Yes, but Westminster Abbey isn't in the running. Richard III was born in Yorkshire and funded building projects in York Minster - which was, at the time, a very important church - and is the largest gothic cathedral in northern Europe. Leicester Cathedral, on the other hand, though medieval, was just a parish church - it didn't become a cathedral until 1927. Many historians argue that Richard himself wished to be buried at York Minster.
Tradition can go either way, and there are many traditions. You can be buried where you died or you can be buried where you were born or where your family is from or ... or ... I think York Minster has quite a good argument in its favour, but the permission to dig up the grave was only given on the understanding that he would be re-buried at Leicester. The whole question reminds me of one of Ellis Peters' excellent "Brother Cadfael" novels, wherein there was much jockeying by the abbeys to get hold of saint's relics or some other reason for people to visit the church - because visits meant donations and they wanted the money to aggrandize their church so they could get more visitors and more money and ... It will be interesting to see how it all works out. Adele North Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada) On 2013-02-05, at 11:06 AM, [email protected] wrote: > Jill wrote: > One of the major considerations is that all the proposed burial places are > Anglican, and Richard was a pre-reformation Catholic. Â Therein lies a > dilemma.... > > But Westminster Abbey was also Catholic prior to the Reformation, so where > is the problem? > > > From the website: > Westminster Abbey is steeped in more than a thousand years of history. > Benedictine monks first came to this site in the middle of the tenth century, > establishing a tradition of daily worship which continues to this day. > The Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066 and is the final > resting place of seventeen monarchs. > The present church, begun by Henry III in 1245, is one of the most > important Gothic buildings in the country, with the medieval shrine of an > Anglo-Saxon saint still at its heart. > Devon To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
