Search Results for: ashdown-hill
Happy Birthday RA & Commemorating Richard III – The Quiz is Open !
Many of you know, that on this day, now already two years ago, a for my life important person died. So this day, with its joy about Richard Armitage’s birthday, always holds the vivid image of loss for me as well.
What must it have been for Richard Armitage, growing up and always being reminded on his birthday, that King Richard III lost his life on exactly that day?
We nonetheless hope, Richard Armitage celebrates a wonderful birthday and has an exceptional performance of “The Crucible” at the Old Vic.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Armitage!
To celebrate both, the joy and the commemoration, KingRichardArmitage is doing a new Quiz.
All participants till 30 September 2014 (in all time zones around the world) will take part in the drawing.
The winners will be announced here on King Richard III’s birthday, the 2 October 2014.
As last year, the KingRichardArmitage-Champions will be drawn by chance among the most complete and correct Quiz entries.
Prices for the winners are three recently published books about King Richard III and the search in Leicester published by the restlessly and confidently pursuing team of the ‘Looking for King Richard Team’:
- “Finding Richard III: The Official Account“, by Annette Carson, Philippa Langley, Dr. Ashdown-Hill (Pb)
- “Richard III: A Small Guide to the Great Debate” by Annette Carson (Pb)
- “The King’s Grave: The Search for Richard III“, by Philippa Langley, Michael Jones (Pb)
So it is worth to win and try your luck. Take your time, browse around and have a look around the KingRichardArmitage website, as for most of the questions the answers can directly be found on the KRA website.
The Quiz is Opened ! – Good Luck !
Richard III: Jewellery expert’s striking design to take pride of place at reburial of king
Leicester Mercury (May 3, 2014)
Richard III: Jewellery expert’s striking design to take pride of place at reburial of king by Tom Mack –
The crown for King Richard III, individualised to his measurements, was designed and sponsored by historian Dr. John Ashdown-Hill and created by medieval jewellery expert George Easton.
Richard III’s funeral crown to go on show at Tewkesbury Abbey
Gloucestershire Echo (April 9, 2014)
Richard III’s funeral crown to go on show at Tewkesbury Abbey by Robin Jenkins –
The funeral crown for King Richard III, commissioned by Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, will be shown to the public prior to its final use.
King Richard III & Envy
In my whole observations about the research concerning King Richard III, I always wonder, why everybody thinks to be able to judge him on some prejudice, rumour, envy or other motive and readily dismisses valid research done on a broad basis evaluating the available material.
A historian is bound to build as complete a basis for a research as possible and only after reviewing all (!) available sources, is allowed to come to a conclusion and has to argument from all possible angles the validity of the own conclusions.
So you will find me shaking my head in utter astonishment concerning the current discussion about King Richard III, which gets high press coverage in renowned newspapers and magazines.
I also find it hard to decide how best to present this new discussion to you, as in the major part it is so nonsensical, that I wonder why it gets so much and famous attention at all.
First I want to state that I am in no way connected to or bound to defend the University of Leicester and one certainly can argue if all researches done by them were necessary or interfered with the dignity of the person of King Richard III, but this current discussion certainly shows they were exceedingly necessary.
The argument now raised against the University of Leicester and their result to confirm the identity of the found skeleton as being of King Richard III, is that the skeleton could easily be of some other soldier buried there, just conveniently being of the direct female line leading to King Richard III’s mother.
How many unaccounted for relatives, having the exact female blood line of King Richard III, do you think are lying around somewhere? Or better are lying around at the exact spot King Richard III should be? And in addition have died in the Battle of Bosworth or by incident around that time near Leicester, so that they are buried in the Grey Friars’ Abbey? While just in the late court battle, one of the main arguments against a burial in Leicester is, that King Richard III’s family just had no connections to Leicester? So how can forgotten relatives turn up there? And were the ‘grey friars’, while so discriminating in burying people in the choir of their church, suddenly burying soldiers from the battlefield, carting them all the way from the Bosworth battlefield? Why then were only so few skeletons found and not hundreds and only one with battle marks? Oh, and what a strange method to bury them without clothes and with bound hands? Really, the ‘grey friars’ must have had no piety at all…
I could go on much longer, as a result of the conclusive multitude of researches done by the University of Leicester and though some think it may now be enough research done on the skeleton of King Richard III, still the results in their entirety (not necessarily one taken on its own) give us a very complete and convincing affirmation of the skeleton’s identity as being King Richard III.
Especially helpful in that regard to see the full picture of research results and why they were done, is the excessive pre-research done by Dr. John Ashdown-Hill, who with great determination researched the potential last burial place of King Richard III from all historical angles and laid down his progress of research as well as the conclusions he came to in his work “The Last Days of Richard III”, which we have recommended here repeatedly, as it is the go-to research which was essential in finding King Richard III.
You see, I think the counter-argument just is so far-fetched as envy possibly can make it. Perhaps, it is due to scholars feeling left out from the euphoria and joy over the find in Leicester and now try to jump on the media attention created by the extraordinary research results in Leicester.
I just don’t get it, why the media jumps on this envy train so readily and let itself be used in such a way.
The news stream includes the articles of this new conflict in the sidebar and in the 2014-archive (entries dated around the end of March 2014).
But it provides heated arguments and is one more battle area in the new “Wars of the Roses” or rather a new skirmish.
(I am quite certain the list of battles around King Richard III will have to be continued …)
But now to something creative and constructive about King Richard III:
♛ King Richard III ♛
Matt Lewis – New Podcast series about King Richard III (iTunes)
- The Richard III Podcast – A Perfect Coup (04.03.2014)
- The Richard III Podcast – Introduction (09.03.2014)
- The Richard III Podcast – Episode 2 – The Cat Who Got the Cream (18.03.2014)
Also available via the YouTube channel of Matt Lewis.
Discontent and a Dukedom: Richard III festival set to take place in Gloucester
Gloucester Citizen (March 18, 2014)
Discontent and a Dukedom: Richard III festival set to take place in Gloucester by Jonathan Whiley –
Dr. John Ashdown-Hill will present his new book “The Third Plantagenet” about the brother of King Richard III, the Duke of Clarence, in Gloucester.
Petition launched to stop more Richard III tests
ITV.com (February 25, 2014)
Petition launched to stop more Richard III tests –
Petition initiated by historian Dr. John Ashdown-Hill to protect the remains of King Richard III. There should also be an interview with Dr. Ashdown-Hill available on ITV on 25th of February 2014, but I could not access or verify a link to it so far.
Richard III: Historian accuses University of Leicester of ‘destroying’ parts of skeleton
Leicester Mercury (February 24, 2014)
Richard III: Historian accuses University of Leicester of ‘destroying’ parts of skeleton by Peter Warzynski –
Where is the limit of our presumed ‘right to know’, also what real result compared to researches enabled by testing the living population of England does the University of Leicester expect from King Richard III’s bones and DNA? Dr. Ashdown-Hill and the initiators of the search, the ‘Looking for Richard’ group, defends King Richard III against the University of Leicester’s desire to do a full DNA scan and for that destroy parts of his bones. The full DNA scan in essence can only reveal, where his (DNA dominant) ancestors came from (which for most Europeans is somewhere around India), while the research will tell us nothing about King Richard III himself and how he acted and how for example he treated his nephews, his wife, his subjects, etc.
So you see, my interest in the full DNA research is rather limited, as it will not reveal anything about King Richard III’s story and position in history. Except perhaps his tendency for some illnesses, but as King Richard III did not die in bed, but on a battlefield, that is not overly significant for his life as well.
Research & King Richard’s Life
First of all, before I start with news about King Richard III and actor Richard Armitage again in the new year 2014,
I hope you reached the year 2014 in good health and will have a wonderful and successful year!!!
My own beginning of the year 2014 was a bit sub-optimal in various aspects and so the year ahead has a very wide bandwidth of opportunity to get better ;o)
Hopefully your start into 2014 was better than mine and the year advances to a fantastic outcome, maybe even the hotly anticipated announcement of the King Richard Armitage – film.
♛ King Richard Armitage ♛
- The Sag Harbor Express: The Hobbit’s Hunks, Part II: Lee Pace and Richard Armitage, by Danny Peary (02.01.2014) – Interview where Richard Armitage once again mentions King Richard III as his inspiration for Thorin Oakenshield in “The Hobbit”:
[SPOILER ALERT, as ending of “The Hobbit” trilogy/book is mentioned in the following quote!]Danny Peary: Would you play your character any differently if you didn’t know that at the end of Tolkien’s book he dies?
