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.