The King’s Not Dead …
Wait! – Well, a few others and King Richard III admittedly are,
but not ‘our’ king!
Long live King Richard Armitage!
So it is a real pleasure for the King Richard Armitage Blog to take part in the RA Blog Reunion Day (29th of May 2020).
The event was initiated by Natazukii on Twitter to show that ‘our’ king and his followers are not dead or sleeping or defected to enemy territories. You can follow the event and contributions under #RABlogReunion and see for yourself, how lively and vivid the RA-blogging community still is and how creative and diverse this wonderful blogging family is.
Natazukii wanted to know what became of the silent blogs and where everyone did go. So here, in more details than I am normally comfortable to reveal, come the reasons, why KRA is so silent lately:
The reason for that is, that work, life and health issues aplenty get in the way. I for the last years need to watch what I eat to an extent that can’t be healthy ;o) I began to blog about my issues here, but though I find more and more of my acquaintances having similar issues, most have a very individual form of what goes and what not and most are not as severely hit as I am. So what might work for me, might not work for others or mostly the other way around. And I already got so many tips which achingly did not work for me, the most hurtful coming from my doctors. So my blog so far did not make it beyond the initial posts, though I am continuously self-testing and experimenting with ingredients and recipes, as nothing pre-made works for me.
The other reason why I rarely post lately is, that I do want to keep the blog out of financially motivated, local or other propaganda and away from news that only uses King Richard III to gather interest for something else.
I still closely follow all news and scientific research about Richard III, but washed up and watered down research re-publications rather bore me and I don’t want to post here just to fill the blog and bore you in the process.
That does not mean, that I can’t overlook something interesting about RA and RIII, far from it.
Please keep up with letting me know about things you stumble upon and find interesting !!! Thank you very much for all your help so far !!!
Those are the reasons, why I rarely have updates here. But I hope you enjoy the lively participation on Blog Reunion Day initiated by Natazukii and enjoy and get great inspiration from all the participating blogs.
To show you how big and lively the blogging community around the Richard Armitage fandom is and was, the Fanstravaganza event of 2012 combined the most ever (at least to my knowledge) participants in one single event, though even then not all could participate due to time and work pressure.
Have a great RA Blog Reunion Day !
#RABlogReunion (Twitter-link to the event hashtag)
Closer to the Day …
♛ King Richard III ♛
- PR.com (PressRelease): Richard III: Martyr or Monster? The Shocking Truth Behind Shakespeare’s Bloody Tyrant, by Kultur International Films Ltd (01.08.2013) – This film production by does not seem to be connected with the video-DVD of the TV documentary in two parts “Richard III: The King in the Car Park” and “Unseen Story”, though I can’t find the title on the Amazon.co.uk website yet.
As announced on this Kultur-website, the DVD will become available on 27 August 2013. A short trailer is already available on this site as well.
- Royal Central (Blog): The Real White Queen? A Defence Of King Richard III, by Matt Lewis (02.08.2013) – A very enlightening background comment about the TV series “The White Queen”.
An interview with the author of this post can be found here: Interivew with Matthew Lewis – author of the book “Loyalty”, by Karen Kilrow (13.07.2013) - InLoughborough.com: Bosworth buzzing about first re-enactment since Richard III discovery (02.08.2013) – This year’s Bosworth Battlefield Re-Enactment Event is taking place on the weekend 17th/18th of August, 2013.
- University of Leicester: Emotional end of final dig at Richard III site (05.08.2013)
- Royal Central (Blog): Anne Neville – The Bad Queen? By Sean Okeeffe (05.08.2013) – Was Anne Neville, the queen about which history has nearly no reliable resources at all, really the bad queen as whom she was depicted in the latest episode of “The White Queen”?
- Royal Central (Blog): The Defence of Richard III Part 2 – The Foundations of Evil, by Matt Lewis (06.08.2013) – Was King Richard III guilty of all the crimes he was accused of? Follow this gripping series of articles by author Matt Lewis, exploring the background and coming to a verdict at the end of each article.
