Thursday, May 23, 2013

Richard III exhibition in Leicester

The facial reconstruction is on display in Leicester until 9th June 2013. It will then tour the country.  

The exhibition   "Leicester's Search for a King" continues until 2014.


 For further details check  Leicester City Council's web page  .

I have to confess to a teenage predilection for Josephine Tey's book The Daughter of Time, in which she argued that the princes in the Tower were more probably murdered by Henry VII than by Richard III.  I am far less convinced by Richard's essential goodness these days. They were rough old times, and he would have been no better than the rest of the bloodthirsty and ambitious power seekers. Blood relations who were in the way were frequently disposed of, as was anyone else.

Nevertheless the story of his short reign and death captures many people's imagination, and we have a slightly morbid fascination with the possibility of discovering so much from a 500 year old skeleton.  The computer aided reconstruction of his head, and its resemblance to near-contemporary portraits is remarkable.

  The reconstruction is on display until 9th June 2013.  The exhibitiont "Leicester's Search for a King" continues unitl 2014.

The exhibition in the Guild Hall is clear and informative, and well worth visiting - it gives details of the search for the body below the car park, on the site of the Grey Friars Church, the tests that were carried out which prove as near as dammit that these bones were Richard's.

Alongside this are historical items, including weapons, coins and jewellery from the fifteenth century, and a reconstruction of the Blue Boar Inn where Richard is supposed to have spent the night before the battle of Bosworth, where he died.

All this links in to my recent walk around Market Bosworth area, including the battlefield site and Ambion Hill, as well as the church at Sutton Cheney, where Richard is said to have prayed before the battle.

I took my tiny cheap point and shoot camera, and as a result didn't take many pics here.

Extra info - 18 June 2013.
They have made another reconstruction of Richard's skull :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-22958265

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