The Very Revd David Monteith
DAVID MONTEITH, FORMER DEAN OF LEICESTER, GIVING HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT THE JUDICIAL REVIEW
"These big projects do lose human interest and public buy-in if they just go endlessly on and on forever. I was also aware that, you know, Richard's remains, however hastily buried, nevertheless, had been pretty much left alone for all those hundreds of years, and now his bones were, you know, in storage in the University. And I…..I didn't want that to go on for longer than it needed to, because I was mindful of the kind of human dignity questions and all of this and that for a time in the sense, those bones had become a scientific sample, as all of our bones do at times or whatever, but nevertheless, here was a human being that needed to be reburied with dignity."
PETE HOBSON, PROJECT DIRECTOR FOR THE REINTERMENT, RECALLING A STRICKING MOMENT IN THE HIGH COURT
"There was a striking point early on where somebody, I think the Plantagenet Alliance were making some points, and a woman stood up at the back and in a loud voice, said, that's not right, and you're not meant to do that in a courtroom, it's contempt of court. And I think there was a moment when this woman was about to be ejected by the ushers, till it became clear this was none other than Philippa Langley, herself, taking exception to something being said about Richard III. And Lady Justice Hallett, who was presiding, invited Philippa not to address them, but to write her concerns on a note, which was handed to the front. And they retired for about 15 minutes while we all wondered what was going to happen, came out and said, we have noted this, and we continue. So, I don't know what she wrote, but it was a dramatic moment."
RICHARD BUCKLEY, FORMER DIRECTOR OF ULAS, TALKING ABOUT WANTING TO PRESERVE RICHARD III'S CONNECTION WITH LEICESTER
"And you know, from my perspective, as I said at the beginning, it's really all down to preserving that historical association of Richard III with Leicester. And at the end of the day, whether you agree with what he did or not, Henry Tudor brought Richard's remains back to Leicester, and they were reinterred at Greyfriars, which is only a... You know, 100 yards from the proposed interment spot. So, I stood by that as a... as being historically correct, whereas other people thought that, no, no, it... We should forget all that and just inter him somewhere more appropriate."
SALLY HENSHAW, SECRETARY OF THE LEICESTERSHIRE BRANCH OF THE RICHARD III SOCIETY, TALKING ABOUT THE JUDICIAL REVIEW
"But I did quite a few radio interviews for Radio Leicester at the time, and I remember saying to Phil, well, okay, this is the party line, I'm quite happy to go along with it but, you know, I'm the Secretary of the Leicestershire branch, I'm speaking on Radio Leicester, in Leicestershire, I can't pretend that I don't want Richard to be reinterred in Leicester. And he said, well, that's fine, you can say, obviously, as a secretary of the local branch, you know, you want him to be interred in Leicester, which I did."
TIM STEVENS, FORMER BISHOP OF LEICESTER, TALKING ABOUT THE CLAIMS OF THE PLANTAGENET ALLIANCE
"The challenge was specious, really, because it was based on the assumption that the so-called Plantagenet Alliance had rights under the European legislation to be consulted as to the destination of the remains, because they claimed to be descendants of Richard III. Well, everybody knows that there are probably seven or eight million descendants after 17 generations!"
