Few kings divide opinion like Richard III, the notorious English king who perished at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and whose body was rediscovered in 2012. His reputation suffered after his death, partly thanks to Shakespeare, and his name linked to the murder of his two young nephews – some say unfairly.
However experts using modern technologies have now “recreated” King Richard III’s voice, complete with Yorkshire accent and medieval pronunciation, which features in the History Hit documentary, A Voice for Richard III, available 21 November.
After first being exhibited at York Theatre Royal, the digital avatar developed by Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University and the new voice feature in an original documentary presented by historian Matt Lewis, who explores its creation and significance.
“The voice for Richard project has set out to give Richard back his own voice,” says Matt Lewis, co-host of the Gone Medieval podcast. “This is a project that brings together history with technology, art, science, language and one of my favourite historical personalities, King Richard III.”
“This is as close as we can get to being in the room in the fifteenth century when a king speaks. I can’t wait for the world to see the culmination of ten years of hard work and innovation.”
Matt Lewis speaks with Yvonne Morley-Chisolm
Image Credit: History Hit / A Voice for King Richard III
Expert voice teacher and vocal coach Yvonne Morley-Chisolm embarked on the research project with the aim of creating a literal voice for the long-dead historical figure. 10 years of work contributed to the final reconstruction, which involved research in the field of Historical Human Reconstruction and experts from the UK and abroad.
“We are bringing a long dead king back to a kind of ‘life’, says Morley-Chisolm. “We are learning more about the real man in doing so.”
“Since we produced the facial reconstruction of Richard III in 2012, we have dreamt about bringing him alive, to see him move and speak his own words,” says Professor Carolin Wilkinson, a leading cranio-facial identification expert.
“The result has exceeded our expectations and represents the most authentic and realistic portrait of this great king, based on all evidence available.”
Find out more about the remarkable project to give King Richard III a voice by signing up to History Hit.
