The Tree of Life at Holy Cross Priory

One of the main features of the Requiem Mass at Holy Cross was a large sculpture installed in the church for the occasion. It was installed by Neill Strain, a renowned floral designer from London.

The white rose was seen everywhere in Leicester during this week.

It is a heraldic symbol goes back to Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York, in the 14th Century. The Yorkist rose is white, reflecting the Christian liturgical symbolism of light, innocence, purity, joy, and glory. Richard III was the last Yorkist king of England.

Planta Genista

Richard's family name was Plantagenet, which in Medieval Latin is Planta Genista, the common broom plant. The family dated from 1126 with Geoffrey V of Anjou, another of my ancestors, and was held by the English ruling family from 1154 to 1485, ending with Richard III. The Plantagenets were the most successful ruling house in England, passing the crown through 14 kings.

The Tree of Life sculpture was quite impressive. It was composed of 2,000 Avalanche roses on branches, fastened into little glass vials full of water. There were little genista flowers intermingled with the roses surrounding the trunk at the bottom of the sculpture, almost in a rectangular grave shape.

When I first saw the Tree, I was reminded of a feeling of coldness, with the glass vials resembling icicles. But looking more closely at it, I could see the individual roses blooming all over it, giving it an ethereal appearance, delicate and brittle yet alive.

I thought of several things looking at the Tree:

• Richard's new grave that we had come to create and celebrate  
• Robert Herrick's garden blooming over Richard's original grave years after the Greyfriars Monastery was gone
• Songs and stories of beautiful flowering plants rising up out of graves as a reference to the Resurrection of Christ, life coming from death
• And, oddly enough, the White Tree of Gondor in Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Maybe that last allusion isn't totally strange and unexpected. Although it had been dead for many years, Aragorn and Gandalf find a sapling of the White Tree and plant it in the Court of the Fountain, where it grows and blooms to bring hope and courage to Middle Earth. In the movie version, the blooming is even more dramatic as the dead tree comes back to life and blooms, signaling the return of the King and peace again to the residents of Gondor. 

In this case a King has also been returned to us--a real, historical man who has become legendary to the many students of history who have searched for him for so long.

I also see hope and courage in this sculptural Tree.

Every day we learn more about Richard as a man and King and find that he was not like the character out of Shakespeare but a man of courage and conviction.

Other of life's mysteries, lost in time for centuries, can be rediscovered and change how we think about our past and our present. We just need to keep digging.

What Did King Richard Eat for Dinner?

One thing in particular that I am missing from England is the food. You might think that British food is bland, boring, and bad. Not so. I found it to be some of my most favourite ever and I am having a major problem with not being able to get any whenever I want.

What foods do I miss most?

Cream Tea at Coughton Court

Cream Teas: A good cream tea is composed of tea with milk and maybe sugar; a light, fluffy scone with or without currants; jam; and that elusive delicacy, clotted cream. Clotted cream, from Devonshire, is unlike anything we have here in the States. It is rich and creamy, highly spreadable, and full of calories. It is pure cream that has been solidified through a special process. I think you can find it in specialty stores, but I am still searching for it here in my city. Can you make it yourself? Yes, with time and patience and probably some sort of magic spell.

Put the jam on first and then the clotted cream. You will be in heaven with each bite.

John's Special English Breakfast--
just what I wanted!

English Breakfast: The best English Breakfast is composed of so many elements. You can have what I had--black pudding, bacon (not our thin, dainty bacon but real chunky bacon), egg, and toast--or you can add other things such as sauteed mushrooms, grilled tomato, baked beans (yes, beans for breakfast), sausages, or some sort of potato, such as hash browns.

I should say a word about black pudding. It is a type of sausage. You might not want to eat it if I tell you what is in it (pig's blood), but if you are a meat eater, you are eating animal blood anyway. This is just a good utilisation of all parts of the animals we eat. In the old days, farmers could not afford to waste any part of what could be food. It might be the line between starving or not. Black pudding is a little spicy and has a granular texture due to the suet (another animal product) and oatmeal. Give it a try. You might have found a new favourite food.

