In Memoriam Servetus (1969 - 2024)

Servetus - Me & Richard

Her name (pseudonym) in my mind stands for the fandom itself.

I found the Richard Armitage-fandom through instructional videos how to cut and publish videos. But Servetus and her to-the-point arguments were the reason that drew me in and kept me hooked.

When I after a while started a blog to rant and rave on my own - not expecting to get a single reader besides myself - Servetus invited me into Fanstravaganza and saw me, when I thought to be undetected and invisible in the vast spheres of the internet.

Her active and vivid mind seemed a leading light in fandom for me, and I had been waiting for her to have time to finally write the books I knew she still had in her. So to discover her gone, was a complete shock to me and I thought I had misread. But ...

Obituary

To commemorate Servetus on a day of celebration and happiness is not so far off in my mind, as Mr. Armitage's birthday in itself is a day of commemoration of the death of King Richard III, which lead to his first name being 'Richard'. So life and death on this day is interwoven here already.

And!

Servetus brought us so much input, creativity, broadness of thought, way of fan-integration and of community building, that to celebrate her on a day like this and to remember all the bright and happy times we spent with her and her funny, intensive, thought-provoking, self-dissecting, revealing and fascinating posts and comments, is a joyful endeavor in itself.

Here a small selection of her work, which she left on websites that are managed by me:

* On the CDoart-blog, she was a constant and supportive commentator.

* Her contributions to Fanstravaganza 2011 and Fanstravaganza 2012

* Her contributions on the KingRichardArmitage-Website

Not to forget her unending inspiration, she left us on her own blog Me+Richard.

(Please feel free to leave comments and links to Servetus' work in the comments, to add to this condensed list of her great influence.)

It was a great honour and joy for me, to have encountered Servetus in my life.

She gave me a feeling back, that my mind was free to spread and discover, while my surrounding previously had dulled and suppressed it. So encountering her for me was a great revelation and a permit to get into myself and my own strengths again. It was a fundamental change and also chance she provided me with in her unique way.

And as such, her memory will always have a fond spot in my heart.

P.S.: Please let me know, if you would be interested to join a Servetus-commemoration-event around April 14th, 2025 and eventually in coming years as well! An event that would be not only in memoriam of Servetus, but of all our wonderful fellow-fans, who have - for now - left us behind.

Too Much is Too Much...

Envy is a sentiment I normally can't relate to.
I am ambitious, if I want something I have to work hard to get there, but I don't envy somebody else what he has or what he achieved. Never.

But this one time, I would want something for someone else and not the one who got the chance to do it.

Reading a poem by Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy about King Richard III at his funeral ceremony on Thursday, March 26th.

The next BBC King Richard III may read it and not Richard Armitage.

Perhaps it is fortunate that I won't be able to see the ceremony anyway, because it is not transmitted on TV in Germany. I don't think my none existent TV-set would have been safe. Now I just need to secure my computers ;o)

Happy Birthday, Mr Armitage - Birthday KRA Quiz

Happy Birthday, Mr. Armitage!

With lots of presents and a new year full of joy, luck, health and success !

To celebrate this wonderful event from afar and so that all around the world, online and behind computer/mobile/tablet/whatever screens can join in, the KingRichardArmitage website holds a celebratory KingRichardArmitage Quiz to find this year's KingRichardArmitage Champions.

All participants in the quiz taking part till 30 September 2014 have a chance to win one of the three trophies, three recently published books about the search and discovery of King Richard III.

Have joy and fun with the quiz and the serious and not so serious quiz questions ;o)

Good luck !

King Richard III for Richard Armitage

... from a totally un-historic perspective

[This article was originally meant to be a series of 7 articles during the KingRichardArmitage Week 2013, but due to time pressure, the topic did not get the planned wider execution, but now comes condensed and shortened down to this minimal rump-post. Please excuse the wide range and only touching of an abundance of topics. I just want to put down these ideas somewhere, to keep them.]


King Richard III had so much drama in his life that it was even too much for the congenial William Shakespeare.
He needed to flatten his character into inrecognizablility to be able to bring him on the stage.

