death,985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlQLBmrMzfc
as kings glimpse shadows on a battleground985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3Dd5rLwhL
The last line of the first stanza of the poem Richard by Carol Ann Duffy says just this "grant me the carving of my name". This line is so achingly beautiful, so mournfully accurate and so intensely wistful.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtu0Xr5L9zc
For those of you perhaps unfamiliar with this incredible tale, I shall tell it for you.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqdI0pPz2f7
It was 2012, and whilst on a quest to dig for the remains of missing King Richard III, a skeleton was uncovered in the first trench, on the first day. DNA tests were taken. Descendants were tracked down. The identity of the skeleton was confirmed as that of Shakespeare's infamous hunch-backed villain.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvccIhDa8JU
Fast forward to 2015. It is March, and a seven hour procession carries the king from the university, to the battle ground where he fell, to the cathedral where he will later to be laid to rest. There is a formal ceremony handing over the king. He lies in state for three days. A custom made crown is placed on the wooden coffin.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr2vwLE2HLR
Thursday morning the king is buried. Benedict Cumberbatch reads a poem written for the king by Carol Ann Duffy. The events last until 10pm, where a moments silence is held. Only four people are present during the moments silence. That moment of silence was the most profound moment I have ever witnessed.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZaokh1ucYw
This is a king that transcends the barriers of time. He fell in August 1485. He lay in a hastily dug grave for over five hundred years.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1QqmbgWZii
I have seen many comments wondering why we need such fanfare, such a display. Would the same ceremony not be accorded our current queen? Richard III was a monarch. He received a funeral fit for a king. He was granted what he was denied - the carving of his name. A grave and a coffin, a funeral and a headstone.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmUzlpruMIl
Never in my life have I been so proud to be a part of this nation. The 2012 olympics didn't give me this sense of pride. Watching his coffin being drawn on a gun carriage through the streets of Leicester with hundreds of onlookers throwing white roses made my heart swell.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFDqJMeFCvP
It is incredible to witness the image of Richard III change. Purely by strange coincidence, when the skeleton was found I was studying Richard III in college. Overwhelmingly the material written about him was negative. Now I see more positive writings and interpretations of this 'villainous' king. People are straying from traditional views. Straying from Tudor propaganda and reviewing the king and realising that, actually, he wasn't as bad as he was made up to be.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRkpvSZQiGz
And perhaps it's silly, and perhaps it's childish, but I look at the pre-Tudor painting of Richard III and the reconstruction of his face and I don't see a murderer, I don't see a traitor. I don't even see a king. I see a man. I see a man that died and was humiliated in more ways than I can even imagine after his death. I see a man that was denied the proper funeral rites and denied the dignity of a royal funeral. It makes me so happy to know that we have given him what he was refused at last. That finally, he can rest.
RIP your grace.985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAv38RxHJ8d
RIII x985Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB0KBm4OxVa
