LEICESTER, England, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Leicester Cathedral released the design Thursday for a new tomb for Richard III, the last king of England to be killed in battle.
The Very Rev. David Monteith, the cathedral's dean, said the skeletal remains will be interred in a brick crypt under the floor at the east end of the cathedral, the Leicester Mercury reported. The spot will be marked by a tomb of Swaledale fossil stone with a cross cut into the top surrounded on the floor by a white rose, the emblem of the House of York, and a circular band with the years of the king's birth and death, his motto, "Loyaulte me lie" or "Loyalty binds me," and his personal emblem, the boar.
Richard's burial place is now the subject of a court case. A group of people who claim descent from his close relatives argue he should be buried in York Minster because of his personal and family ties to the city where he governed as Lord of the North while his brother was king.
An early move to bury Richard in Westminster Abbey near the tomb of Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty and winner of the battle of Bosworth Field, appears to have gained no traction.
Richard was hastily buried in a Leicester church after the 1485 battle. His remains were exhumed from the car park that now occupies the spot and identified through comparison with the DNA of a remote descendant of his sister.
Dr. Phil Stone, head of the Richard III Society, said the group has to remain neutral on the burial site until the court case is resolved. But he said he is pleased with Leicester's plans.
"This design is utterly inspired and if it does not come here, I hope they will do the same thing somewhere else," he said.