Richard Armitage: No, probably not. His death scene was left until quite late in the shoot. We didn’t shoot it until pick-ups, which I think was a good thing because I’d almost forgotten about that moment coming. I think that part of the creation of this character is offering the audience and other characters in the movie a potential future. He had to be someone who was going to be king, he was going to sit on that throne and return the dwarves to their former glory. And in a way, his death has to come by surprise to him. Having said that, I think one of the things – talking about Shakespeare again – that I admire about Richard the III is that he rides across the battlefield to fight, single-handedly, for his kingdom, for his crown. In the Battle of the Five Armies, Thorin is going to do something like that. It’s fatalistic. It’s fatalistic. It’s almost an act of suicide. Playing it, it’s good I forgot I needed to die!
But now to the late news and, you will almost expect it already, a new petition about King Richard III:
♛ King Richard III ♛
New Petition about King Richard III’s remains and their interim resting place:
Justice Review panel on the subject of Richard III, London,England.: Remove the remains of King Richard III to a neutral site
The current treatment of King Richard III’s bones reveals much about our modern attitude and lax treatment of death and the dead.
While such a treatment would have been seen as denigrating and demeaning to a person of King Richard III’s time, when the body was seen as a sacred unity given by God. Even medical research into the inner parts and structure of the body was met with great aversion and even banned by the church as it was destroying the God given ‘body’. Though it could be argued that King Richard III with his connections to scholars of the university of Padua might have had a more pro-active approach. Only a time-traveler might find out the truth and I hope he will then let us know …
Please take part in the petition(s) as you see fit and your belief dictates you.
- Saint Louis University (Event): Richard III Archaeologists to Visit Campus (08.02.2014) – At Saint Louis University, Missouri, U.S.A.
Livestream of the event at the St. Louis University will be accessible 10:00 AM Central Time (11:00 AM EST) under the following link:
http://richard3.slu.edu/ - Gloucester Citizen: Richard III Exhibition in the City Proves Popular, by nwilder (06.02.2014) – The exhibition regarding Richard III in Gloucester will be in the City Council’s City Museum and Art Gallery (Brunswick Road) from 19th – 30th March 2014. Read more about the anticipated experts and exhibits joining the exhibition in the article.
- BBC News: Richard III: Call for holy place for bones before reburial (05.02.2014) – Video with background and interview with Philippa Langley.
- White Rose: Sincere and Simple Thoughts (Blog): Richard III: Equal Time for Leicester and York, by Fabolaktuko (05.02.2014) – With a video and song to advertise each town’s claim to King Richard III.
- Leicester Mercury: Mercury opinion: Leicester will prevail on Richard III (05.02.2014) – Delay of burial anticipated for another year at least.
- Leicester Mercury: Richard III: Digging up king in Leicester car park was easier than reburial! (04.02.2014) – Looking back at a year with King Richard III found and identified in Leicester.
- St. Louis Public Radio: Reflection: What Is The Allure Of Richard III? By Jonathan Sawday, St. Louis University Colloquium (04.02.2014) – Article about finding King Richard III and what people anticipated to find because of an image of the king created by William Shakespeare. (With an announcement of the live stream of the St. Louis University on Saturday 8th of February 2014.)
- BBC News: The battle for King Richard III’s bones (03.02.2014) – Interview video with Richard Buckley from the University of Leicester.
- Leicester Mercury: Richard III: Website details history of king found under Leicester car park, by Peter Warzynski (03.02.2014) – Article with video about Leicester and King Richard III “Dignity and Honour” by Leicester Cofe.
- Nerdalicious (Blog): City of Leicester Forges Ahead with Richard III Plans, by Olga Hughes (31.01.2014)
- Galway Advertiser: Galway’s Quincentennial, 1984, by Tom Kenny (30.01.2014) – The connection between King Richard III and the freedom of Galway.
- BBC News: Richard III: New £4m visitor centre plans unveiled (28.01.2014) – With a replication of King Richard III’s skeleton on display. Sometimes I think ‘dignity’ allows quite a lot of different interpretations.
- Leicester Mercury: £75,000 Richard III sculpture is chosen to stand outside Leicester Cathedral, by Peter Warzynski (28.01.2014) – Modern art for King Richard III or was Medieval tapestry more modern than we think?
- Johnny Hewes (on SoundCloud): Let Him Come Home (28.01.2014) – Song by Johnny Hewes to promote the town of York’s claim to King Richard III. Though once again he mentions him as ‘Richard of York’, which was King Richard’s father, not Richard of Gloucester, the later King Richard III. Territorial claims as well as loyalties are a difficult thing in the late Medieval time.
I think, King Richard III would have liked such strong support in his time as he gets now. That in itself is a quite lovely help for King Richard III, whatever the outcome of the struggle for the king’s burial.
