The two graves inside the choir Skeleton 3 and Skeleton 4 contained wooden coffins, whilst the grave in the presbytery was of someone buried inside a stone sarcophagus Skeleton 5. This had been buried more or less centrally within the space, probably fairly close to the high altar, and was clearly for someone of high status, perhaps an important patron of the friary. A further group of human bone Skeleton 2 had been found in in a small pit dug into the building rubble overlying the church floor.
This appears to be the disarticulated remains of a single person whose grave was probably disturbed by workmen demolishing the church in the midth century, who had respectfully dug a small hole and reburied the remains. Newly completed research carried out by ULAS can now shed light on some of the other people buried in the eastern end of the friary church. Analysis of the skeletons shows them all to be women:. Stable isotope analysis of the three intact burials Skeletons 3, 4 and 5 has revealed that the women had a highly varied, protein-rich diet including large amounts of seafish.
A diverse diet of this kind would have been typical of wealthy late medieval people who could afford to consume expensive foods like meat, game and fish, and in comparison with Richard III, these women were only eating slightly less meat and fish than the king.
Although it might seem unusual that Richard III is the only male skeleton found inside the Grey Friars church it must be remembered that only four of ten known graves have been excavated with the potential fro hundreds more burials elsewhere inside the church, the other friary buildings and outside in the cemetery.
Statistically, the sample is too small to draw any conclusions to the significance of so many women at Grey Friars. Excavation of other friary churches suggests that women were routinely buried in friaries, probably reflecting the close interaction friars had with their local community, in contrast to other more sequestered monastic orders.
