Chapter 10 of Ashdown-Hill’s “The Last days …” (pp.92-7) describes the circumstances of Richard’s first burial in great detail and adds some intriguing points. Right at the beginning, we learn that Leicester’s Abbey, also lost and the burial place of fellow “Tudor” victim Thomas Wolsey, was more prestigious than the Greyfriars church. So why was the latter chosen?
Page 94 (and notes 10-11, p.189) indicate that these particular friars had a Yorkist leaning and that two of their number had been hanged for opposing Henry IV’s accession. We should remember that Henry ordered several summary executions at this juncture, including that of Archbishop Scrope who was Richard’s maternal kinsman.
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