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.
Richard III Hits the Screen
Not in a fit of anger, but in a documentary about his life and human remains.
♛ King Richard III ♛
It is not further astonishing that Channel 4 in a Saturday night special on the 2nd of February, 2013 can’t resist to bring up the topic of King Richard III potentially killing his nephews (though without new source, what revelations do they expect?). [Links below.]
Finally on Monday, 4th of February, 2013 at 9 p.m. the results of the search and research by the University of Leicester, initiated by Philippa Langley, will be revealed.
- Reuters U.K.: England’s lost king: is Richard III buried under a car park? – Announcement of the TV-documentary on Monday 04.02.2013, 9 p.m. (Channel 4) and good overview article about King Richard III and his bad image created by William Shakespeare. (31.01.2013)
- Channel 4: Richard III: Richard III. The King in the Car Park
Channel 4 – Preview / Announcement of the documentary next Monday (04.02.2013 at 9 p.m. [U.K.]):
- Channel 4: Richard III night at Channel 4 (02.02.2013) – Consisting of
– Fact or Fiction: Richard III – Tony Robinson tries to come to a conclusion if King Richard III killed his nephews.
– Princes in the Tower
King Richard in Hobbit Fever?
Yesterday, November 28th 2012, the Premiere-event for “The Hobbit” by Sir Peter Jackson took place in Wellington, New Zealand.
But what can this have to do with King Richard III?
A lot, considering Mr. Armitage, the actor who plays the leading character Thorin Oakenshield in “The Hobbit” and the reason for the existence of this website, took part.
On the red carpet, Mr. Armitage was interviewed by many reporters, but the key question for us came from a fan in the crowd, who was following the red carpet event in Wellington.
Unfortunately, in the material broadcasted by TVNZ in the One News Hobbit Special, which was presented by Wendy Petrie, I can’t make out the question of the fan, though from the voice it is a woman. The reporter next to her unfortunately does not lend his microphone to her, but Mr. Armitage’s answer is recorded very well:
I would love to play King Richard. I may be a little bit too old and a little bit too tall, – but I played a dwarf.
TVNZ One News does not enable an embed code, so here comes the link to the full Hobbit Special, which takes about an hour (and has embedded advertisements).
The interview with Richard Armitage starts at about 23:30 and the quote is at 24:20.
Let’s loose no further time, let’s try to get him into the role of King Richard III by signing the petition !
Full Press Conference Video about Search for King Richard III (12.09.2012)
For all who had not been able to attend or watch the press conference live on BBC last Wednesday, 12th of September 2012, the University of Leicester published a full recording of the sensational news about finding humans remains with clear signs of possibly being King Richard III:
Now that King Richard III might be found – the mtDNA still needs to confirm the success of the search – a controversial topic dominates the discussions about King Richard III.
Leicester, York or Westminster
Those are the places brought into the discussion where the best last resting place for King Richard III might be.
Westminster
+ King Richard III’s wife is buried there, though her exact resting place is unknown (Plate was put into the chapel in modern times for commemoration and is not her exact burial location.)
– church is strongly dominated by the Tudor dynasty on the English throne and heirs to King Henry VII Tudor, the victors over King Richard III at Bosworth.
York
+ King Richard III planned a chapel there, which is thought to have been intended for his own and his families burials.
– historic structure of the Cathedral, as the planned chapel was not built, might necessitate, that King Richard III needs to be squeezed in.
Leicester
+ King Richard III rested in this parish for over 500 years already.
– as all the other churches, it is not the religion King Richard III belonged to, as it is a reformed church changed by Tudor King Henry VIII in the 16th century.
These are only a few of the arguments in this controversial discussion about a controversial king.
I wish for the best resting place for King Richard III, wherever that may be.
♕ Leicester News ♕
- Damn it, let’s give Richard III one last, glorious summer – by Dan Hodges (The Telegraph, 14.09.2012) – Very witty article about why King Richard III already is an overwhelmingly important find.
