Re-interment of King Richard III

This is what is on TV re Richard starting this Sunday.   You will need to check the times, I think they are UK ones.    LL

Channel 4, Sunday 22 March 17.10
Richard III: The Return of the King

On Thursday, the remains of Richard III, discovered under a car park in Leicester in 2012, will be buried in the city's cathedral, and Channel 4 is broadcasting three programmes covering the event, presented by Jon Snow with Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Arthur Williams and Sonali Shah. The first captures the climax of the procession of the king's remains to the site of his death at Bosworth Battlefield, through the streets of Leicester and to the service that marks his reception into Leicester Cathedral, with a sermon given by the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Historians, actors and politicians join descendants of Richard III and key participants in his rediscovery to ask who he really was and what his place in British history should now be

More 4 22 March 22.00
Richard III: The Unseen Story

Follow-up documentary to Channel 4's programme about the discovery of the infamous king's body underneath a Leicester city car park, featuring footage of the digs and tests carried out to piece together the monarch's story. The project involved dozens of specialists in the fields of history, forensic pathology, genealogy and DNA analysis, and this film highlights how revelations were made about everything from the injuries the king suffered in the last moments of his life, to the exact cause of death

Channel 4 Thursday 26 March  10.00
Richard III: The Burial of the King

Jon Snow introduces live coverage of Richard III's reburial at Leicester Cathedral. The service will be attended by members of the royal family, as the former king is reinterred by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The programme also features debates with guests who explore the issues surrounding the event, and a series of films takes a behind-the-scenes look at the day's preparations

Channel 4 Thursday 26 March
Richard III: The King Laid to Rest 20.00

This final programme in Channel 4's coverage of the reburial of Richard III provides highlights of the service from earlier today at Leicester Cathedral, alongside a live broadcast of a last moment of intimate ceremonial, in which the king's descendants, and those who led the campaign to find his remains, gather to bid him a final farewell. The Bosworth beacon, lit when Richard's remains arrived back at the site of his death on Sunday morning, will be extinguished as the tombstone is revealed for the first time

Wow!  Thanks LL.  A lot of good TV there.

Yes, I'm looking forward to it. I hope it's all rapidly YouTubed, for people outside the UK.

I must say, C4 really struck oil when they first got involved with the dig, when it all seemed like just another bit of British eccentricity.

They sure did, Bonny.  This is really exciting!

Richard III: An alternative guide to the procession route

By Leicester Mercury | Posted: March 18, 2015

History happens in unexpected places. Amnesia? That can strike anywhere, writes Jeremy Clay. Somehow, as the centuries slipped by, these two truths conspired to hide away the exact location of the epoch-ending Battle of Bosworth.

Like your dad searching absent mindedly for his glasses, we knew we'd left the battlefield somewhere around here, but we'd forgotten the precise spot.

So imagine the consternation of the Olivers of west Leicestershire, then, when it was revealed that a field on their farm in the mild-mannered countryside outside Fenny Drayton had been the site of one of the bloodiest clashes ever fought on English soil.

"I always thought how lovely and peaceful it was there," farmer Gill Oliver told the Mercury in 2010. "But now we know it was the scene of absolute butchery."

The surprises didn't end there. Two years later, an archaeological dig which made headlines around the world found the remains of King Richard III under a car park in the city centre. Well, we knew we'd left him somewhere around here...

This weekend, these unlikely breakthroughs combine to offer a sight the likes of which has never before been seen: the medieval bones of a king being taken on a Cook's tour through Leicestershire.

The procession starts on the Fenn Lanes, just after 1pm on Sunday, and wends its way through little Dadlington, where Georgian historian John Nichols recorded the "indented spaces of ground" dotted around the village were "the graves of the victims in this bloody battle". These days, perhaps, it's most notable for having a boozer with the singular name of the Dog and Hedgehog.

Then it's on to Sutton Cheney, where Richard is thought to have attended his final mass before meeting his maker and which is also, by the by, the last resting place of 18th century maths wiz Thomas Simpson, who once had to flee to Derby after frightening a girl into a fit by dressing up as the Devil.

An hour or so later, the hearse calls at Bosworth Battlefield Centre, opened with a terrific ta-da! in the 1970s on Ambion Hill, when everyone assumed that's where Richard III made his doomed last stand. Cough.

Moving swiftly on ... to Market Bosworth, once home to Samuel Johnson, who endured a short, miserable stint as a teacher at Dixie Grammar (where his life was as "unvaried as the note of a cuckoo" and where he was uncertain "whether it was more disagreeable for him to teach or the boys to learn") – and then Newbold Verdon and Desford.

