‘LooKING for Richard III’

The Tuesday Lunch Series welcomes Denison professors Dave Goodwin and Fred Porcheddu, presenting “LooKING for Richard III: The Curious Case of a Geologist and an English professor.”

King Richard III, the last English monarch killed in battle, is one of the most infamous rulers in that nation’s history. He is said to have been a ruthless, physically deformed megalomaniac who murdered not only his two young nephews but also his brother and wife and who died a coward’s death while trying to flee the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 (famously exclaiming, “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”), a battle which marked the fall of the House of Plantagenet, the rise of the House of Tudor, and the end of the Middle Ages in England.

Despite his royal status, the exact location of the mortal remains of King Richard III remained a mystery for nearly five hundred years; then, late in 2012, Richard’s skeleton was discovered buried beneath a municipal parking lot in Leicester, England, the former location of a Franciscan church. Archaeological study of the site has revealed much about monastic architecture in Leicester during the Middle Ages, and analysis of Richard’s skeleton has shed light on his physical appearance, abilities, and final days. In this presentation, Goodwin and Porcheddu share how they used textual analysis, theater, film, forensic geochemistry, and a field trip to central England, to explore the life, death, disability, and cultural legacy of Shakespeare’s most notorious malevolent monarch.