- IsleOfMan.com: Richard III, the king in the car park, is coming to the island (05.08.2013) – That now would be a resting place for the king. Sorry ! Don’t want to heat up the discussion again, but the headline lead my thoughts astray. The king unfortunately is not coming himself, but Richard Buckley from the University of Leicester, as the further article on the Isle of Man website ‘King in the Car Park’ Archaeologist to visit the Island, by Charnwood Tails (05.08.2013) reveals.
- Leicester Mercury: Richard III: Historian claims he was ‘airbrushed out of king story’, by Peter Warzynski, Leicester Mercury (06.08.2013) –
Quote of a ‘Spokesman’ for the University of Leicester:We had to go through Richard’s lineage again, and verify the work which was carried out more than 10 years ago. We can’t have everyone at the press conference. Perhaps we should have invited the creator of DNA fingerprinting as well, seeing as he played a part?
This in my opinion for once is a situation, where a ‘spokesman’ should not have spoken, but rather should have taken the time to research the background of the topic he was talking about. Dr. Ashdown-Hill over years researched the connections and relationships and later irrelevant sidelines, to find the valid one leading into our time, which could possibly be used for a DNA analysis. The University of Leicester – don’t think I am making accusations here as their work is a valid and necessary one as well – just had to confirm an already extensively researched line of ancestry and could rely on the previously done work, which in total was a matter of mere months.
As this is only one aspect of many, where the finding of King Richard III heavily relied on the previously done work by Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, that is really not the best way to cope with one of the main contributors to the search. - First Thing: No Catholic Burial for Richard III, by Mark Movsesian (06.08.2013) – See what religion and strawberries have in common.
- My Debonair Affair (Blog): King Richard III, by michellejimenezp (07.08.2013) – New art project for Richard Armitage as King Richard III ! Updates about the progress of the painting will follow shortly.
- ThisIsLeicestershire.co.uk: Richard III visitor centre gets go-ahead, by DanJMartin (07.08.2013)
- BBC News: Richard III museum plans in Leicester approved (07.08.2013) – With a few more pictures of the planned center than the previous article, though no further information.
♛ KRA – Announcements ♛
King Richard Armitage Week 2013
is coming up fast!
21st – 28th of August, 2013
The page for the event is already created and available, though content there will be added from 21st of August, 2013, the beginning of the event, onwards.
Safe the date, take part in the upcoming quiz during the event week and enjoy fan-tastic history with us.
A Late Medieval King in Modern Times
A Medieval King certainly needs an impressive royal portrait. Unfortunately, King Richard III was a bit under represented in the art of his time, which might be due to the fact that his successor King Henry VII was not all too fond of his image.
Now with a bust re-constructed from King Richard III’s skull, we can rectify that.
LDixon157 based her portrait on the new research as well as on one of the earliest surviving portraits painted after his death and created an impressive royal portrait of King Richard III:
LDixon157
contributed her wonderful water colour painting of King Richard III.
See more of her work here: LDixon157 on Flickr
♛ King Richard III ♛
King Richard III is found, but still, lots of questions remain to be answered. Only one of those questions is, where King Richard III should be buried. Though a fast answer seems unlikely, now that this question goes to court and an answer to this delicate problem of ancestry, relation and prerogative of distant descendants needs to be found there.
- University of Leicester: Archaeology Team Bids to Extend Search at Historic Church Site (30.04.2013) – The archaeological Sevices of the University of Leicester have applied to the Ministry of Justice for a further exhumation licence (a stone coffin has been found, presumed to be of a medieval knight called Sir William Moton, buried at Grey Friars Chruch in 1362) and to the City Council, to extend the previous dig and find out more about the Church of the Grey Friars where King Richard III was buried.
