Visitors are queuing up in front of Leicester Cathedral, to see King Richard III’s tomb. Now plans are made to add exhibition rooms to the church building, to accommodate visitors better.

Historians Mike Pitts, Matthew Lewis, George Goodwin, Diane Purkiss and Michael Jones give their views about the Battlefield of Bosworth, where King Richard III died in 1485. What knowledge is still to be had from a battlefield, of which the exact location was found out only a few years ago? Would it be worth it to destroy the access to a field exactly at a moment, when technology finally catches up with the historical research about the time and could supplement and extend the knowledge about fighting methods, but also about the society of the time?

Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, the historian behind the finding of the remains of King Richard III in Leicester, died on 18 May 2018.
A very sad news 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
A great loss for unbiassed historical research.

King Edward IV. and his love-life, having an effect on the succession of King Richard III.

Richard Armitage mentioned King Richard III in his interview about his latest film project “Sleepwalker”.

Author, historian and politician, talks about King Richard III.

King Richard III’s prayer book with annotations in his own handwriting is now digitalised and available online:
Leicester Cathedral – Richard III’s Book of Hours

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

Josephine Tey’s “The Daughter of Time” and her inspector Alan Grant can fascinate even over 50 years

Philippa Langley, the leading lady in the search for King Richard III, now continues with her research and diggs into the historical sources about the Princes in the Tower.
Professional cold case investigators now take over where historians failed for centuries. New, so far closed archives are opened for investigation and material is carried together all over Europe to make the progress of this new research effort interesting to watch.

530 years after the Battle of Bosworth where King Richard III died, the re-enactors make him and his time live again.

Finally, a royal recognition of the events in Leicester, by awarding the Membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) to both Philippa Langley and Dr. John Ashdown-Hill.

(As I was not familiar with the title of ‘MBE’, I had to look it up here at Wikipedia.)

So much effort was undertaken for the re-burial of King Richard III. Still they got King Richard III’s birthday wrong in his eulogy in Leicester Cathedral.
Here a quite understandable reaction by Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, who did such extensive research about King Richard III and who enabled the finding of the grave, to be embarassed that even such a basic fact about the king was ignored.
In the debate about the finding of King Richard III, it certainly does not help, that some try to make fun of the historian Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, who did the necessary background research to enable the find. The University of Leicester, pressed into the research, did not find the king. They only provided the research equipment, personnel and know-how for coping with the search results, but not the necessary optimism, the belief, the pre-determined area where to dig and the enormous work to achieve the acceptance by the authorities to allow the dig in those areas that was necessary that the king could be found. Without Dr. John Ashdown-Hill’s pre-research and Philippa Langley, the king would have remaind where he was for over 500 years. To ignore that fact is to ignore the real circumstances of the search.

Interview with Philippa Langley reveals her next research project. The search for Henry I’s abbey in Reading.

An interview with Michael Ibsen, relative to King Richard III who helped identify him, about his experiences with the research, making the wood coffin and the ceremonies in Leicester.

Live from Leicester – Tweets as the event happened. Burial ceremony in Leicester Cathedral with a statement by Benedict Cumberbatch about his BBC role as Richard III which relies on Shakespeares version.

Order of service for the burial ceremony of King Richard III in Leicester Cathedral.

Poem by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy for King Richard III, read at his burial ceremony in Leicester Cathedral.
Link to the video: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/watch-benedict-cumberbatch-read-poem-5402615

Follow the events of and around King Richard III’s burial ceremony in Leicester Cathedral in this news stream.

A royal burial. The burial ceremony of King Richard III in Leicester Cathedral was attended by relatives and royalty.