Reburial of Richard and Edmund of York
Reburial of Richard and Edmund of York is in 1471-1483 Edward IV Second Reign.
Croyland Chronicle 1476. Jul 1476. In the meantime, and while the king was, for some years, as we have already stated, intent upon accumulating these vast quantities of wealth, he expended a considerable part of them in a solemn repetition of the Funeral rites of his father, Richard, the late duke of York. For this most wise monarch, recalling to mind the very humble place of his father's burial (the house of the Mendicant Friars at Pomfret, where the body of that great prince had been interred, amid the disturbances of the time at which he perished), translated the bones of his father, as well as those of his brother Edmund, earl of Rutland, to the fine college of Fodringham [Map]1, which he had founded, in the diocese of Lincoln, attended by two processions, which consisted both of persons distinguished by birth and high rank: the one being of ecclesiastics, and consisting of the prelates, the other of various peers and lords temporal. This solemnity was performed on certain days in the month of July, in the sixteenth year of the said king, being the year of our Lord, 1476.
Note 1. Fotheringay [Map].
Before 29 Jul 1476 the remains of Richard Plantagenet 3rd Duke of York and his son Edmund were removed from Pontefract Castle [Map] to be reburied at St Mary and All Saints Church, Fotheringhay [Map]. On their journey south they spent two nights at Blackfriars Friary, Stamford [Map].
On 29 Jul 1476 Edward I's paternal grand-father Edward of York, Richard of York and his younger brother Edmund were reburied at St Mary and All Saints in Fotheringhay [Map] in a ceremony attended by King Edward IV of England (age 34), George York 1st Duke of Clarence (age 26), Thomas Grey 1st Marquess Dorset (age 21), William Hastings 1st Baron Hastings (age 45), Anthony Woodville 2nd Earl Rivers (age 36).
Thomas Whiting, Chester Harald wrote:
n 24 July [1476] the bodies were exhumed, that of the Duke, "garbed in an ermine furred mantle and cap of maintenance, covered with a cloth of gold" lay in state under a hearse blazing with candles, guarded by an angel of silver, bearing a crown of gold as a reminder that by right the Duke had been a king. On its journey, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with other lords and officers of arms, all dressed in mourning, followed the funeral chariot, drawn by six horses, with trappings of black, charged with the arms of France and England and preceded by a knight bearing the banner of the ducal arms. Fotheringhay was reached on 29 July, where members of the college and other ecclesiastics went forth to meet the cortege. At the entrance to the churchyard, King Edward waited, together with the Duke of Clarence, the Marquis of Dorset, Earl Rivers, Lord Hastings and other noblemen. Upon its arrival the King 'made obeisance to the body right humbly and put his hand on the body and kissed it, crying all the time.' The procession moved into the church where two hearses were waiting, one in the choir for the body of the Duke and one in the Lady Chapel for that of the Earl of Rutland, and after the King had retired to his 'closet' and the princes and officers of arms had stationed themselves around the hearses, masses were sung and the King's chamberlain offered for him seven pieces of cloth of gold 'which were laid in a cross on the body.' The next day three masses were sung, the Bishop of Lincoln preached a 'very noble sermon' and offerings were made by the Duke of Gloucester and other lords, of 'The Duke of York's coat of arms, of his shield, his sword, his helmet and his coursers on which rode Lord Ferrers in full armour, holding in his hand an axe reversed.' When the funeral was over, the people were admitted into the church and it is said that before the coffins were placed in the vault which had been built under the chancel, five thousand persons came to receive the alms, while four times that number partook of the dinner, served partly in the castle and partly in the King's tents and pavilions. The menu included capons, cygnets, herons, rabbits and so many good things that the bills for it amounted to more than three hundred pounds.