This Day in History: 1485-08-25

On 25th August 1485, Richard III, lord of Sandal, was buried without ceremony at Grey Friars, Leicester after being killed at the Battle of Bosworth three days before. Despite unseemly violations to his body post mortem, his body was washed and laid out for public viewing. Some ten years after Richard’s death, Henry VII paid for a modest gravestone to mark his resting place. His grave was lost following the dissolution of the monasteries but Richard’s remains were rediscovered in 2012, authenticated, and were reinterred at Leicester Cathedral in 2015.