Richard III

Lucie Skeaping and musicologist David Skinner consider the music that might have been heard by Richard III.

In September last year archeologists from Leicester University made the exciting discovery in a car park of a Medieval skeleton which was later proved to be that of King Richard III. Thanks largely to Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard as a dysfunctional, ambitious and murderous villain, the character of the Yorkist king has been much discussed over the centuries, in spite of the fact that he was only on the English throne for two years before being killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

For this edition of The Early Music Show, the Cambridge musicologist and director of the vocal ensemble Alamire - David Skinner - takes Lucie Skeaping to the Northamptonshire village of Fotheringhay, where Richard III was born, and talks about the kind of music he might have heard during his lifetime, which spans an exciting and fast moving period in the history of musical composition in England.