City Mayor Peter Soulsby about the digging request:Our aim is for the gravesite located within 6-8 St Martins to become part of the new visitor centre, and the removal of part of the wall will be necessary to make this happen. This application is therefore a step forward in the development of the site.
The archaeological excavation is planned to start at the beginning of July 2013 and will last about 4 weeks. The public is intended to get opportunity to see the work in progress.
- The York Press: Richard III legal fight to start next week, by Kate Liptrot (27.04.2013)
- Green Valley News & Sun: Genealogy Today: Richard III reinterment in dispute, by Betty Malesky (28.04.13) – Discussions that King Richard III’s grave should show his good and bad sides, just do not get my full support. For one, who are we to decide which one’s of his sides were which and for another, when we know so little about him for sure, how can we decide at all? A further reason, why I don’t like this discussion, started by the Cathedral of Leicester, is that other kings, obviously and certifiedly having murdered people in bulks, did receive glorious funerals and graves. Why should we now diminish King Richard III’s status in comparison to other kings who were not an ounce better, but possibly worse? Is proven infamy for kings the way to a glorious funeral and suspicion diminishes the likelyhood?
- ThisIsLeicestershire.co.uk: Legal test for burial of Richard III, by Leicester Mercury (30.04.2013) – If King Richard III has ‘living relatives’ has to be decided in court, though the decision making process will take some time and is anticipated in a couple of weeks.
- The Guardian: Richard III archaeologists to return to Leicester site in search of lost knight. Excavators plan to search for Sir William Moton, who is believed to have been buried at Grey Friars church in 1362, by Maev Kennedy (30.04.2013) – King Richard III’s popularity will pay for further research in the area of the Grey Friars’ Church.
Richard Buckley about the continuation of the search, which will be funded by the University of Leicester and the Leicester City Council:This will be a great opportunity to confirm the plan of the east end of the Grey Friars church to learn more about its dating and architecture, and will give us the chance to investigate other burials known to be inside the building.
- The Telegraph: King Richard III’s teeth and jaw reveal monarch’s anxious life and violent death, by Richard Gray, Science Correspondent (01.05.2013) – The skeleton now reveals more about King Richard III’s life. His dental records will reveal much about his habits, but already brought scientist to suggest that “he ground his teeth with stress“.
In a time where children were married early, because otherwise they were seen as unattractive as they started to lose their teeth at the age of about 20 years, I had wondered, why King Richard III still had so many and in rather good condition. Though especially women tended to start earlier, as even still in modern times there was – and some dentists will tell you still is – the rule of one tooth per child.
P.S. (= Petition Signatures):
I must excuse myself. While trying to repair the comment functionality of this blog (which currently suppresses notification mails), I accidentally pushed the button to send out all repeated confirmation mails to those signers of the petition who did not confirm their signatures so far. I normally do this only after prior notice. Sorry for those unannounced mails!
I still hope, you will have a look, if you did get the mail and confirm, if you have not already done so. We would have over 2.000 signatures by now, but with the unconfirmed signatures not counted, just stepped over the 1.800 mark.
Thank you for all your help and continuing support !!!
King Richard Armitage and Fan News
A big THANK YOU to Philippa Langley for keeping her believes and continuing so straightforward on her way to find and honour King Richard III.
I hope this find will motivate researchers of all scientific subjects and also especially historians, to now have a closer and more extended look at the material, in cooperation of disciplines, with now available new technologies, in a digital and globally connected world where worldwide archives become more and more easily available.
♛ King Richard & His Fans ♛
Before I start with selected fan- and King Richard-news, I must ask for a bit of patience.
KRA was so overwhelmed with comments, requests and messages that currently we are still sorting through all the mails. We try to get up to date as fast as possible, but it might still take a few days, till all requests and mails can be answered. So please stay with us, we will answer every mail and contact form request sent in.
We very much cherish your feedback and offers of help and thank you very much for getting in contact with us !
