Richard III Was Catholic and He Should be Buried as One

Edit: we said it first in September as soon as it was possible it could have been him. Indeed, a proper Mass for him still isn’t impossible.

By John-Paul Ford Rojas7:26PM GMT 17 Mar 2013 

[Telegraph] Dr John Ashdown-Hill argued that the monarch, killed in 1485 before the Reformation, was “a very religious man”. He suggested that the split from Rome that took place a few decades later might never have happened were it not for Richard’s defeat at the hands of the Tudors.

The king’s skeletal remains were discovered under a car park in Leicester earlier this year and he is now expected to be buried at the city’s Anglican cathedral – since it is the nearest consecrated ground.

But the decision has proved controversial with many arguing he should be re-interred at York Minster because of his strong ties to the region. There has also been the question of his religious affiliation.

Dr Ashdown-Hill told the BBC: “There is a lot of evidence that Richard III had a very serious personal faith. If Richard III had not have died, maybe the Anglican church would never have existed.”

Maybe this Mass would look like this: