The last king of the House of York and also the last of the Plantagenet dynasty, Richard III’s demise at the climactic Battle of Bosworth Field usually marks the end of ‘Middle Ages’ in England. And yet, even after his death, the young English monarch had continued to baffle historians, with his remains eluding scholars and researchers for over five centuries. And it was momentously in 2012 when University of Leicester identified the skeleton inside a city council car park – the site of Greyfriars Priory Church (the final resting place of Richard III that was dissolved in 1538 AD). Coincidentally, the remains of the king were found almost directly underneath a roughly painted ‘R’ on the bitumen, which basically marked a reserved spot inside the car park since the 2000s.

Now in the past few years, much has been said and visualized when it comes to Richard III’s appearance, with a comprehensive reconstruction project headed by Professor Caroline Wilkinson (showcased in the featured image). And additionally, research at the University of Leicester had also dealt with the presumed accent in which the English king would have talked during his lifetime.

As the university page makes it clear –

Research at the University of Leicester can even give us a clue as to what Richard sounded like. Dr Philip Shaw, Lecturer in English Language and Old English in our School of English, has studied two letters written by Richard when he was Duke of Gloucester. In this podcast, you can hear Dr Shaw read these letters using the approximate pronunciation and accent that we believe Richard would have used. Interestingly, the language and spelling betrays no sign of a northern dialect, being closer to what we now consider a West Midlands accent.

Interestingly enough, back in March 26th, 2015, the remains of the English monarch were ceremoniously re-interred by the authorities at Leicester Cathedral. And to mark one year anniversary of this symbolic deed, experts from the University of Leicester had created a navigable interactive menu that allows one to browse through a fully rotatable computer model of the king’s remains as they were found in 2012. This precise 3D reconstruction was made with the help of an advanced photogrammetry software, along with actual photographs that were taken during the excavation project. The navigable part is made accessible via the 3D sharing platform Sketchfab.

Source: University of Leicester