Remains found in Leicester, England, have been positively identified as those of the late – and much posthumously traduced by the Tudors – King Richard III. Now an argument has broken out about where he should be properly interred. The Government wants it to be Leicester Cathedral, but many, including York City Council, want it to be York Minster.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21336248
This prompts the following thoughts from me
1) Richard was – notably! – of the House of York
2) he had many family and personal links with York and its Minster, whose chantry he notably endowed, but almost none with Leicester
3) in his lifetime he had announced his wish to be buried in York Minster
4) his body was only in Leicester at all because he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field nearby – I’m sure he’d rather not have been found there in the first place 
5) York Minster is a magnificent mediaeval cathedral in a city that was a great city in Richard’s lifetime. Leicester only became a cathedral (and an Anglican one at that) in 1927, the building is essentially a – mostly Victorian – parish church (it is the fourth smallest Anglican cathedral in England), and Leicester was an insignificant market town in Richard’s day.
6) Had Richard a say in it now, no doubt he would rather be buried in an English Christian city than in one today mostly peopled by Hindus and Sikhs. Of course as a Catholic he’d also want a Catholic burial, not one conducted by what he’d undoubtedly see as schismatics if not heretics.
7) Matters of faith aside, anyone with a sense of history could not fail to rejoice at this much maligned monarch being laid finally to rest in the majestic surroundings of York Minster as the ancient stones resounded once again to the long missing sound of the Mass.
Miss Fairburn seems to have the right of it, with arguments like that, how is there still a debate?
I read the articles and something written in the one caught my eye:
“Few details of a reburial ceremony have been announced but David Montieth, Leicester Cathedral canon chancellor, said the remains would be re-interred early next year in a Christian-led but ecumenical service.”
Are you kidding me? “Ecumenical”? God almighty modern brits are a pathetic lot! (My apologies to any modern brits here, though you carry the same name, I don’t include you in that same group). Are we going to have the Mass followed by a Muslim prayer service? Will a plea to Ganesha be heard for the late king’s soul? Will the government send for some Zoroastrian priests to come and help keep the sacred fire going in York Minster? This is a man’s burial for God’s sake, not a cat call to leftist sensibilities. Somehow I don’t think Richard would take kindly to being buried by heathens, heretics, schismatics and apostates. One of the last Catholic kings of England can’t even get a truly Catholic burial, let alone without being used as a prop.
This era deserves scorn, and little else.