But why is that and why do I think an artist like Richard Armitage could do more and bring more aspects of the complicated life of King Richard III to a wider audience and show new aspects of an individual, so far flattened and simplified into unrecognizability by either literature and research?


My main question is, what aspects prevent King Richard III from getting a just and scientifically adequate research into his life?

• His blood relationship to the current royal house reigning over England?

•  His supporters giving the impression (though at closer contact mostly a false one) of manufacturing facts in their / his favour.

• Scholars have established their position and hate to be wrong or proven wrong about something.

• King Richard III just is such a convenient villain one need not think further about. That is much easier than to do extensive research about him.

King Richard III really was busy during his just 32 years long life. He is accused of being a:

father figure murderer - getting rid of opposition and his former tutor and fatherly friend

murderer out of envy - murdering the first husband of his later wife to make her available for himself 

brother murderer - out of greed, to gain the inheritance of his wife, to ascertain his succession into power

king murderer - to fulfill his duty towards his oldest brother King Edward IV.

murderer of Scotts - good that was war and ordered by his brother and no closer sources are available about that, but we certainly can invent some kind of case around that 

child murderer - to gain power

wife murderer - to fulfill his duty as king, to ascertain a secure bloodline and consequential peace for his country

friend murderer - to ascertain and continue in his ill-gained position as king and defeat all opposition.



We should note, that except for his wife, King Richard III was very friendly towards women and tried to avoid killing those. So, unlike Jack the Ripper, his preference clearly was on men.
That could make it a decidedly good role for Richard Armitage and his female fans ;o)

Getting rid of, ... - sorry, just read a book about a court case, where the end-consequence really lead me to feel happy that some of the men were just...
I would not have even stopped at the end and had some more candidates I would have gotten rid of as author. Unfortunately, the real author of the book did not agree with me on that and left some of the annoying men alive at the end.


But King Richard, the murderer, we already discussed in the last post as well. That is the most common interpretation of his character.

The interesting thing about King Richard III is that he has - or could be manipulated/interpreted into having - so many more character traits to make him the ideal subject for a film crew.

Just to list a few which readily came to my mind:

• The forgiving brother / husband / son / guardian.
• The frightened child.
• The fearful and uprooted son.
• The carefree participant of social games and play at his home in Middleham.
• The loving husband.
• The learned / well educated scholar.
• The pious man.
• The obedient subject to his king and older brother Edward IV.
• The able ruler.
• The observant creator and founder.
• The open-minded and loyal friend.
• The power-sensitive observer.
• The patient creator and taker of opportunities.
• The brave warrior.
• The envious brother.
• The greedy husband, marrying an exceedingly wealthy dowry, not the woman. (Though it was disputed and needed a good and long fight to achieve it.)
• The power crazy conniver.
• The devilish single-minded king.
• The forgiving patron of York.
• The able and merciful ruler over England.
• The political tactician.
• The far planning patron of trade.
• The wise founder of learning & universities (Cambridge, Kings College).
• The supporter of liberty and free spreading of knowledge. (Printing trade)
• The straight forward fighter in conflict.
• The defender of the weak.

There is not really much of an emotional sentiment you cannot in some way or other dump on King Richard III.
Is it possibly not too few murder cases but too much drama in King Richard III's life for film makers?
Are they not able to cope with such a multitude, after all, not even Shakespeare could cope with all of it and was only able to show an un-recognizable excerpt of King Richard III's life in his drama?


Is King Richard III just too much for the abilities of today's film makers?


Still, I believe Richard Armitage could do better than what was previously done with the subject.

If you agree with me, please sign the KingRichardArmitage Petition!

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King Richard Armitage Week 2013

(Picture of Richard Armitage is an edited version of this picture - source: RichardArmitageNet.com - by Robert Ascroft)

Jack the Ripper & King Richard III

Jack the Ripper got more screen appearances than King Richard III (admittedly leaving out the Shakespeare drama, as that is not really about the historical person Richard III. Shakespeare's drama is about as accurate as a fable is to explain the world).