Now to King Richard and his Fans:
- Servetus – Me&RichardArmitage: Servetus on Richard Plantagenet’s remains – A historian’s perpective and analysis of the ‘rewriting of history’ through the current finds.
- Fedoralady – The Armitage Effect: In the shadows no more; or the Return of the King
- JasRangoon – Me, My Thoughts, and Richard Armitage: Richard III Trending – About Twitter and other Trends.
- Fabolaktuko – White Rose Writings: We have Richard III – Just want to specially bring your attention to the name of this blog and its connection to King Richard III.
- Fedoralady – The Armitage Effect: More thoughts on a face from out of the past
- IngeD3 – Crispin’s Eclipse: Random Thoughts: Coming clean – Why Mr. Armitage really should play King Richard III.
- Mulubinba – An RA viewer’s perspective…: Richard III – excited for the King Richard III members of the RABlogosphere – About the find in Leicester and our KRA interview in the Leicester Mercury.
BBC Radio Leicester announced that Philippa Langley will join them for a live interview this week, Thursday, 07.02.2013, after 3 p.m.
On Monday, 04.02.2013, there had been an open Q&A session with Prof. Lin Foxhall and Philippa Langley about the researches in Leicester. The Q&As still are open to see here:
Channel4 – Q&A with Prof. Lin Foxhall and Philippa Langley
I unfortunately did not get my questions answered and so, for completion’s sake, post them here:
I had hoped for much more details about the King in the documentary by Channel4, but the documentary showed, that the film team had not really believed to find King Richard III and so had swapped the deeper research into the topic.
A big THANK YOU to Philippa Langley for not letting anything deter her from her way to find King Richard III.
♛ King Richard III ♛
- University of Leicester: The Search for King Richard III – The Scientific Outcome (04.02.2013) – Part of the Press Conference announcing the results of the Search for King Richard III. So if you did not have a chance to listen directly, here is the sound file to do so now.
- Radio Times: Meet Philippa Langley: the woman who discovered Richard III in a car park, E. Jane Dickson (04.02.2013) – The story about how Philippa Langley reached her wonderful research project. Don’t miss this article!
- BBC News: Richard III dig: Facial reconstruction shows how king may have looked (04.02.2013) – Very realistic looking facial reconstruction of King Richard III.
- History Extra: Leicester car park skeleton ‘is that of Richard III’, by mattelton (04.02.2013) – Confirmation of identity of the human remains in Leicester as King Richard III.
- The New York Times: Bones Under Parking Lot Belonged to Richard III, by John F. Burns, Alan Cowell (04.02.2013) – Very good overview over researches and research results.
- The Colorado Gambler: The War of the Roses & Resolving Questions Regarding King Richard III, by Anna Lee Ames Frolich (04.02.2013) – An article which came to our notice because of linking to our website. What makes it specially interesting is that it is written by a relative of King Richard III. Though, please let Ms. Frolich explain the connection.
- ThisIsLeicester.co.uk: King Richard III’s face revealed at last, by Tom Pegden (05.02.2013)
- Philly.com (Philadelphia): Found: Richard III. Not found: Hump, by John Timpane (05.02.2013)
[…] all the world knows Richard, while . . . who the heck knows from Henry of Richmond?
- Detroit Free Press: Scientists use Richard III skeleton to reconstruct king’s face (05.02.2013) – Video about the revealing of the facial reconstruction of King Richard III by Philippa Langley.
Facial reconstruction:
- ITV: Extended interviews with those behind Richard III (05.02.2013) – With short video statements by Philippa Langley, Michael Ibsen, Dr. Phil Stone (Chairman of the Richard III Society).
- ITV: Richard III’s face revealed (05.02.2013) – ITV even created a special topic page for today’s news about King Richard III.
- ThisIsLeicester.co.uk: Richard III’s reconstructed face to go on show in Leicester, by (05.02.2013) – King Richard III facial reconstruction comes to Leicester, but be patient. It comes next year, 2014.
