The Lost King – Found
Happy birthday, King Richard III!
The 570th birthday of the King of England is a cause to celebrate and Philippa Langley, well known on our website, gave him a wonderful birthday present, a film about his difficult discovery and rescue from certain desctruction.
For a long while, I have kept silent about the upcoming film, as I have been overly busy lately. But also, because some of the reports and discussions about it just were not noteworthy – and that includes articles from some of the main newspapers. Big does not necessarily mean quality. And that also is the result of this whole discovery about King Richard III.
But other news just activated my gag reflex. The whole absurdity mirrored in a myriade of Google alerts about the discussion, if Richard III on stage now should only be played by handicapped actors, did not help me get through the plethora of nonsensical news-alerts. Whyever they are called ‘actors’ and not ‘be-ers’ must have been an error in naming the profession. Or do I have to presume now, that criminals in films now actually need to be … -Well, they might be and we just don’t know yet. Perhaps Richard Armitage could clarify that once in a while? No pressure, just right out curiosity of how such an absurd discussion could go on for so long and over so many annoying articles, that they fill my e-mail accounts to the brim ;o)
Regarding “The Lost King”, various articles show that the established institutions now feel left out and not cherished enough by this film. But seeing the struggles Philippa Langley had to overcome, to get them on board to bring in their expertise and how difficult it was to aggregate enough backing and sponsoring, to get them to work at all and not discourage her in her efforts, deserves more appreciation than just one film.
She is certainly in our hall of fame here on our website together with Dr. John Ashdown-Hill!
For a change, the following article in “History Extra” for once shows the struggles of Philippa Langley, though it only mentions a small part of the long ordeal she had to go through, to follow her mission to find King Richard III:
“Rediscovering Richard III: the story of identifying a lost king” by Mike Pitts (History Extra, 30.09.2022, Published before in “BBC History Magazine”, issue October 2022).
As a further information, I found this interview about the making of “The Lost King” with director Stephen Frears and co-star and -writer Steve Coogan:
The screening in cinemas should begin on October 7th, 2022, so keep a look out for an opportunity to watch the film in your area.
Unfortunately, I am in an area where I have no idea when and how I will be able to get hold of the film and see it for myself any time soon.
So for now, I can only wish you lots of enjoyment with the film and hope it will be easily available and accessible where you are.
Further noteworthy links:
- About an exhibition in London: New Richard III exhibition at The Wallace Collection, (Medievalists.net, 2022/09)
- Direct link to The Wallace Collection, London with the exhibition “The Lost King” (7. September 2022 – 8. Janaury 2023)
Richard III – Event on April 9th, 2022
After the long pause in posting, it is an especial pleasure to announce an event that includes two Richard III-experts we have already interviewed here on the KRA-website.
In the New South Wales-branch of the Richard III Society in Australia, Isolde Martyn will moderate the bookclub-discussion with Matthew Lewis about his book “Richard III. Loyalty Binds Me”. He has various well known publications about King Richard III we linked to here on KRA already. He also showed his expertise with his knowledgeable answers in our interview from the year 2013, “History & Law – Author Matthew Lewis” (August 23, 2013). Since then, he became head / Chair of the Richard III Society.
- Interview for Plantagenet Society of Australia (26.08.2011)
- Interview about author Isolde Martyn (14.03.2013)
- Book about Jane Shore “Mistress to the Crown” (2/2013)
- Book “The Devil in Ermine” (2013) – King Richard III in the year 1483, from the perspective of his cousin, the Duke of Buckingham.
- History & Law – Interview (23.08.2013)
- Book about King Richard III “Loyalty Binds Me“
- Podcast-Series (iTunes)
The bookclub-event will take place on Saturday, 9th of April 2022, and is held online via Zoom. They still have some places left to join in, even if you are not member of the NSW- RIII Society. So please check for your local time, if you want to take part.
Please reserve your spot via e-mail to Ms. Marnie Lo (e-mail in image – and not repeated here to avoid spam.)
Local times, e.g.
- Auckland, N.Z. 7 – 9 p.m.
- New York, U.S.A. / Ottawa, Canada 3 – 5 a.m.
- London / Belfast 8 – 10 a.m.
- Paris, France / Berlin, Germany 9 – 11 a.m.
I am very much looking forward to the event!
All the best to you and stay healthy and safe !
