Fellow Ricardians may find a new play by Timothy Daly, Richard III (or Almost), of interest.  A special invitation for members of the Richard III Society is attached (Richard III Society Invite final_final24 3 13).

Timothy is one of Australia’s most successful playwrights (with more of his work done overseas than any other contemporary Australian playwright). This piece was originally performed in France and recently was one of only two Australian pieces at the world famous Avignon festival.

I’ve no doubt it’ll be a great evening in the theatre which our friends would enjoy.

Tags: Richard III, Richard III Society, Shakespeare

The March Ricardian Bulletin was this year a bit delayed, which was understandable and even welcome, as the editors wanted to include information on the outcome of the Greyfriars Dig.  However, the wait in nearly over and your Ricardian Bulletin should land in your letter box soon.

On 80 pages with a colour insert you will of course find all the regular features, but what makes this edition special are background reports of the evidence from  the Dig, showing on which basis the remains found in August were identified as those of Richard III.

In ‘The Man Himself’ section Prof Mark Lansdale and Julia Boon with present their psychological portrait of Richard III.  This was one of the highlights at the unforgettable conference in Leicester in the beginning of this month and has also been mentioned in the media.

Remember though only members of the Richard III Society will receive the Ricardian Bulletin.  If you are not a member, why not?  There is never a time like the here and now to put those long considered ideas into practice.  Read up on the advantages of membership here.

Tags: Publications, Richard III Society

The following information I heard on the highly informative ‘Ricardian grapevine’.  I  have not been able to find any press notices or similar about it, but thought it might be of interest to visitors of our page.

Should you be visiting the Henley-on-Thames area in Oxfordshire between Easter and December this year, you might be interested to know that there will be a small exhibition on Francis Lovell, who once owned the property.   Though from what we heard, it will just be information and image displays, a visit to a place which belonged to Richard’s loyal friend is always a treat.

And if you are also a Downton Abbey fan, you might already have caught a glimpse of Grey’s Court:   the picnic scene in series 3 was shot there.  As this series is at present screening in Australia, viewers here will have seen the family outing only a few weeks ago.

You can find out more on Grey’s Court here, though there is no mention of the exhibition, at least not yet.

Tags: Francis Lovell, Oxfordshire

For all who cannot get to Leicester to do the Richard III Trail in person, here is a short video that follows the trail.  Even if you have walked around Leicester, it offers inside views of the castle and Wygston Hall, both of which are infrequently open to visitors.

Please note, the video was recorded after the find of the remains, but before they were confirmed to be Richard’s.

http://www2.le.ac.uk/news/blog/2013/march/richard-iiis-leicester-a-walking-tour

Tags: Henry Tudor, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III, Richard III Society

Obviously our friends in the UK have much more opportunities to participate in activities with a Ricardian connection.  Should you be over in Britain on 19 April 2013, you might like to participate in A Royal Banquet with King Richard III.

This is organised by Great Central Railway, you will be travelling in a luxurious Pullman Dining Train, pulled by a steam engine, which has been renamed “King Richard III” (it used to be “King Edward II”).  The train starts in Loughborough for its 16 mile (approx. 26 km) round trip to Leicester, during which you can enjoy a banquet with five removes (courses).

If walking is more your thing, why not consider taking part in a “walk and talk through the history of Grafton Regis”?  The walk, scheduled for four different dates, promises the opportunity to “meet many of the historical figures who lived here, ranging from kings and queens to commoners and from medieval times to the present” and also includes tea and cake afterwards.

More information:

Great Central Railway:  http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/2013/03/king-richard-iii-pullman-train-an-evening-fit-for-a-king/

Grafton Regis:  http://www.grafton-regis.co.uk/Documents/What%27s%20On.html

Tags: Richard III

During my recent stay in Leicester, one of the must-see spots was the exhibition in the Guildhall dedicated to the Greyfriars Dig under the heading ‘Richard III:  Leicester’s Search for a King’.

We went as part of the ‘Richard III Walking Trail’, a plan for which can be obtained from the Visit Leicester Centre.  The trail takes the visitor around eight places, which have connections with Richard III, starting from the site of the Blue Boar Inn and ending with the Guildhall.  Unfortunately, but understandably, No.6 of the tour, the actual Greyfriars site, was not accessible.

