Richard III was king of England in the 15th century. More than a decade after the discovery of his remains, a multidisciplinary team of experts succeeded in recreating his face and reproducing the sound of his voice. Result of this project entitled “ A Voice For King Richard III », a digital avatar of the head of the medieval king was presented before history buffs at the York Theater Royal and revises the image of this monarch, tainted by the scandals of his time and posterity.
Who was Richard III?
Richard III was King of England from 1483 until his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, at the age of 32. His two-year reign, short, but tumultuousis part of a period of great instability for Englandmarked by recurring tensions with France, particularly in the post-Hundred Years’ War. Although the last king of the House of Plantagenet, a dynasty with French roots, he therefore remains a controversial figure.
This English monarch is known today by posterity thanks to his immortalization as the eponymous villain in a play by William Shakespeare. A little more than a century after his death, in 1592, the English writer portrayed him as a particularly cruel hunchback king. His reputation therefore suffered after his death, partly of course because of the playwright and poet, but also partly because his name was linked to the murder of his two young nephews and that some portrayed him as a throne thief.
Today, however, historians and specialists are trying to rehabilitate his image by questioning the propaganda of his time.
Recreating your face…and your voice
A team based at the Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University has created this avatar from the reconstruction of the skull of Richard III (whose remains were discovered under a car park in Leicester, England, in 2012), here produced with the help of a craniofacial expert. However, specialists from various fields also helped put the pieces together, including speech therapy, dentistry, forensic psychology and archaeology.
The accent of Richard III, reproduced not very faithfully since always
When the team worked on his voice, things got complicated. Famous Shakespearean actors, such as Laurence Olivier or Ian McKellen, often recite Richard’s lines with standard pronunciation and an English accent associated with the middle and upper classes. However, Richard spent many years in Yorkshire, a region of northern England with its own accent. This therefore makes the accent used so far probably inaccurate.
David Crystal, a linguist specializing in 15th-century pronunciation, played a key role here in determining how the king spoke. The one who lends his voice is Thomas Dennis, an actor who resembles him and who worked closely with Yvonne Morley-Chisholm, a vocal coach, to imitate Richard’s speech. The duo also examined the king’s letters and diary, because during the Middle Ages, the way you wrote the word was based on its pronunciation. Cela by permission of get as close as possible to the way of speaking of the English monarch.
When speaking about this reconstruction, historian Philippa Langley, who discovered the remains of the king in 2012, states that “ we have the best experts in their fields who have been working on this for ten years and everything was meticulously researched, meticulously documented, so you see the most accurate depiction of Richard III “. This voice further manages to show the evolution of English pronunciation over the centuries, from regional variations to standardized English.
Questioning history
The result obtained here far exceeds the expectations of historians and thus represents the most authentic and realistic portrait of this great king. As Shakespeare presented it as manipulative, cunning and cruelhistorians have long debated the accuracy of this image. Some researchers even think that it was an empathetic figure and competent leader. He is even described as kind, sincere, loyal, brave, pious and just by Philippa Langley based on historical sources.
With this speaking avatar, the York Theater Royal therefore asks the question: “ Was he a good man or a murderous psychopath? NOW, Richard III will speak for himself. » You can view this reconstruction work below.
In any case, the experts are already planning future projects which will involve other famous faces and voices from the past to recreate. Who will be next? To be continued.
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