Three years after Richard III was found in a car park, Henry I could be too

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Researchers who discovered Richard III’s remains in a Leicester car park three years ago believe that Henry I could also be underneath a car park in Reading.

Philippa Langley, the screenwriter behind the successful search for King Richard III in 2012, now believes that King Henry I, the fourth son of William the conqueror, may be buried under a car park or playground on the site of Reading Abbey.

The exact whereabouts of Henry I’s final resting place are unknown after the abbey, including his tomb, were destroyed around 400 years after his death in 1135.

She told BBC History Magazine: "The thinking in Reading, using current estimates of the size of the abbey, is that this burial spot is located beneath a school.

"If the abbey is larger, it could be situated underneath either what is today a playground or a car park."

Henry I came to the throne in 1100 after his brother William II died in a suspicious hunting accident, gaining Henry a poor reputation. He founded Reading Abbey in 1121, his later resting place, “for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, my brother, and Queen Maud, my wife, and all my ancestors and successors"

Richard I was depicted by Shakespeare as a cruel hunchback who murdered his nephews for power, a reputation that has carried into popular culture.