The Skeleton in the Car Park: Richard III and the legacy of his re-discovery

The Skeleton in the Car Park: Richard III and the legacy of his re-discovery

Mathew Morris, Philip Schwyzer, and Rosemary Horrox

Speaking at the Royal Academy on March 12, 2015

In September 2012 the excavation of a skeleton from a Leicester city car park ignited worldwide media frenzy. Six months later the team behind the excavation confirmed the identity of the skeleton as King Richard III.

Two years on, as his body is reinterred in Leicester Cathedral, what difference has this discovery made? How has the team’s research changed the way we see the ruler, his reign, and the establishment of the Tudor dynasty?

Now that the ‘hunchback’ myth has been disproven, can we ever perform Shakespeare’s Richard III in the same way again? How do we understand the legends and ‘propaganda’ of the last Plantagenet king?

This event will explore the wide ranging impact of the discovery and its ramifications for disciplines as diverse as archaeology, history, literature and drama.

Chaired by Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch FBA, University of Oxford

Speakers:

• Mathew Morris, Fieldwork director on the Greyfriars dig and archaeologist at University of Leicester Archaeological Services
• Professor Philip Schwyzer, University of Exeter, author of Shakespeare and the Remains of Richard III
• Dr Rosemary Horrox, Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, author of Richard III: A Study of Service