Fundraiser Event in York for King Richard’s Voice
For all near and in available distance to York, the project “A Voice For Richard” has a special fundraising event in the Friargate Theatre on Saturday, 27th April 2019.
Time: 10:00 – 16:30 (9:30 a.m. registration)
We already informed you about this fascinating endeavor to reconstrue King Richard III’s voice in our last article: To Hear the Dead King Speak
But with the fascinating participants to the program for this event, we wanted to go into more detail and let you know about the contributors of this event and project:
- Philippa Langley, one of the main initiators of the search for King Richard III in Leicester and well known on our website, will give an overview of “Playing Richard – How Richard III has been played on stage and on screen“.
- Yvonne Morley-Chrisholm, Voice & Text coach and specialising in vocal profiling, as well as initiator of the “A Voice for Richard” project, together with Tim Charrington, Accent and Dialect specialist, will explain “Pronunciation and personality” and give an introduction into building King Richard III vocal profile.
More details and the full program of the day here in this pdf-file. A registration form can be downloaded here.
| Date: | 27th April 2019 |
| Time: | 10:00 – 16:00 (9:30 a.m. for registration) |
| Location: | Friargate TheatreLower FriargateYorkYO1 9SLU.K. |
| Costs: | £ 25 per Person (includes teas and coffees).Additional £ 7 for picnic lunch if required. |
| Tickets & Enquiries: | A Voice for Richard28, Hanworth RoadHamptonMiddlesex.TW12 3DLE-mail: yvonne@yourvoicebox.co.ukTel.: +44 (0) 77 14 66 19 39 |
To Hear the Dead King Speak …
Hearing someone speak who no longer is alive, normally is a hard thing to achieve and necessitates special esoteric and transcendental abilities of a medium.
But with King Richard III, this could be made possible for everyone of us and we won’t even need special abilities to connect with the otherworld. No, nothing like that.
A group of researchers and specialists might make it possible for us to hear an authentic reconstruction of King Richard III’s voice.
The research takes into account what words the dead king used in his writing, but also from the reconstruction of his skeleton and facial reconstruction, how his larynx would have built his sounds and his facial muscles have formed the vowels and consonants. This way, the most likely reconstruction of the king’s voice will be rebuilt and made audible.
The finding of the king’s bones now might help to not only re-create his history, but also be able to give him back his own voice. Something so many think Shakespeare took away from King Richard III by reducing him to an unrecognizable, though most famous villain.
But what abilities are necessary, to reconstrue something that is already gone and thought forever lost?
- The choice of words – Through King Richard III own writing and handwritten comments and annotations in his own library of books
- The dialect and historic pronunciation – through linguistic research into the regionalism and change of language usage over time
- The articulation – by reconstruing his throat, cheeks, lips and mouth to re-create his linguistic organs. But also his lungs and body size play a role in the acoustics and resonance of a human body.
Kudos to this project. It is an ambitious endeavor, as so many techniques and expertises are necessary, to create already believed lost sound.
Having already been closely following the reconstruction of a dead man’s voice before, I am really looking forward to the execution of this project “A Voice for Richard”.
(I don’t know if many of you remember the earlier endeavor I refer to: The re-creation of the voice of one of the most famous singers in the 18th century, Farinelli, who even in old age, had a significant influence on Mozart and his music. The voice was re-created by overlaying the voices of a tenor/countertenor and an alto-singer, who were modulated in a very specific way to create a singular hearing experience. The results can be heard in the film about this singer “Farinelli” (1994).)
Let King Richard III speak for himself!
To find out more about this project and to potentially support it, here come more details for you:
| Address: | A Voice for Richard28, Hanworth RoadHamptonMiddlesex.TW12 3DL U.K. |
| Website: | https://yourvoicebox.co.uk/a-voice-for-richard/ |
| Contact: | E-mail: yvonne@yourvoicebox.co.uk Tel.: +44 (0)7714661939 |
The “A Voice for Richard” project has a fundraising event coming up in York soon. We will let you know about it in a separate post with more details.
Did he or did he not? – History and Reality – A Moment in Time
After a long time, I am back to do a post here on this website. The reason for that is a special day today, the 22nd of August 2018:
Happy Birthday, Richard Armitage!
Servetus has a thoughtful and wonderfully insightful blog for the birthday celebrations here.
The other event that is returning today for the 533rd time is the Battle of Bosworth, where King Richard III died and which is the reason for Richard Armitage’s first name.
After the death of King Richard III, history and myth was not kind to the king.
