Richard III was king of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.
The Cathedral Church of Saint Martin, Leicester, commonly known as Leicester Cathedral, is a Church of England cathedral in Leicester, England and the seat of the Bishop of Leicester. The church was elevated to a collegiate church in 1922 and made a cathedral in 1927 following the establishment of a new Diocese of Leicester in 1926.
Ricardians are people who dispute the negative posthumous reputation of King Richard III of England. Richard III has long been portrayed unfavourably, most notably in Shakespeare's play Richard III, in which he is portrayed as murdering his 12-year-old nephew Edward V to secure the English throne for himself. Ricardians believe these portrayals are false and politically motivated by Tudor propaganda.
Greyfriars, Grayfriars or Gray Friars is a term for Franciscan Order of Friars Minor, in particular, the Conventual Franciscans. The term often refers to buildings or districts formerly associated with the order.
Greyfriars, in Bristol, England, was a Franciscan friary. The name Greyfriars derived from the grey robes worn by the friars. It was founded at some time before 1234, within the town walls and then moved to Lewin's Mead in 1250. The site included extensive gardens surrounded by a stone wall. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century, the premises were leased to the town council in 1541, who desired to use the stone to make repairs to the town walls, and the harbour facilities. In succeeding centuries many different uses have been made of the site, which is currently occupied by an office block and part of Bristol Dental School.
Greyfriars, Stamford was a Franciscan friary in Stamford, Lincolnshire, England. It was one of many religious houses suppressed and closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. The site is now part of the NHS Stamford and Rutland Hospital.
Greyfriars Nottingham was a Franciscan friary in Nottinghamshire, England. It was founded c. 1224–1230, and dissolved in 1539 as part of King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. The site of the friary is now occupied by the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre.
In London, the Greyfriars was a Conventual Franciscan friary that existed from 1225 to 1538 on a site at the North-West of the City of London by Newgate in the parish of St Nicholas in the Shambles. It was the second Franciscan religious house to be founded in the country. The establishment included a conventual church that was one of the largest in London; a studium or regional university; and an extensive library of logical and theological texts. It was an important intellectual centre in the early fourteenth century, rivalled only by Oxford University in status. Members of the community at that time included William of Ockham, Walter Chatton and Adam Wodeham. It flourished in the fourteenth and fifteenth century but was dissolved in 1538 at the instigation of Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Christ's Hospital was founded in the old conventual buildings, and the church was rebuilt completely by Sir Christopher Wren as Christ Church Greyfriars after the original church was almost completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666. The building now standing on the site, designed by Arup Group Limited, is currently occupied by Merrill Lynch.
The year 2012 in archaeology involved some significant events.
Greyfriars, Leicester, was a friary of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans, established on the west side of Leicester by 1250, and dissolved in 1538. Following dissolution the friary was demolished and the site levelled, subdivided, and developed over the following centuries. The locality has retained the name Greyfriars particularly in the streets named "Grey Friars", and the older "Friar Lane".
Ipswich Blackfriars was a medieval religious house of Friars-preachers (Dominicans) in the town of Ipswich, Suffolk, England, founded in 1263 by King Henry III and dissolved in 1538. It was the second of the three friaries established in the town, the first being the Greyfriars, a house of Franciscan Friars Minors, and the third the Ipswich Whitefriars of c. 1278–79. The Blackfriars were under the Visitation of Cambridge.
The year 2013 in archaeology involved some significant events.
The remains of Richard III, the last English king killed in battle and last king of the House of York, were discovered within the site of the former Grey Friars Priory in Leicester, England, in September 2012. Following extensive anthropological and genetic testing, the remains were reinterred at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015.
Philippa Jayne Langley is a British writer, producer, and Ricardian, who is best known for her role in the discovery and 2012 exhumation of Richard III, as part of the Looking for Richard project, for which she was awarded an MBE. Langley has written books and appeared in film-length documentaries on the search for Richard III and was portrayed in the 2022 film The Lost King.
David Baldwin was a British historian, author and former university lecturer, who lived near Leicester, England.
Benjamin Broadbent (1813–1862) was an English master builder, stonemason, and architect. In 1840 in Leicester, he formed the company Broadbents Ltd, a busy which serviced builders' merchants and roofing contractors. He was also associated with Broadbent and Hawley, stone and marble masons and gravestone cutters. Broadbent built his home, Victoria House, in 1861 in Humberstone. The large estate included a mansion house, stables, coach house, winery, orchard, conservatories and outbuildings. His first wife was the daughter of a farmer from Dodleston, Cheshire called Anne Wright and they had four children. The eldest, also Benjamin, inherited the family business. His second wife was Mary Geary and they had six children. Three years after his death, Victoria House was purchased by the Leicester Corporation to establish the Leicester Borough Asylum, which became the Towers Hospital.
Louis John Frederick Ashdown-Hill MBE FSA, commonly known as John Ashdown-Hill, was an independent historian and author of books on late medieval English history with a focus on the House of York and Richard III of England. Ashdown-Hill died on 18 May 2018; he had had motor neurone disease for some time.
Alderman Newton's Boys School was a school in Leicester, England. It was a grammar school then became a comprehensive school.
The Plantagenet Alliance was a small grouping of individuals claiming to be descendants of the House of Plantagenet. The Alliance was formed in 2013 shortly after the discovery and identification of the remains of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England who died in 1485, in order to advance their views on the location of Richard's reburial. Reports of the number of members of the Alliance varied between fifteen and around forty.
The Lost King is a 2022 British biographical film directed by Stephen Frears. Written by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, it is based on the 2013 book The King's Grave: The Search for Richard III by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones. It is a dramatisation of the story of Philippa Langley, the woman who initiated the search to find King Richard III's remains under a car park in Leicester, and her treatment by the University of Leicester in the claiming of credit for the discovery. Coogan and Harry Lloyd also feature in the cast.
