A Bradford solicitor is spearheading the battle to bring King Richard III’s remains back to Yorkshire after his resting place was discovered beneath a Leicester car park last year.
The campaign to have the last Yorkist monarch reburied in York reaches a crucial stage tomorrow when a full judicial review hearing takes place at London’s High Court.
After the body was discovered, it was passed to Leicester University who then announced he would be reburied in Leicester Cathedral.
Involving two judges and expected to last a whole day, the hearing will review decisions authorising the exhuming and reinterring of the monarch’s remains in Leicester.
And judicial review expert Matthew Howarth of Bradford law firm Gordons is representing the Plantagenet Alliance Limited – a group of the king’s collateral descendants.
He will argue, among other things, that the Secretary of State failed to consult sufficiently or take into account the wishes of the king’s descendants and the monarch’s own preferences, if they can be determined, when issuing the licence.
They will also maintain such a failure was unlawful and constitutes a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“This case has generated a lot of worldwide interest and we are right in the spotlight,” Mr Howarth said.
“The basic claim is that it was decided the remains should stay in Leicester without proper consultations.
“My client would be happy with any outcome, so long as it was a fair fight.Why the big guns ranged against us continue to fight this case, against a claimant with no resources, incurring substantial legal costs and court time, and refuse to accept the eminently more sensible option of putting the matter to an expert panel, as the judge suggested, is beyond us.
“But, given this is their preference, we’ll now go to the hearing and put the best case possible, with every hope of the licence being overturned. If that happens, the whole question of the king’s final resting place goes up in the air again and there would be every chance this could still be York.”
At August’s High Court hearing, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave also granted the Plantagenet Alliance a protective costs order, meaning it would not have to pay costs to the justice secretary or university if it lost the case. However, if the alliance won, its opponents would have to pay its costs as well as their own.
At a further hearing last month, the same judge rejected attempts by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to: prevent the alliance securing the protective costs order; force it to make a payment in security for any costs ultimately awarded against it; and vary a disclosure order, obliging the Ministry of Justice to provide certain information to the alliance before the hearing.
Judgment following Tuesday’s hearing is expected to be reserved, and delivered in a few weeks’ time.