Dem Bones, Dem Royal Bones

A British high court has allowed judicial review of a decision to reinter the remains of King Richard III, unearthed in a parking lot after 527 years. However, a second so-called Wars of the Roses may be underway. Leicester Cathedral is one site that has the support of the government, but the British public want their say as well. Almost 30,000 people signed a petition to get a formal hearing on where the final resting place should be. The King's descendants say the he should be in York and now challenge Leicester’s plans through the Plantagenet Alliance, formed soon after the Ministry of Justice made the call on what would become of the remains. The Judge encouraged an out of court settlement be achieved, warning the parties against an “unseemly, undignified and unedifying” legal recurrence of the Wars of the Roses-- a civil battle between the families of Lancaster and York (named after their respective heraldic symbols of the red and the white rose). The court's reason for granting a review: “The archaeological discovery of the mortal remains of a former King of England after 500 years is without precedent.” The judge also noted economic implications in terms of prestige and tourism which could benefit the city or place or institution where King Richard III’s skeleton rests. England's most reviled monarch, depicted by Shakespeare in the play that bears his name as the wicked, hunchback murderer of his nephews in the Tower of London, may just have his reign re-examined as the litigation over where his bones should be, takes place. See stories here: http://nyti.ms/1bP4LRQ and http://bit.ly/1dgxctO