- Vulpes Libris (Blog): Vulpes Randoms – Richard III’s Day 4th February 2013, by Hilary (05.02.2013) – Vulpes Libris, famous for their early interview with Richard Armitage, present the research results of the University of Leicester on their blog with many interesting observations and links.
- The Sun: I’ll give my kingbrum for a horse yow lot, by Andrew Parker (06.02.2013) – Sound reconstruction or how Dr. Shaw can distinguish the dialect of long dead King Richard III.
- University of Leicester: Soundfile of the Dialect reconstruction by Dr. Philip Shaw
- Herald Sun: New hunt for Richard Third lookalikes as face put to long-lost King, by Chris Bartlett (06.02.2013) – Our Facebook page is mentioned in the news. Though Christ Bartlett dismisses the likeness between King Richard III and Mr. Armitage. Mr. Bartlett obviously has not seen “The Hobbit” yet, though he mentiones the film.
♛ Battle of the Cities ♛
- BBC News: York fights Leicester for right to Richard III remains, by (05.02.2013) – Article about the Battle of the Cities with an interesting introductory video about the unveiling of the facial reconstruction of King Richard III by Philippa Langley and the Richard III Society.
- ThisIsLeicester.co.uk: York launches battle with Leicester over Richard III’s remains, by Laura Elvin (05.02.2013)
As those two articles show, the Battle of the Cities did not come to an end with the official declaration of Leicester Cathedral as last burial place for King Richard III, confirmed by the Ministry of Justice.
Our poll about the cities gets attention once again.
We want to mention, as also comments flood in about this topic here on divers places, that the KingRichardArmitage website is neutral in this question.
Many supporters of King Richard III take the position that his written instruction to hold sermons for him and his family in York Minster reveal his wish to be buried there. This is one of the possible interpretation of his actions, while the burial places of his wife and son might contradict this interpretation to some extent.
We will report about news regarding this topic, but won’t take sides.
We welcome ‘non-discriminating’ discussions and comments on our poll page, especially created for this topic, but also need to state that personal attacks will be deleted or withheld from being published, here and on our related Facebook site Richard III for Richard Armitage!
Thank you for all your support and help !
If you miss interesting articles here, please let us know. We continue to build the Press Coverage pages
and will specially create an area about the researches and research results around King Richard III.
In Dear Memory – George Peter Algar
Today, the very sad news reached us that our supporter and presented author
George Peter Algar
died last Thursday.
We very much mourn the loss of such a wonderful person and inspiring contact.
Though we only briefly knew him and never met in person, we will greatly miss his friendly and openly helpful approach and creative ideas.
He supported us with an interview, details about his book “The Shepherd Lord“, by bringing us in contact with the Towton Battlefield Society and just with a wonderful and openminded mail correspondence.
Riikka Nikko, his contact and King Richard III artist from Finland, gave us permission to post her creation in memory of Mr. Algar. The work progressed with input by Mr. Algar.
The merciful and avenging angel King Richard, by Riikka Nikko (More details about her and her King Richard creations can be found in her artwork-portfolio and in this KRA-article):
What a hopeful image of the world that awaits us, entirely under the protection of King Richard III.
King Richard Month in June & Further News
We had a King Richard Week in August last year, but one week is not nearly enough for King Richard.
The Russian Richard Armitage fan-site Armitage-Online has made June a whole King Richard Month with their wonderfully creative calendar creations:
(More images and the large scale versions are available here and by clicking on the preview image.)
King Richard III is alive
and will return to his home castle Middleham this coming weekend.
You don’t believe me?
See for yourself: Announcement at the English Heritage website
To get an audience with the king himself, reserve your spot!
More details and information how to book can be found at the
Our King still is occupied
with fighting a dragon and for another kingdom, as the 7th pre-production video by Sir Peter Jackson about the filming of “The Hobbit” shows:
Video available on Facebook: openly available Facebook-Link
King Richard III – A Bag for a King
Last week we linked to images, CDoart had created for King Richard Armitage.
