Long queues to see Richard III coffin
- Published
Aysha finds out why Richard III is drawing such big crowds
Thousands of people are queuing to view the coffin of King Richard III while it is on view at Leicester Cathedral.
On Sunday his coffin left the University of Leicester where it had been kept since his skeleton was found under a car park in 2012.
Ayshah is at Leicester Cathedral
Special events have been taking place in Leicester and on Thursday the reburial of Richard III will take place.
Long queues had already formed before the cathedral's doors opened at 9am
The medieval king, who ruled England in the 1480s, died in 1485.
After the discovery of the skeleton in 2012, it took archaeologists years to confirm that the remains were Richard III's.
Who was Richard III?
• Richard III was the last Yorkist King of England, this means he was the last member of the House of York family to be made king.
• Richard had one of the shortest reigns in British history - just over 2 years, and he was the last English king to die in battle.
• He was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, which led to the end of the War of the Roses. This was fighting between the houses of Lancaster and York that lasted 30 years.
• Richard III has been painted as a villain. It's said he killed his two nephews so he could take the throne and William Shakespeare wrote a play about him but some historians say this was propaganda and might have been unfair.
- Published4 February 2013
- Published12 September 2012
