A strange report now began to circulate. It was said that Richard II
(S257) had been seen in Scotland, and that he was preparing to claim
the throne which Henry's father had taken from him. To silence this
seditious rumor, the King, it is said, exhumed Richard's body from its
grave in the little village of Langley, Hertfordshire. At any rate, a
dead body, reputed to be Richard's, was brought to London and propped
up in a chair, so that all might see it.
In this manner the King and his court escorted the corpse in solemn
procession to Westminster Abbey, where it was reinterred among the
tombs of the English sovereigns. With it he buried once for all the
troublesome falsehood which had kept up insurrection, and had made the
deposed King more feared after death than he had ever been during
life.