A new digital avatar of King Richard III’s head, complete with a ‘meticulously researched’ Yorkshire accent, has now gone on permanent display in Leicester.
He did grow up in Yorkshire after all, so I guess it should have been expected – but it still comes as a bit of a shock when you hear it.
The display, which features a digital image of the medieval king sharing a prayer, opened at the King Richard III Visitor Centre on Sunday (November 30).
Many believe that the King spoke in a ‘posh accent’ like the majority of Royals, a belief encouraged by the portrayal of Richard by top thesp Laurence Oliver on the big screen.
But more than 500 years after his untimely death, scientists have decided to reveal what the king would ACTUALLY have sounded like.
They carried out an analysis of Richard’s skull, found in 2012, and this revealed a bizarre accent that really does sound more Yorkshire than posh ‘Queen’s English’.
Historians and vocal experts say the avatar is the closest we will ever get to bringing the king ‘back to life’.
Richard ruled England from 1483 until he died at the age of 32 at the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire.
The remains of the king were later discovered under a council-run car park at Greyfriars in the city, 527 years after his death.
The avatar has been created by experts from the Face Lab team at Liverpool John Moores University following a decade of research. Vocal coach Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, who has organised the project, said the King’s new avatar is reciting the his personal prayer from The Book of Hours.
He used the prayer as relief from afflictions, temptations, grief and sickness, she said.