The king under the car park

In 2012, archaeologists from the University of Leicester discovered the lost grave of King Richard III under a car park in Leicester in the English East Midlands. Richard was the King of England more than 500 years ago and for centuries was portrayed as one of the great villains of English history.He was killed in 1485 leading his army in battle against a rival claimant to the throne, Henry Tudor. After the battle, King Richard III's corpse was stripped naked and paraded around before being hastily buried in a church within a friary in Leicester.In 2020, Alex Last spoke to Dr Richard Buckley who led the archaeological team that dug up the remains.(Photo: Remains of King Richard III. Credit: BBC)

Om Podcasten

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest, the disastrous D-Day rehearsal, and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.