- Richard III dig: King’s remains ‘will stay in Leicester’ – This is Leicester (14.09.2012)
The mentioned articles are only a small selection of what is going on right now, but try to give you a consistent idea of the happenings.
Please feel free to link in further articles or posts about King Richard III in the comments.
Thank you!
King Richard and Thorin Oakenshield
CDoart already did an analysis and a comparison between King Richard III and Thorin Oakenshield, King of the dwarves in “The Hobbit”, in connection to our poll 1 here on the KingRichardArmitage website.
A comparison between fantasy and history is not so farfetched, when we hear the latest comment by Mr. Armitage about his preparations for “The Hobbit” with King Richard III in his interview with HitFix at the ComicCon in San Diego:
HitFix – Question by Katie Hasty (?)
Oakenshield was kind of this classical lord-figure of the books [“The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien]. How do you update this character for modern audiences?
You see, I’d never really thought of updating. I actually did the opposite. I thought of it as more kind of Greek tragedy. I looked at Shakespeare, you know, a lot of my preparation, I was looking at “Henry V” and bits of “Richard III” just to find roots in British literature that were kind of deeper. But I think […] making it feel contemporary that are the big themes of the story: Loyalty and honour and trust and camaraderie. I think those themes are contemporary.
The interview by Katie Hasty from HotFix at Comic-Con in San Diego, July 24th, 2012, is available on YouTube. The quote starts at about [1:07]:
Shakespeare – What he Should Have Written …
Shakespeare’s “Richard III” is well or mostly not so well remembered from school.
It is common knowledge that Shakespeare was very creative with forming historical detail anew to reach the greatest effect for his plays, so he cannot be seen as a reliable source for the times of King Richard III.
That even King Richard III himself has strong objections against Shakespeare’s version of the story, shows this funny little video by “Horrible Histories”:
But the endeavor to write, what Shakespeare should have written if he had been more true to real events, nobody undertook before
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp and his work “Dark Sovereign” are presented in an article by Maria Grazia on her blog Fly High!.
The book can be ordered via Amazon and is available in print and as Kindle version.
Amazon.com
Amazon.ca
Amazon.co.uk (Affiliation link)
Amazon.de (Affiliation link)
(As far as possible, we link to affiliate programs and the income goes to charities supported by Mr. Armitage. Please also consider the affiliation links at RichardArmitageNet.com for Amazon U.S. and U.K., where the income also goes to RA’s charities.)
Fan-Art: Bccmee and King Richard III
One artist I am sure I don’t need to introduce to you is bccmee.
Phylly interviewed her earlier this year: Interview with bccmee (16th of March 2011)
Bccmee is well known from her blog, her wonderful videos and lately for her gif-month in October 2011.
She is a generous and talented artist and currently shares her knowledge about gif-creation with her blog readers.
In accordance with her October gif-month, she created a wonderful King Richard III scene.
Here comes the gif version:
This scene to me gives the impression of a commitment or with sound even of an oath to King Richard III.
I don’t want to hold back the full video, where bccmee used this scene at the end, starting at about [2:26]
Bccmee together with Phylly also found an impressive sign, that Richard Armitage indeed is the right actor to play King Richard III, as even the Houses of Parliament in London crown him ;o)
Here comes a King Richard (alias: Lucas North) in a signature picture by bccmee:
Thank you, bccmee, for such impressive statements regarding Richard Armitage as King Richard III.
All contributions and blog posts are being collected on a separate page.
Either click on the banner image or go to
to find the collection of fan-art and related blog posts.
Have lots of fun and enjoy !
P.S.: If you want to join in and take part in creating Fan-Art about King Richard Armitage, please let us know and get in contact with us here. Thank you!
Is History Horrible ? – Well, Sometimes …
What a question to ask, you will want to know, for a group which supports the filming of a historic topic.
How can history be horrible for us Richard Armitage and Richard III supporters?
Traxy on her blog “The Squee” posted two videos today, which might convince you, that sometimes it well can be.
See her article
and enjoy “Horrible Histories” …