The battle over where Richard III's recently-discovered remains will be buried could last longer than the famous king's actual reign.
The Plantagenet Alliance, which is made up of King Richard III's distant relatives, has asked the High Court of England to rethink the reburial of their ancestor's remains in the city of Leicester where he was found, Reuters reported. The alliance believes the issue of where to bury the remains should be partially up to the public.
The body was discovered under a municipal park about two years ago. The Ministry of Justice granted permission to Leicester to bury the king on the grounds of a local cathedral.
"It matters what happens when you identify the only king since 1066 whose remains were not identified," the alliance's counsel Gerard Clarke told the court, Reuters reported. "It should not be left to chance, whim, or commercial interest."
The king died in the battle during the Wars of the Roses that took place during the mid to late 1400s. He had only been in power for 26 months at the time of his death, the BBC reported. His body was not found far from where the battle took place.
"He is of enormous cultural and historical significance," Matthew Howarth, the Plantagenet Alliance's lawyer and an expert in judicial reviews, told the BBC. ""He was one of the last medieval kings. You can't simply leave a decision on where to bury him to the University of Leicester and the Ministry of Justice."
King Richard III was given a full Catholic burial at the time of his death.
"What some people forget is his funeral has already happened. A Christian ceremony was held and his body was given back to God," Father Andrew Cole, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham, told the BBC. "We would like his body reinterred as soon as possible and for him to be treated with the deepest respect. Not just because he was a king but because they are the mortal remains of a human being."
The The Plantagenet Alliance hopes the body will be buried in York, which was his "powerbase" during his reign, Reuters reported.
Richard III has been portrayed as an evil man who killed his nephews and took the throne unfairly, especially in a play be William Shakespeare.