That especially is a fact that grips me, as right now I have quite some of my acquaintances who – because of illness or age – are penning down their legacy and making notes how they want to be remembered after their deaths. That is not only a look and planning into an uncertain future, anticipating what might happen, but also demands a review of the life they lead, what they did, and from all their planning and working, to pin the fluidity of life down to what really worked out.
King Richard III never had a chance to do such a planning and at least we do not know about the review he would give his own life. Others determined, what we remember of the king and his deeds.
A main crime always pinned on the king, was the murder of his two young nephews, the known ‘Princes in the Tower’.
The main researcher for finding King Richard III, Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, before his own death finished a research into this topic, which just recently was published posthumously and I got a chance to read already.
I mention this book here, because its unique research does not only go into the facts, as much as we know about them, but also shows the development of ‘opinion’ and ‘myth’ around the ‘event’, if it indeed was one. The rich detail and meticulous research we are used to in the work of Dr. Ashdown-Hill, fascinates with giving a clear structure to all the rumours and suspicions, circling around King Richard III and also follows their historical progression. That in itself is a recommendable feat, if Dr. Ashdown-Hill was not already remembered in our ‘KRA-Hall of Fame’ as the historical researcher who made the finding of King Richard III possible.
Dr. John Ashdown-Hill: “The Mythology of the Princes in the Tower, Amberley Publishing, 2018
www.amberley-books.com
ISBN 978 1 4456 7941 9 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4456 7942 6 (ebook)
I have recognised that for the U.S. the publishing date is set as November 1st, 2018. In the U.K. and other regions, the book is already available. It also will come out as e-book, so please check in your region. (Embedded links here are only given for your convenience.)
A Great Historian Died – Dr. John Ashdown-Hill
Though being quiet for so long on this website, the news I today found, just needs to be posted here, on the website he so greatly supported.
Dr. John Ashdown-Hill
the historian behind the finding of King Richard III in Leicester, died on 18 May 2018. (BBC News here.)
It was his persistence and meticulous research of the times after King Richard III was buried in Leicester, that convinced him that the king’s remains still could be found, though many historians for centuries believed otherwise.
It is due to his research, which he maintained against severe opposition and accusations, that lead to the sensational discovery in Leicester.
It was this persistence and conviction and his honour and work-ethics, that fascinated me about the man and historian Dr. Ashdown-Hill, whom I never personally met, but had the honour to talk to on the phone and do an interview with.
So it is very sad news for me and for the KingRichardArmitage website, who he kindly supported with interviews and a multitude of valuable information. Just see the various posts and articles we have here on this website: Dr. John Ashdown-Hill – News & Interviews
And a great loss for unbiassed historical research.
I want to end with a text I wrote about Dr. Ashdown-Hill during KRA-Week in August 2013, though now it reads like an eulogy. Not all of my hopes mentioned in that article were realised, especially the museum-part. But nonetheless, Dr. Ashdown-Hill would deserve a hall of fame!
His fame certainly is not forgotten here on the KRA website!
Thank you, Dr. Ashdown-Hill!
Richard III on Mr. Armitage’s Bucket List
Richard Armitage was interviewed by The Broadway Channel – “Love, Love, Love’s Richard Armitage on Dancing Like a Teenager Backstage, His Royal Bucket List Role & More” (01.12.2016) about his role as Kenneth in the play “Love, Love, Love”.
Part relevant for King Richard III, transcribed from the video accompanying the interview article:
What role is on your acting bucket list?
Yeah, there is a role on my bucket list. It has been there for a long time, actually. I’d like to play Richard III in some context, whether that’s the Shakespearean version or another version. I was born on the day that he died and I was named after him, so I feel like I have to […] get into his head, or something.
Video by: The Broadway Channel, 01.12.2016
Produced by: Lisa Spychala
Photographer: Emilio Madrid-Kuser
Shot & Edited: Nick Shakra
Graphics: Tony Mendoza
Congratulations & Commemoration – KRA-Quiz 2015 Opened !
♛ Happy Birthday Richard Armitage ♛
Happy Birthday, Mr. Armitage !!!
Success, fulfillment and happiness and the most essential, health, on your life’s journey.
And always enough chocolate to make your day!
♛ KRA-Quiz 2015 ♛
With a rush and a hectic a new year went away like a slight brush of wind and once again it is time to find our champions.