But to follow my argument, why does the historical figure King Richard III not get any more attention and screen time, when Jack the Ripper is so attractively positioned on screen?

It certainly can't be that King Richard III's supposed brutality keeps him from getting a dedicated film, as his brutality seems to draw the most attention.

So maybe we can come up with some more murder cases Richard III might have committed during his short life of just 32 years to get him his own film?

We at least have a good sample in Shakespeare, how we may proceed to invent some new murder cases for Richard III.

At least, during his lifetime, quite a few people died an unnatural death, even if for some he might have been just too young to hold the sword. But that did not keep Shakespeare from it, why should we hesitate?

As I have heard from legal comments about King Richard III, the king of a country in the last consequence is responsible for all that happens in his country.
That may be a good starting point to find some new accusations against him, at least for the last two years of his life.

Now I need to go and search for some murder cases during his lifetime, King Richard can be burdened with...


I wonder, may that be the reason why the Tudors get all the attention?
Was King Richard III just too harmless and nice compared to them?

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King Richard Armitage Week 2013

(Picture of Richard Armitage is an edited version of this picture - source: RichardArmitageNet.com - by Robert Ascroft)

Belated Happy Birthday Wishes

I know I am late - about ... - with everything, especially with birthday greetings.
And I recognized I already have over 50 draft mails - I send mails into draft status, when I need to answer someone - so I presume that won't change any time soon.

Glitter-graphics.com

But perhaps this little mouse shows, why my greetings needed such a long time to arrive ;o)
The cake just was so heavy...
So now, before continuing with being late, finally I join the fandom with...

Happy Birthday

Glitter-graphics.com

Glitter-graphics.com

to Mr. Armitage here on my personal blog.

The KingRichardArmitage Week 2013 is going on and the quiz runs fine there (though I am still in need of a 100% answer - there was I thinking I made the quiz much too easy.)


After my last post, in which I revealed my fighting stance, I now must reveal parts of what brought me back to consider that all my fighting was just defense on the outside, while on the inside I am hopelessly lost and committed. I am just trying to come to terms with it somehow and what I am best at is, fighting and being prickly on the outside.

What made me realise that it was a totally hopeless effort and through all the emotional upheaval my fight brought me, the one constant still remained the calming, soothing effect RA has on me.

Why I think every fighting on my side is totally hopeless:

• He is my sole infatuation (Nobody else far and wide, not even a slight interest.)

• I went around town and inadvertently looked into a shop window of an exclusive men's store, exhibiting a male model with an aubergine jacket. My immediate only thought was: "That would look nice on RA."
  Considering that I don't even like to select or buy clothes for myself, that really was an astonishing experience ;o)
  (The only exception with clothes is selecting a tie for my father, but as he rarely wears one nowadays, the last one I selected was years ago.)

• I feel connected to his dreams. Not that I dream about him - if I do, I mostly can't remember anyway.
  But I feel that it is bodily and mentally important to me and my life that he can reach his dreams.

You surely are not surprised about that, after all I am doing the KRA-website, but the totality of that effect for my real life overwhelmed me.
The fighting helped me a bit to determine and dissect the totality, the mega-importance, draw it into question, look at it from all sides, could the effect be broken somehow, why was it there in the first place, what could be done about it,..
Why his dreams, not somebody else's? Why this and not something which would help me? Why does he take precedent, when I could use a bit of that importance for myself?
Why is it so important to me that he gets where he wants?

The sole answer I so far came up with is:
Part of why I want him so much to reach his dreams is, because I continuously and always need to fight hard for every small bit I want to reach. If luck could look the other way, in my case it certainly does. So what I want I am well prepared to work hard to get it.

After all those experiences, I just want to make it a tiny bit easier for him to reach his dreams.

So my belated birthday wishes are:

Happy Birthday

&

May all your happy dreams come true!

