« Reply #74 on: Monday 04 February 13 19:28 GMT (UK) »
Since Henry VII had such a weak claim to the throne, clearly he would want Richard III's remains buried somewhere anonymous so that he could not become a martyr. Henry's claim to the throne is incredibly weak, as it is through his mother who was descended from John of Gaunt and his mistress, Katherine Swynford. The pair were married shortly before John of Gaunt's death and the children of the union were subsequently legitimised, but nevertheless, it does explain why the Tudors were always so touchy about their right to rule. And it also explains Henry VII's need to marry Elizabeth of York, in order to give his offspring the credibility his claim to the throne lacked.
There is no evidence Henry had Richard buried secretly; indeed there is a wardrobe account dated 1495 of a payment of £10 1s to a James Keyley for "King Richard Tombe" and a possible contract which was the subject of a hearing in the Chancery Court regarding an alabaster monument. Speed claimed that Richard's tomb had an alabaster effigy. Whatever Henry thought of Richard, he was an anointed king, and kings tended to respect their own (Richard himself had ordered the reburial of Henry VI at Windsor.
Henry's claim was tenuous but he emphasized his right by inheritance and conquest - he deliberately did not marry Elizabeth for some time to show his rights did not come from his marriage
Steve
Bumstead - London, Suffolk
Plant, Woolnough, Wase, Suffolk
Flexney, Godfrey, Burson, Hobby - Oxfordshire
Street, Mitchell - Gloucestershire
Horwood, Heale Drew - Bristol
Gibbs, Gait, Noyes, Peters, Padfield, Board, York, Rogers, Horler, Heale, Emery, Clavey, Mogg, - Somerset
Fook, Snell - Devon
M(a)cDonald, Yuell, Gollan, McKenzie - Rosshire
McLennan, Mackintosh - Inverness
Williams, Jones - Angelsey & Caernarvon
Campbell, McMartin, McLellan, McKercher, Perthshire