She also has created a bag for herself and got some requests where that bag could be ordered. So she made it available and published the order-link in the comments to the article on her blog.
CDoart does not want to make any profits by making her ‘Petition King Richard Armitage’ bag available, but will give all commission fees and income generated through sales via Zazzle to charities specified or yet to be specified by Mr. Armitage.
Under those circumstances we feel comfortable to link to her bag and sales options as well:
The bag can be ordered via Zazzle.com (where also more details about the bag are available).
King Richard III & The Why behind Shakespeare
Last week we announced a new article in the BBC History Magazine about King “Richard III. Why Shakespeare made him a Devil”.
Maria Grazia already had a chance to get to the article and posted a detailed review on her blog Fly High. She also links to an interesting background interview with the author of the article, Dr. Paulina Kewes, teaching at the Jesus College in Oxford, which is published as podcast by BBC History Magazine as further background to the magazine article.
CDoart on her blog continues doing fan-artwork by creating a new ‘King Richard Armitage’.
Image excerpts and continuations of the article here:
FanstRAvaganza – King Richard from Fan-Perspective
The FanstRAvaganza 3 is an event, dedicated to the actor Richard Armitage and also, to his fans. So the articles of the week contain,
- fan-art,
- fan-interviews,
- fan-showcases,
- fan-perspectives,
- and lots more …
(I think you get the idea of it.)
One special stream of articles, the KingRichardArmitage tagged team, was dedicated to our project to support Mr. Armitage in his wish to make a film about King Richard III.
The articles of the week contain individual fan-views on the historical background, the revealing of reasons, why they support the project or would like to see it realised. Each article has a fresh and unique approaches to King Richard III & Richard Armitage.
If you did not so far, give them a try and find out more about the supporters of the KingRichardArmitage-Project.
King Richard Armitage – Posts during the FanstRAvaganza 3 Week
Maria Grazia (Fly High!) – Richard III in Movies or why we want a new King Richard
Maria Grazia presents the state of film coverage about King Richard III and why a new film project is so urgently necessary.
IngeD3 (Crispin’s Eclipse) – Richard III a Biography
IngeD3 reviews the biography about King Richard III by Michael Hicks and read more about her conclusions in her article.
Fabo Laktuko (White Rose Writings) – If Richard Armitage is Richard III, who should play Anne Neville?
Fabo Laktuko goes ahead with the project and already asks the next question, who should play Anne Neville, the wife of King Richard?
Servetus (Me+Richard) – Lectures about King Richard III
Servetus shows, how urgently King Richard III wants an objective coverage, so that he even interferes during lectures.
Fitzg @Confessions (Judiang) – A Butt of Malmsey
Musings about, what roles Mr. Armitage could play, if he does not take the role of King Richard III himself.
CDoart (CDoart Blog) – Richard Armitage & Richard III
Why CDoart admires Mr. Armitage for his interest in King Richard III.
Jo Ann (Cerridwen Speaks) – King Richard’s Greatest Sin
Jo Ann analyses King Richard III as victim of the Tudor propaganda.
(The links to all the articles of the event are posted at the FanstRAvaganza 3 Index page.)
We hope, you have enjoyed this extraordinary FanstRAvaganza 3 event!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
Dear readers and supporters of King Richard and Richard Armitage,
Alfie did a wonderful fan-art especially for Christmas and I just need to post it here on this blog as well:
(Preview of the picture here. For full view, please follow this link or click on the picture to reach Alfie’s blog post with the larger picture.)
After seeing that picture, there can not possibly be any doubt left. Mr. Armitage just is the true King Richard III.
Merry Christmas and have wonderful, relaxed and enjoyable holidays!
P.S.: We will be back with book recommendations and authors’ interviews after Christmas, so spare some of your book vouchers you get as Christmas presents!