- Leicester Mercury: Richard III: Manuscript from 15th century will help reinter king, by Peter Warzynski (27.01.2014)
- TheHistoryBlog.com: Richard III team members alight in the US (24.01.2014) – Dr. Turi King and Matthew Morris will represent the research in Leicester in lectures in the U.S.A. on the 5th of February (Folger Shakespeare Theatre – as part of Shakespeare’s “Richard III” tragedy performance) and in a full day lecture on the 8th of February at the St. Louis University. More details and booking links and options are mentioned in the blog article.
Livestream of the event at the St. Louis University will be accessible 10:00 AM Central Time (11:00 AM EST) under the following link:
http://richard3.slu.edu/ - Leicester Mercury: Richard III: Knighton artist Brad creating stained glass window of king for visitor centre, by Peter Warzynski (24.01.2014)
- Leicester Mercury: Richard III: New row over interim resting place for king found under Leicester car park, by Peter Warzynski (21.01.2014)
- Oxford Mail: Document draws up burial ceremony fit for Richard III (20.01.2014) – Read how the musical research of Dr. Alexandra Buckle possibly can help in determining what King Richard III himself might have wanted for his re-burrial.
- The York Press: 600-year-old book tells of the death of King Richard III (20.01.2014)
- BBC News: Richard III Visitor Centre to get life-sized window of King (18.01.2014)
- Bookshelf Bombshells (Blog): REVIEW: The King’s Grave by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones (17.01.2014) – Lara Little comes to the following result:
[…] even history-haters will enjoy it! And history-lovers, of course, will love it, too.
- Leicester Mercury: Richard III: King’s coffin to be adorned with gold, garnet and sapphire crown, by Peter Warzynski (15.01.2014)
- Nerdalicious.com.au (Blog): Just Who is the Custodian of King Richard III’s Bones? By Olga Hughes (13.01.2014) – You thought the New Wars of the Roses are over or coming to an end? No way, the battle just began and scirmishes arise on various fronts. Like in King Richard’s time, some try to define history and try to change the interpretation of events.
This article is a very important background information about the situation in Leicester, about King Richard III’s remains and the reason for either the new petition and the disagreements and discontent. So a real reading recommendation to understand the ‘why’ behind the different movements! - Leicester Mercury: Michael Portillo visits Richard III grave site for his TV programme Great British Railway Journeys, by Peter Warzynski (13.01.2014)
- Daily Gazette: Leading historian says Richard III’s bones should be given a proper burial (10.01.2014) Dr. John Ashdown-Hill funds his own valuable contribution for a proper burial of King Richard III.
- Leicester Mercury: Richard III: Dig team to launch new centre (10.01.2014)
- In Loughborough: ‘True story’ of Richard III’s rise and fall to be told at landmark conference, by University of Leicester (09.01.2014) –
Event-Announcement for King Richard III Conference (21. – 23. Feburary 2014 in Leicester, College Court) - English Heritage: Behind the scenes in the search for Richard III (07.01.2014) – Video by English Heritage about King Richard III and the historical importance of the search for him.
- Mike Pitts – Digging Deeper (Blog): What’s in store for Richard III in 2014? (04.01.2014) – An inside view into King Richard’s Leicester and the previous and to anticipate developments.
Mike Pitts also announces his new book about King Richard III coming out in May 2014:
Digging for Richard III: How Archaeology Found the King (Thames and Hudson)
The content certainly interests me, as I am rather not of the opinion that archaeology per se ‘found’ the king, but rather ‘unearthed’ him at a location specified by other disciplines. So I am quite curious to see what this new publication about the search for King Richard III will reveal. - BBC News: Bishop of Leicester: ‘Richard III will be buried in Leicester’ (01.01.2014) – One of few men who dares a prognosis right now.
Books & King Richard III
♛ King Richard & Books ♛
Christmas is coming up and as books still are one of the most favourite presents, I collect some reading tips here for you.
Not that I get through the multitude of new publications about King Richard right now – and some books still await me at Christmas – but there are new books I especially wanted to bring to your attention and recommend here, as I enjoyed reading them myself.
If you have books you would like to add to this recommendation, please feel free to either post them in the comment section of this post or send me a mail (contact form) to write and explain more about your recommendation and why you like the book(s).
Victoria Smith let us know her favourite King Richard III novel “The Murders of Richard III” by Elizabeth Peters and especially wrote a review for us.