Glitter-graphics.com

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King Richard Armitage Week 2013

(Picture of Richard Armitage is an edited version of this picture - source: RichardArmitageNet.com - by Robert Ascroft)

After 530 Years - Time for Good King Richard

After 530 years,
Mr. Armitage, now it is your turn to rule over England - and some other obedient countries and subjets from areas not yet named or found (from an English point of view) 530 years back ;o)

But please, don't stop after just two years !!!

King Richard III is a good example how best to extend one's influence and even manage to gather supporters after 530 years.
Mr. Armitage, take the crown and fight for a better 'England'.
(Can't we create a European crown for him, just so he does not have to de-throne an existing ruling family?)
Richard I, King of Europe,
does not sound too smashing,
though the national anthem is great and was created by Friedrich v. Schiller, my favourite poet and writer.

Never before thought I had even the least bit of a patriotic streak in me, but as long as it is not for my own country, that is rather o.k. for me. (Just to explain for all non-Germans and non-of-my-generation, to be patriotic here would have been one step into destruction in the time I grew up. So you will never in my life see me swing my countries flag, even though in newer generations football (U.S.: soccer) made it o.k. for some to do so. Though it still raises my suspicions to no end. - Just the German flag, no other one has this effect on me.)


There was never a place more aptly named than our 'Europa Platz' in Munich. Chaos rules at every end. But when I think about it, was it so much different 530 years back?
Monetary problems,
trade problems with foreign traders and countries
everybody believes he knows what is best and in the end nothing works
people out of work
injustice and money rule
...

The problems seem to not have changed so much, though 530 years went by and still slavery to money, betrayal and opportunism rule worldwide.

Should we make our King

King Richard I, King of the World (at least the female part)?

We could really use a 'Good King Richard' now.

4RA-6: The Distinct Advantage of RA

Posts from previous FanstRAvaganza years 2012 & 2011

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The distinct advantage of RA compared to other men

I already started to explain RA’s main attraction points in my last post.
But what set him so completely apart was something Servetus and her excruciatingly honest self- and fan-analysis alerted me to.

He was not real.

Yes, I know, he is real, and I am certainly heavily in the group suffering APM (= Armitage Protection Mode).
But to some extent he just isn’t, at least for me.

He is safe,
as he does not really come near me, know about me or can hurt me.
So my fantasy world about him is safe, I am safe and still can feel enormously inspired by what he does and how he does it.

Lately someone asked me how I would behave in a red-carpet event meeting him. My answer was ‘I wouldn’t’.
Because, if I can, I would avoid the spectacle, the frenzy, the showing and openly expressing of my feelings of admiration.
That would throw me out into something I just am not and would make me into something I would not like to be. Something I fear, as I couldn’t control it and would need only to react to a surrounding I would not like to be part of.
I am no fodder for the masses, don’t like to be used and would not like to lose my identity and only be a number and I certainly would feel that way there.
It would make it into something real, something depressingly real, something entirely un-safe.


In contrast on KRA, though showing the signatures in totals and numbers, the lovely feedback we receive shows that people all over the world come together in support of the film. A multitude of motives, aspects of interests, personalities and just absolutely wonderful supporters assemble there.
And all in support of one brilliant man, attracting all this attention.
I can’t see this variety as pure numbers and customers of fan-devotionalia, while standing around a red carpet, I would feel like a number, a space filler somehow.
Would have to be myself, my real self and would feel completely lost ;o)

The variety in fandom is the reason, why I am active part of this fandom, why I support the KingRichardArmitage initiative for the film “Richard III” and why I can’t get enough of Richard Armitage - in my safe fantasy world ;o)

Enjoy the variety and broad bandwidth of fandom in FanstRAvaganza 4 !

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Posts from previous FanstRAvaganza years 2012 & 2011

4RA-3: Questions 2 about Richard III

Posts from previous FanstRAvaganza years 2012 & 2011

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No, nothing like if he killed his nephews.

If I believed King Richard III really did it, I would rather ask how or why he thought it to help his position and prestige as king, when I see it so much as an error for him from all perspectives.
I have clear doubts here that he did it, but not for being a ‘Ricardian’ (which I am not) or only wanting him to be good, but for psychological reasons.

