(Maev Kennedy’s article appeared in the Guardian, 3/26.)
The most extraordinary week in Leicester’s history, when huge crowds turned out for the funeral cortege of a man who died more than 500 years ago and then queued for hours to view his coffin, comes to a climax on Thursday with the solemn reburial of the mortal remains of Richard III.
Jeff Ibsen, the brother of Michael Ibsen – whose DNA sample helped to identify the bones discovered underneath a car park, and so was also a 16th great nephew of the last Plantagenet – came from Canada for the ceremonies. “I think it’s time to put the poor guy in the ground,” he said.
People arrived at 4am on Wednesday for the last hours of public viewing of the coffin made by Ibsen and more were still queueing up to the moment the cathedral doors closed to prepare for the reinterment.