King Richard III's Reburial: Live at the Scene

First stop: Fenn Lane Farm. The cortege leaves the university and heads to Fenn Lane Farm. Around this area, the largest numbers of fired roundshots from the battle in which Richard lost his life have been found.

King Richard's begins his last voyage -- At the end of the ceremony, the coffin is placed in the hearse. A cortege now departs from the university to visit villages and places in Leicestershire associated with Richard, who died at Bosworth, some 14 miles from Leicester, in 1485.

Richard’s coffin emerges – King Richard III’s oak coffin emerged today from the Fielding Johnson Building at U.K.’s Leicester University, where researchers have studied the king’s mortal remains for the past two and half years.

This is the first time the 5-foot, 10-inch coffin, made of English oak from a Duchy of Cornwall plantation, has been seen.

Richard’s skeleton rests inside an inner lead casket, his bones packed with unbleached linen and laid out as if articulated. The linen cloths are embroidered with boars, roses and consecration crosses so that the remains are covered “in a dignified and honorable way,” the Richard III Society said in a statement.

“White boars are for the ‘blancs sanglier,’ the badge of Richard III; white roses for his House of York; and the crosses because he was an anointed Christian king,“ it added.

In front of a hushed crowd, the university bade farewell to the king with a short ceremony. All of those involved with the excavation were invited to lay a white rose on top of the coffin.

Leicester prepares for King Richard III’s day – It’s the beginning of a unique day for Leicester, a city in the center of England, some 100 miles north of London.

It was here, beneath a council car park, that in 2012 a twisted skeleton was unearthed. Mitochondrial DNA showed a match between Richard III and two of his living relatives, confirming that the bones were indeed those of the last Plantagenet king.

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