Though I was a bit disappointed by the rather localised event for King Richard III in Leicester, which in my opinion could have been a country wide, if not even a world-wide event,
the KRA-website does not discriminate or exclude from our quiz!
Wherever you are, from wherever you join us, take part and try your knowledge
- about King Richard III
- and Richard Armitage.
KRA once again searches for the King Richard III-Champions.
This year, we search two champions.
In the previous quizzes it became apparent that some have strengthes on one or the other side, meaning Richard III or Richard Armitage.
So this year, we search for two separate champions:
- The King Richard III – Champion 2015 and
- the Richard Armitage – Champion 2015.
Winning prices are:
- For the winner in the RIII-part (Page 1 of the quiz):
- For the winner in the RA-part (Page 2 of the quiz):
All participants till 30 September 2015 (in all time zones around the world) will take part in the drawing.
All questiones need to be answered, even if you know your strength is only on one page of the quiz. So two chances to win in one quiz!
The winners will be announced here on King Richard III’s birthday, the 2 October 2015.
I wish you all a successful and enjoyable quiz and a good time!
Go to KRA-Quiz 2015
Is Richard Armitage still interested in Richard III?
YES
And as I never state something without proof, here comes the evidence:
RIP pic.twitter.com/dHhpRjkRjO
— Richard Armitage (@RCArmitage) March 22, 2015
The route passed very close to my home and birth place. My family went to pay their respects. #riprichardthethird pic.twitter.com/ZgEKxvMUqK
— Richard Armitage (@RCArmitage) March 22, 2015
Most of what we 'know' of this history was penned by Tudor authors in support of a monarch with a fragile claim pic.twitter.com/p3F59MuvPC
— Richard Armitage (@RCArmitage) March 22, 2015
@RCArmitage to the crown. Tudor Propaganda perhaps? #wewillneverknow
— Richard Armitage (@RCArmitage) March 22, 2015
Petition to Coffining Richard III in a Religious Environment
Media and the ‘fact behind fiction’ are entirely topics on their own…
So, no further comment about what they currently make out of this new petition, but rather, what this new petition by the initiators of ‘Looking for Richard‘ really is about:
(I must admit, from the media reports about it, I really had difficulties making it out.)
That the team which initiated and persisted in the search for King Richard III cares about King Richard III, can be taken without doubt. That they want to assure his dignity and honourable treatment, is the main factor defining each step of their search, but also is the essence behind this new petition:
Petition to coffin King Richard III in a holy place
(open worldwide via change.org)
Contrary to the original agreement about the treatment of the remains of King Richard III, his bones have not been sent to rest in a church, awaiting his burial ceremonies.
The reasons of the University of Leicester for this are manifold, among those are, preserving (correct temperature, water level, etc.), security (against possible fanatics), transportation to the location, hindering of further research access, …
So King Richard III at the moment is stored in a scientific vault, like a research specimen, which for the University of Leicester he certainly is.
But besides having been King of England once, King Richard III also is a human being, for which certain treatment standards should be in place to ascertain his human dignity.
One of these standards, the ‘Looking for Richard’ team tries to insist upon with this new petition:
Giving King Richard a holy and not a scientific environment for being placed in his coffin.
From what the media makes out of this request and petition, you would think, the ‘Looking for Richard’ team wants to overthrow all the planning and work from either Leicester Cathedral and the University of Leicester for the burial ceremonies. Some even make me believe, a new war between religions is imminent.
Far from it !
The supporters of this petition come from all religious and none-religious backgrounds worldwide and have the one thing in common:
They are concerned about the scientific treatment of a human being, which sets a very utilitarian precedent of how to treat human remains where the scientific interest dominates and subjugates every other consideration.
This coffining in a holy place would give the found bones a ‘human dignity’ back and would assure that King Richard III is not only seen as a scientific curiosity, but also as a very religious man and human being.
It also would uphold consent for a treatment of human remains, not only of kings, but human beings in general, which researchers seem so easily to forget that King Richard III after all still is.
In this regard, think about how you would like to be treated and for once see King Richard III not as a spectacular historical oddity, but as a human being, and take action regarding this new petition as you see fit:
Petition to coffin King Richard III in a holy place
(open worldwide via change.org)
The petition will close at midnight (GMT) on Tuesday 24 February 2015. The results will be handed over to the re-interment board in Leicester.
More information and details about the ‘Looking for Richard’ team and new petition on the Looking for Richard website.