(As usual here on KRA, earnings from embedded affiliate links on this site go to the charities recommended by actor Richard Armitage on his JustGiving page.)
♛ King Richard & Jane Shore ♛
Isolde Martyn – “Mistress to the Crown”
“Mistress to the Crown” follows the life and struggle for freedom of Jane Shore, the famous and influential mistress of King Richard III’s oldest brother, King Endward IV.
Her life never appeared to me as an especially romantic one, so a novel about Jane Shore coming out in a publishing house known for its extensive romantic novels instantly got my full interest.
From my previous comments about other works of the author Isolde Martyn, you already know that I adore her writing style.
Isolde Martyn also does not disappoint in this novel:
- Her writing is fluent and gripping that once I began reading, I could not put the book down. Though I already know the story of Jane Shore, I still needed to know how her life and fate unfolds in the story.
- The historical research which went into this novel is extensive and far beyond what I would normally expect from a historical novel. So for me, Isolde Martyn’s novels clearly are in a ‘historical novel’ class of their own.
But the astonishing part of this for me is, that the books do not appear like a historical lecture, but unobtrusively and fluently the fate of Jane Shore unfolds in a way where I begin to care for her, while I never felt very ‘understanding’ for her and her fate before. - For all King Richard interested readers, of course King Richard plays his role in the book as well, though more as a background figure, but still actively influencing the fate of Jane Shore.
At the time of the first English publication (03/2013), we published an
interview with author Isolde Martyn (14.03.2013).
Now, the book is also available in a German edition:
(The print edition was not available via Amazon.de at the time of the post, but should be shortly. If you want to order it for Christmas, here is the direct link to the publisher.)
Links to the English version:
♛ King Richard & Art ♛
Author Matthew Lewis (interview of 27th of August 2013, with book links) in his novel “Loyalty” follows Jack Leslau’s (http://www.holbeinartworks.org/) research and picture analysis and brings King Richard III in connection with the Holbein household.
♛ King Richard & Research ♛
Mathew Morris & Richard Buckley: Richard III. The King under the Car Park. The story of the search for England’s last Plantagenet king…
University of Leicester: ‘Beyond reasonable doubt’: archaeologists give first-hand account of Richard III discovery in new book, by Peter Thorley (04.11.2013)
From the intense research done to find and identify King Richard III, I must admit, I had expected a big volume of a book. The publication is a rather slim one, but so much filled with detail and information, that I am not the least bit disappointed.
Though much of the information and material had been published in the press already, the explanations and collection of image material and details known about King Richard III is unique and I am very glad to have this book as a valuable reference about the last days of King Richard III as well as his discovery in Leicester.
So though the book is not a detailed description about how King Richard III was found in Leicester – go to the publication by Philippa Langley and Michael Jones for that – I really can recommend this book for the invaluable collection of research results.
Philippa Langley/Michael Jones: The King’s Grave
Dr. John Ashdown-Hill did the essential research to enable the following work by the University of Leicester to find King Richard III.
His publications show the fascinating search for details so far missing or overlooked, but which proved to be exceedingly necessary to the final search:
More details about Dr. John Ashdown-Hill.
Just recently published:
Dr. John Ashdown-Hill also works on a new publication about King Richard III’s brother, George Plantagenet, the Duke of Clarence – you know the always irritating one where legend has it that he ended in a butt of Malmsey wine.
Announced for March 2014:
Sensational News About King Richard Film
Is the film about King Richard III with Richard Armitage in the role of the king finally on its way?
Hear Philippa Langley, the screenwriter working on a project about King Richard III, talking about her progress and about Richard Armitage as her ideal King Richard III:
- ITV.com: Screenwriter wants Richard Armitage as Richard III in film (04.10.2013)
♛ King Richard III ♛
- HistoryExtra.com: Richard III’s lost chapel ‘has been found’ (03.10.2013)
- ThisIsLeicestershire.co.uk: Richard III: 30,000 people sign petition to keep king in Leicester, by Peter Warzynski (03.10.2013)
- The York Press: Richard III walking tour created (03.10.2013) – Free guided tour through King Richard III’s York.
- Nerdalicious.com.au (Blog): The Search for Richard III’s DNA: Looking for Richard with John Ashdown-Hill, by Olga (03.10.2013) – More about Dr. Ashdown-Hill and his fascinating research here on KRA.
- ITV.com: Leicester petition on Richard III overtakes York (04.10.2013) – Leicester versus York. Who is the real winner in this battle, or can there be a winner?