We got to the Guildhall later in the afternoon and the queue was not too daunting.  I just turned my back to take another photograph of the Cathedral and we were nearly in.  The real queuing only started inside to see the various displays.

The exhibition details the various aspects of the archaeological research.  Having read extensively about the dig, it did not offer many new insights, but it was nice to see it all ‘face-to-face’.   It also includes 3D prints of Richard’s skull, showing the horrific injuries he suffered, and of the Blue Boar Inn.  Also on display were medieval masonry and bits of tiles found during the dig.

For the general public, who would probably not have been that interested in the dig while it happened, and only heard about it in passing, the exhibition offers a very good insight into the various disciplines which were involved in finding and identifying Richard.

All in all I found the exhibition interesting and well-designed.

(Photograph of Richard III statue in Castle Gardens, Leicester, by D Preis)

Tags: Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III

Yesterday the House of Commons debated whether Richard III should be re-buried in Leicester or York, without a final answer in sight.  In this context I find the claim that the “late King’s descendants” support York somewhat misleading, as to the best of our knowledge Richard did not leave any descendants.  These can only be descendants of his brothers and sister.   I would like to quote the conciliatory note by  Jeremy Wright, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice:  “I am sure that we would all agree that wherever the king’s remains are finally laid to rest, they will belong not only to the location, but to the whole nation.”  And not only the “whole nation”, but to everyone who is interested in Richard III.  You can read the full debate here on the website of the British parliament (go to Contents and then the Westminster Hall tab).

Tags: Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Reinterment, Richard III, Richard III Society, York

Parliament House, Canberra (photograph by D Preis)

We wish the Nation’s Capital, Canberra, a very happy 100th birthday.  Our best wishes go to all our members and friends in the ACT.

If you live in or near the ACT you might like to join our members there who meet on an informal basis.  Contact details can be found on our ‘Contact‘ page.

Tags: Australasia

As so often, with thanks to Renate, who found this article for us.

Not only the archaeologists at Leicester University were kept busy with the Greyfriars Dig, but their mathematicians as well. Undergraduate maths students were asked to calculate what the odds were that Richard’s remains would be found at all.

So far we said that the luck in finding Richard was incredible.  Finding the church of the Greyfriars was already a huge feat.   After all the area to be searched was 13,000 sq ft (roughly 1200 sq m), covered not only by the now famous – rather small – car park, but also buildings, walls and all the other things that go with this, like electrical cables, phone lines, gas pipes and probably drains as well.  Altogether only 17% of the area was open for the dig.

As luck would have it the right portion of the area was only covered by a car park and thus fairly easily accessible.  Then the bit of luck of finding remains which as it turned out were really Richard’s on the first day of the dig.  It was later revealed that while a Victorian wall had destroyed the feet of the skeleton, another construction could easily have destroyed everything as it came to just within 30 cm of Richard’s head.

If you were a betting man or woman, what would you think the odds would be of finding the friary choir, finding a 500-year-old skeleton in it and being able to identify the remains as those of King Richard III?  The mathematics students calculated that the chances of finding Richard were only 0.84%.  And the odds of finding him on the first day of the dig are even lower:  0.0554%.

Dr Clive Rix, a visiting lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, concluded: “The odds of actually finding King Richard III were very low indeed.  Any commercial organisation would be looking for the potential of fairly spectacular returns to justify an investment  with such a low chance of success – but, of course, this was not a commercial venture.”

Someone once summed it all up by saying that it really looked as if Richard had wanted to be found.  I couldn’t agree more.  And the incredibly lucky incidents did not stop there.  A new friend from the conference in Leicester, who lives in the Midlands, told me that one day she was driving along in her car with the radio playing on the same channel that it is always set to.  Suddenly, without her doing anything, it changed to a different channel, just in time for an interview with Dr Phil Stone, Chairman of the Richard III Society.  She assured me that her car radio had never done this before or since.  Maybe the mathematicians could calculate the odds for this happening as well?

Tags: Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III