'It would seem, therefore, that if this skull was filled as full as it would hold of the rape-seed, and that the seed has not shrunk since, King Richard the Second was not distinguished by the size of his brain.'

@hrcastor there's a jawbone of an ass joke in there, but I'm not going to make it

@TheMedievalDrK I salute your restraint

@hrcastor Shows that nicking historical artefacts as souvenirs has a long tradition. Stealing a persons bones is a bit ghoulish though! What the hell was he going to do with it anyway? Beggars belief!

@grayishbookworm He gave it to a schoolfriend, who later became Dean of Canterbury and kept it as a family heirloom. Unless this is a case of 'it was not me it was the Other Boy' and the Dean of Canterbury actually did it...

@hrcastor @pollsstar Depends whose bones. Tales of overflowing urban graveyards 18th century where boys played games with bones. Also sextons sometimes lives in churchyards, burned bones for heat & cooking

@Barb_Drummond @pollsstar (What depends?)

For years, until it was repaired in 1871, Richard II's tomb in Westminster Abbey had five holes in the side where metal shields had once been fixed. Visitors regularly used to put in their hands, and many of his bones were moved around or taken out.

Other objects were thrown in. Items found when the tomb was opened in 1871 included a handful of marbles, three tobacco-pipe bowls, seventy-two copper coins and a peach stone.

@hrcastor We've all done it

@hrcastor Schoolboys cannot be trusted around dead (and especially ousted and dead) monarchs. Exhibit B: Edward II’s tomb in Gloucester.

@hrcastor Prank, bet or voodoo?