Chicken and Leek Meat Pie

And last, but certainly not least, Meat Pies: How can we think we have meat pies in the United States when all we have are pot pies? These are not the same at all.  The meat pies I am missing are full of big chunks of meat with flavourful  gravy (unless it is a pork pie), all surrounded by flaky crust. There can be vegetables inside, but they are not primary, unlike the pot pie. We can have shepherd's pie, with lamb and mashed potatoes on top, or cottage pie, the beef variation, but those little self-contained pastries full of meaty goodness are very hard to come by here.

I have found a place to special order them. The main problems are that they are a bit expensive and frozen. I think are turning out quite well in my taste experiments, however, if cooked properly. I have yet to decide on a favourite, although Steak and Mushroom is definitely in the running. I can't really get any fish pies from this place, so I will have to keep searching for that yummy dish.

What, may you ask, does all of this have to do with King Richard???

Last year, the British Geological Survey put out a study in association with researchers at the University of Leicester to study the bone and tooth chemistry of King Richard. They discovered some fascinating facts about his diet.

They discovered that Richard had had major changes in diet and location in his early childhood and in later life. The period we are most interested in, his later life when he became King, seems to indicate that he began to indulge in a diet filled with expensive and high status food and drink. How do they know this?

The chemistry of the femur, ribs, and teeth indicate changes in development at different stages of life. "Isotrope" measurements for geographical location, pollution, and diet, can be analysed. The teeth, which form in childhood, seem to indicate a change for Richard, confirmed when he moved from his birthplace at Fotheringay Castle to eastern England at age 7. He was in an area of higher rainfall, older rocks, and had a significant change in diet.

By looking at the femur, researchers could tell that he had moved back to eastern England and then began to eat rich foods common to the highest aristocracy.

The third bone to look for clues, the rib, renews itself quickly in growth, so it only represents the last 2 to 5 years of life. The data from this bone indicate the greatest change in diet. Researchers discovered that the biggest change here from the femur bone data is that he began to eat more freshwater fish and birds, which were popular at royal banquets. He was also probably drinking more wine.

So what did King Richard eat? Birds such as swan, crane, heron, and egret would have been common fare at a kingly banquet. There was a lot of meat on the table. Vegetables and fruit were mostly for poorer folk, although exotic fruits could be found on the table. Pastries, breads, cheeses, nuts, and wine and ale would have been abundant. Oxen, fish, poultry, eggs, beef, pork, and mutton were included in many feasts. And meat pies, too! The desserts alone were probably amazing. There would be jellies, tarts, custards, cakes, and more.

The nobility were also able to eat three meals a day, unlike the common folk. That would be a lot of work for kitchen staff!

Eating like this very often would make one quite corpulent and unfit for battle. I can only suppose that Richard didn't feast very often if he had to be ready for war at any time. Besides, how would he have fit into his armour? 

But a good feast of British food can be a nice way to celebrate something special!

Benedict Cumberbatch and Poetry

Since I have been back, I have been thinking a lot about the Reinterment. Of course, I've been thinking about it! How could I not? And I have been happy to talk to people about it. After all, I helped bury a King of England! That doesn't happen every day.

But guess what always comes up again, time after time? You probably guessed it. Benedict.

I talked a little bit before in an earlier post about Benedict's participation in the Reinterment and my impressions of how the press was handling that coverage. It was quite disappointing.

I'm not saying that I don't admire Benedict Cumberbatch as an actor. I think he is rather endearing. I am happy that he was invited to the ceremony. He had good reason to be there as a cousin (Richard's and mine, too, if you think about it), and he helped add interest and publicity both for the event, Richard III, and Leicester. It was a bit tacky to put his acting role as Richard in the upcoming television program "Hollow Crown" and the rather distant cousinly relationship in the Order of Service, but perhaps this was an attempt by the organisers to justify his presence for some reason.

Benedict Cumberbatch reading "Richard" 

by Carol Ann Duffy

But we were all of us participants in this great event: Benedict Cumberbatch; Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Tim Stevens, the Bishop of Leicester; David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester; the Choir; the Bearer Party; the archaeological team; and every member of the congregation who were there praying, singing, and witnessing. Benedict was really not any more important than any other of us at the event, except for King Richard himself, that is.

Richard was the true focus as we celebrated and pondered his life, death, and future in heaven. All of us inside the Cathedral were brought there to think about the lost King who was found, which we were doing reverently and respectfully. I will never forget the ceremony as being one of the most thought-provoking and also rather miraculous occurrences of my life.