After that, it heads through Leicester Forest East, whose name is known and revered by countless M1 motorists who need to stretch their legs and have a cuppa and a wee, or worse. The service station, should you care, was based on the ones you'd find dotting the Italian autostradas in the 1960s. When it first opened it boasted a silver-service restaurant designed by Terence Conran, which had a fancy wine menu and a leather-bound visitors' book which soon picked up a scribbled thumbs up from The Beatles.

Vaguely related fact: In the dire Jackie Collins-penned 1979 footy film Yesterday's Hero, Ian MacShane plays a washed up boozy striker who scores against a team called – shudder – Leicester Forest.

On we go, into the city itself; down Hinckley Road and by Western Park, where a developer once planned to build a dinosaur theme park, until sense prevailed, and into King Richards Road, past the bouncy-castle frenzy of the Crow's Nest, the Orwellian-sounding Cafe 101 and Mick and Den's, the house clearance men. We trust at least one of them will get a namecheck on the suitably hushed TV commentary.

We're slap bang in King Dick turf now. Over there on the right is King Richard III school. Ahead is the Richard III pub (brace yourself, regulars, for an influx of national and international journalists looking for a quick quote. Remember: they claim everything back on expenses. They can afford to stand you a pint). And just here is Bow Bridge, with its Victorian ironwork bearing the white rose of York and Richard's motto "Loyaulte me Lie" (Loyalty Binds Me). Beside the 1850s plaque which marks the now-discredited tale that his body had been dug up and luzzed into the Soar, the procession halts for a short ceremony to welcome the bones back to what estate agents would call their forever home.

With the remains now transferred to a horse-drawn hearse, the cortege moves on round the Holiday Inn – let's hope the TV cameras are pointing towards the Jewry Wall, eh? – stopping for a short, ticket-only service at St Nicholas's Church, the oldest in the city and one of a handful of Leicester buildings Richard III might recollect. Um, if he wasn't dead.

At 5.15pm, it moves off once more, past Jubilee Square, source of innumerable vexed remarks by readers of the Mercury website, and Alfred Lenton, Leicester's oddest shop (current display: some sun-dried videos and a tray with a few pieces of model railway track, with a hand-written sign boasting More Inside).

Down the High Street it goes, making straight for the Clock Tower, with – alas – the Haymarket lurking behind like a mugger. Let's hope the TV cameras fail altogether here, just long enough for the cortege to turn into Gallowtree Gate.

From here, it passes the Sporting Statue (memorably described by the late Guardian journalist Simon Hoggart as looking "like a gay orgy"), Marks and Sparks, Boots and the neighbouring nations of Poundland and Falafel Land.

Then it's down Halford Street, on a showboating mission to swing past Curve and the former Odeon cinema (the scene of playwright Joe Orton's first sexual encounter), before heading up Belvoir Street, where the Channel 4 commentary team stand a fair-to-middling chance of making a bit of a fool of themselves. The coffin rolls up at the cathedral at 5.45pm.

Phew. That's quite a thing, isn't it? A parade of a skeleton, half a millennium old, through winding Leicestershire lanes and the streets of the modern city.

And to think, we've got all the way to the end of this piece without once crowing in a small-minded, parochial way about the fact it's happening here, not Nottingham.

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Richard-III-alternative-guide-procession-route/story-26196752-detail/story.html#ixzz3UuemrBcV
Follow us: @Leicester_Merc on Twitter | leicestermercury on Facebook

Related links - there's lots more but these, IMO, are the best ones:

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Leicester-City-chairman-donates-100k-King-Richard/story-26201961-detail/story.html

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/City-road-closures-imposed-early-Sunday-arrival/story-26202248-detail/story.html

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Book-telling-story-King-Richard-III-launched/story-26196738-detail/story.html

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Details-Richard-III-s-reinterment-procession/story-26070476-detail/story.html

Thanks, LL, I've given the ceremonies their own thread, as it's such a unique occasion.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-31965323

20 March 2015 Last updated at 13:10 GMT

Soil from the village where Richard III was born will be placed alongside his remains when he is reburied.

The last Plantagenet king was born at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, and members of his family were buried at the local parish church.

Soil from the castle grounds and two other sites will be laid around his coffin by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on 26 March.

Site owner John Gould said he was "delighted" to have been involved.

Soil from the castle, a Yorkist palace during the 15th Century, is one of three samples from sites significant in the former king's life to be sprinkled inside the vault where his coffin will be placed.

Samples from Middleham in Yorkshire, where Richard met future wife Anne, and the site of the Battle of Bosworth, have also been collected.