But with that said, I can tell you the answers to the questions you are burning and yearning to know. Yes, I saw Benedict Cumberbatch in person. I was actually in the same room with him! I saw him enter the Cathedral, although he didn't walk past me, unlike some other dignitaries and nobility did. I saw him go up to the reader's stand and recite his poem. His back was turned to me at that point. I even saw the chair in which he sat! It had a sign on it that read "B. Cumberbatch." The little school boy who sat next to him during the Reinterment (grrrr!) was allowed to take that relic home with him (double grrrr!).

I was about 20 to 25 yards away from Benedict Cumberbatch when he read the poem. Okay, you can touch me. The magic might rub off on you, too.

Now that you got that out of your system, let's talk about the poem Benedict read so well. The Poem, written by Carol Ann Duffy, the poet laureate of England since 2009, is entitled "Richard." This poem, told from the point of view of the long-dead King Richard, reflects on what has happened to him and his hopes for how we should treat him now, in his future and our own, to keep his name and memory from being lost again.

Naturally, it is a very religious poem, full of imagery familiar to Christians, including words such as soul, incense, votive, relics, cross, resurrection, and prayer. Also there are words to invoke the picture of Richard as the mortal body found in the ground after 530 years: bones, cold soil, skull, scarred, broken.

I especially like the line "My skull, scarred by a crown, emptied of history."

We will always think of that skull found in the ground, with its extensive damage caused by brutal medieval war weapons, as being scarred in the battle that killed Richard. This poetic image, shifting the scarring from those weapons to the actual crown that became the eventual cause of his death due to another man's lust for it, is rather jolting. And that skull is a shell now, not just empty of brains, blood, and the other physical necessities of life, but of memory and all history of himself.

I wonder if the King, the last to die in battle, would have thought of his salvation at the end of time, wondering if people would still think of him, speak of him, pray for him in the future. None of us likes to think that we will be forgotten, that we have made no lasting impression of good on this earth before we leave it. Since we know Richard to have been a religious man, I hope he was able to find some peace in his last thoughts before death came to him. 

I think Richard would have felt honour and gratitude to be remembered by so many over half a millenium later. That famous men, such as Benedict Cumberbatch, and ordinary women, such as myself, would feel pride to claim kinship with him and be moved to congregate in his memory. This alone gives King Richard III a very special place in our human history.

The Many Faces of Richard III--Part 1

I love portraits. I love looking at the faces of the past and thinking about what were they like as people. Looking at the Many Faces of Richard has made me think more about him as a person and ruler, not just as a bunch of bones.

The scientists at the University of Leicester made a 3D scan of the skull and sent it off to Caroline Wilkinson, Professor of Craniofacial Identification at the University of Dundee.There, she used a computer process called "stereolithography" to add muscles and skin to the skull.

The resulting face was then made into a three-dimensional plastic model, painted, with prosthetic eyes, wig, and clothing added to create a realistic appearance.

Richard's Bust in the
King Richard III Visitor Centre

This is the face that was created as a result of Dr. Wilkinson's work:

The facial features of the bust are amazingly similar to the most contemporary portraits we have of Richard, including the strong jaw line, nose shape, and set of his eyes.

One thing you might notice with this reconstruction is the blond hair. Another study performed later discovered that Richard had blue eyes and blond hair, probably as a boy. Most portraits of the King show him with dark hair. The first reconstruction had duplicated the hair colour of the portraits, but since this study has come out, they have replaced the original wig with a much lighter one.

Having blond haired and blue eyed relatives in my own family, I was surprised that they would have bothered with the wig change. Many towheads can darken to brown or even a near black as they age, which has happened to many of my Scandinavian relatives. Perhaps a closer study of Richard's ancestral portraits and their physical descriptions would have been informative as to whether Richard was likely to be this blond at his death.

One of my favourite Richard portraits is actually this little portrait of him and his wife, Anne Neville, from the Salisbury Roll of Arms, ca. 1463.