Some of the soil will be blessed by Bishop of Leicester Tim Stevens at a private ceremony on Sunday and will be put into a wooden casket to be displayed at the Battle of Bosworth Field Centre.

Richard's body was found buried under a car park in Leicester in 2012.

Mr Gould said: "It was a unique and very interesting request to be asked to provide a sample of soil from the castle site.

"I have lived in the village all my life and four generations of my family have farmed here.

"We have all grown up with Fotheringhay's history and often take it for granted. We are delighted to have been involved."

Village chair Ros Clayton said it was "brimming with rich history".

"The village played an instrumental role in the history of the Plantagenets and King Richard."

There are some pictures on the link. LL

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/richardIII

Lots of info and links to other articles. LL

Thanks, LL, there's an awful lot going on today....

I do hope Richard is watching all this from Somewhere; he's going to get the biggest send-off of ANY medieval monarch, after all these centuries.

I suspect that, as he now pretty much has his own town, he will become rather like Bruce and Wallace, with their huge memorials, quite seperate from the common herd of monarchs.....

YAY for him!!!  

I've just watched a look ahead to it all one BBC E. Midlands, and it looks superb. There are going to be camera crews there from 150 nations.

Leicester Cathedral looked rather lovely in the floodlights, especially now the gardens have settled down a bit, and the interior is fantastic. Workmen were putting the final gilding on a specially-made alabaster plinth, on which his coffin will rest - it's the first time such work has been done in the UK for decades, apparently.

I am sure His Grace will be watching all this with some amusement. Probably sitting on a grassy knoll with his wife, Anne and son Edward! LL

Thing is, LL, when people say, History is written by the victors, they forget that history doesn't actually stand still....

He who laughs last gets an entire town to himself and an audience of billions for his second funeral......

bb1 wrote:Thing is, LL, when people say, History is written by the victors, they forget that history doesn't actually stand still....

He who laughs last gets an entire town to himself and an audience of billions for his second funeral......

Love it!

Lots of stuff to read on the Rlll Society website - have a look at the shroud hand=embroidered by one the the Society members. LL
http://www.richardiii.net/

Oh, that is lovely, LL! I am in awe at the attention to detail, and the thought, love and care which has gone into even the slightest detail.

And it's very fitting that Richard's coffin has been made by his distant relative.

bb1 wrote:Oh, that is lovely, LL! I am in awe at the attention to detail, and the thought, love and care which has gone into even the slightest detail.

And it's very fitting that Richard's coffin has been made by his distant relative.

Everything's good with His Grace. And Elizabeth is somewhat strange in some ways but she is still likable. Now, for anyone who lives in or near Leicestershire, the Leicester Mercury is putting a special edition on sale, costing £1.00. It may be online, I don't know. LL

Thanks a million, LL.  How I wish I could be there next week to witness the whole event.  

Am checking to see what may be on the tube instead.....

lily wrote:Thanks a million, LL.  How I wish I could be there next week to witness the whole event.  

Am checking to see what may be on the tube instead.....

Lily I sent you a link to be able to watch UK TV on your PC - do you still have it? If not, would you like me to send it again via PM? LL

Please, LL.  I would be very grateful!  xx

lily wrote:Please, LL.  I would be very grateful!  xx

Done, check your messages.  LL

Thanks LL.   

lily wrote:Thanks LL.   

Another Pm for you. LL

For entertainment, I had a look at the York page - they're not taking any of this well at all. But hey ho! Some odds and ends from the saner, Leicester page-

Plenty of horses this time:

https://leics.police.uk/news-appeals/news/2015/03/18/mounted-police-officers-escorting-mortal-remains-of-king-richard-iii

Oh, look what someone has kept safe all these centuries:

http://www.durhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/11871059.Priceless_vestment_from_Ushaw_College_to_be_worn_by_Cardinal_at_Requiem_Mass_of_King_Richard_III/




A PRICELESS vestment believed to be from the royal wardrobe of King Richard III will be worn by the Cardinal when he celebrates Requiem Mass for the soul of the 15th century monarch, it has been revealed.

The chasuble, known as the Westminster Vestment, is part of the heritage collection of Ushaw College, the former Catholic seminary at Ushaw Moor, near Durham.

It will be taken to Leicester for a Mass in the city’s Holy Cross Church on Monday (March 23) - days before the king’s reburial in Leicester Cathedral on Thursday, March 26.


The vestment, which may have been seen by King Richard himself, will be worn at the Mass by Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

Full story at link.

Amazing that it should have stayed intact all through these turbulent centuries. And it just goes to show you should never throw anything away, you never know when it will come in handy....