Although the portrait is very formal and the figures rather two-dimensional, I am attracted to the expressions. Richard is looking towards Anne, who is looking straight ahead. He is leaning away from her, but perhaps that is because he doesn't want to poke her with his sword. She looks very placid and content. They look very young and confident. Although this portrait would be contemporary with Richard and Anne, I seriously doubt there is any resemblance to the real people. That would have been typical of the time. He would be shown with his symbols, such as the white boar which is outside of this cropped picture, to tell you who it is. Actual facial resemblance was not a big concern in book illumination at this time.

This portrait is the oldest surviving portrait painting of King Richard, done in about 1520, 35 years after his death. It was not done from life but from a lost original belonging to the Paston Family of Norwich.

This portrait of Richard with a broken sword was created between 1523 and 1555. I see some similarities in the chin, nose, and eyes.

This portrait found in the National Portrait Gallery in London, was done much later, at the end of the 16th Century. It is one of the most famous pictures of Richard. He is in a similar pose to the first portrait. I am wondering about his garb. I think it looks more like 16th Century clothing. The painting is very striking with the rich brocade background, the gold floral design at the top, and the strong colours. Richard retains his previous facial features and his look of strong determination.

Compare the previous portrait to this one, also found in the National Portrait Gallery and painted at the end of the 16th Century. It is clearly similar and may have either been a copy of the other one, or they both were copies of something else. This artist seems to lack the finesse of the previous painter. Richard's face looks fuller, his eyes smaller, but his chin and nose shapes are still the same.

Here is another painting, this one later from 1675-1700 by an anonymous British painter. This one is beginning to look more different than the previous ones. I see a much different, longer nose, more hostile-looking eyebrows, and a less pleasant expression in  his mouth and eyes. I can imagine that this painter has been heavily influenced, not only by the previous portraits, but also by Shakespeare's portrayal.

One last portrait of Richard III that caught my eye is this one, done in England about 1800. It is called "Imaginary Portrait of King Richard III" and is at Blickley Hall in Norfolk. You might wonder why it is called an "imaginary portrait." I suspect that the artist used his rather vivid imagination to create what he thought Richard might look like. The clothing is not dissimilar to the other portraits. The face of this King, however, is much different. The face is rounder, the eyes larger, the nose less pointy, and the chin is less prominent. We would not recognise this gentleman as being Richard at all, without the identification on the painting.

It would be interesting to find an actual portrait painted while Richard was alive, that we could be confident was the real King. Or a portrait of him as a child? That would be remarkable indeed!

Special Exhibits

Since arriving home, I have been hearing about some items from the Reinterment being on display.

One item of interest, the beautiful chasuble worn by Cardinal Nichols at the Requiem Mass for Richard III will be on public display at Ushaw College in Durham. The "Westminster Vestment," will be on view over five Saturdays beginning on 4 April between 12 and 5 pm.

Close up of the King on the bottom front panel.

This garment is said to have belonged to Richard III and dates from the third quarter of the 15th Century. It is an example of Opus Anglicanum (English work), beautiful and complex ecclesiastical embroidery famous in the Middle Ages. It is made from velvet cloths of tissue with silver-gilt brocading thread linking them, with figures cut from coloured silks and then attached to a gold background.

As an embroiderer myself, I have never seen something so lovely. And to think that it was all done by hand over 500 years ago! The physical condition of the garment is outstanding, and it was a tremendous honour to be present at the service at which it was worn again.

Another Richard item that has attracted much attention, his Book of Hours, will be on public display at the New Walk Museum in Leicester. It is on loan from the Archbishop of Canterbury and Lambeth Palace Library until Sunday, 28 June.

Richard III with his Royal Standard and Boar

Although this may seem to be a typical collection of prayers to guide devotion throughout the day, this particular book is very special in that there are several hand-written prayers for Richard inserted into the book, and we also can see Richard's birth date written inside the book in what is believed to be his own hand. This book may very likely have been with him at the Battle of Bosworth to give him comfort and courage.

The book then was said to have "belonged" to Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII and instigator of his tenuous claim to the throne and indirectly responsible for the Battle of Bosworth and what fell next in history. I guess it was one of the spoils of the battlefield divvied up amongst the victors. Eventually it passed to the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury in  the early 1600s.

There are copies available to purchase of Richard's Book of Hours so that we may all contemplate the same prayers as the King. But the original has special qualities, not seen in the words and pictures. I was informed at the service that the book opens up to certain pages, indicating favourite prayers of Richard's. I would love to know which had special meaning for him and why.