For one, I see the king as an intelligent man and I just can’t imagine, he did not come to the same conclusion that the disappearance would hurt his position as king. He was their uncle after all, if they were legitimate or not and as such responsible for them. To lose them just is no good style for an uncle. (That reminds me of my own nephew. I think my sister would kill me in return ;o) Preferably in a very slow and extremely hurtful way.)

For another, the one with the best and strongest motive in police investigations rather rarely is the culprit, as his interests are much too obvious to allow him to act upon them. They are obvious for everyone to see and deduct the logical consequences.
This leads to the strange situation that the strongest opponents might act as the fiercest protectors, just because of this reasoning.
While not so blatantly obviously interested parties, normally the second, but often even in the third or fourth position of motive strength, feel safe enough to act upon their baser motives.

I know that is no proof, but at least shows why I doubt.

Whereas I don’t doubt, that King Richard III clearly calculated all (!) his options and was well aware of advantage and risk.
A crime executed in the head, is it still or yet a crime in itself?

NPG 148; King Richard III by Unknown artist
(Source: National Portrait Gallery)

My questions to RA now would be:

• What aspect of King Richard III especially can fascinate an actor?

• What advantage has Shakespeare’s Richard III character compared to the ‘real’ (or historically reconstructed) one?

• What can a film do to a king who is already famous? – Or should I rather say notorious?

• What influence would you as actor like to give Richard III’s wife Anne Neville over him? (As very little is known about her and her relationship to her husband, this aspect leaves quite a lot of space for interpretation.)

• Is Richard III a driven or a reacting figure? Driven by greed or acting out of necessities put upon him?

• Is Richard III personally strong or weak and why?

• What in your opinion makes Richard III act in the way he does?

• What in his background / education / upbringing / influences / … leads him to become such a different character / morally settled person compared to his older brother Edward IV?

• What kingly abilities of Edward IV does Richard III miss?

• Why does Richard III’s relationship to his eldest brother work though their large age difference and their opposite characters and approach to life and moral?

And here I really need to forcefully stop myself, otherwise we would sit here till next year’s FanstRAvaganza 5 ;o)

I very much hope you enjoy the event ! Till tomorrow, with more musings, why I just can't stop asking questions ;o)

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Posts from previous FanstRAvaganza years 2012 & 2011

A Picture of Perfection

Today, I got a wish granted !

Ali posted my picture of perfection (or is it the picture of the day?) on RichardArmitageNet.com:

Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

This image is a shot in the middle of a transformation on his face. He goes from annoyed to amused to interested in milliseconds and a load of mini-expressions, which only Servetus could describe properly.

Though that small transition from amused to tolerant, just happening/having happened in this screenshot, is how I presume he would look at me, if he ever by accident should encounter me. Slightly amused, tolerant, patient, ... ;o)

Still, I would like to ask him so many questions, but in real life, I know I will not have the bravery to ask them ;o)

You ask what questions? 
Loads and loads and a heavy accumulation of notes and pieces of paper already.
Alone his Budapest connection and his trip to Vienna would give me loads of material to grill him - and I would not even need to mention the circus.

So it perhaps really is best, I am not a reporter.

Also I would like to ask him, why he once mentioned he would like to learn German. It for English ears must be a guttural language, as it uses more parts of the mouth than English speakers in general do. Would he go for a northern 'dialect', a middle/southern one or the strict stage language? Has he at all decided yet and what area(s) would he like to see and visit to accompany his language learning, if at all.

Another part I surely would ask RA without end, would be about his preparations for Spooks in series 9. What did he make of his character, what of John Bateman, what outlook did he give him, what alternatives had he prepared, what really worked out - what not, ...
What was planned with the not available helicopter at the end?
What differences / preparations he felt uneasy to leave behind from the two previous Spooks series?
How Spooks helped him for Thorin Oakenshield
. . .


And that still is entirely without mentioning King Richard III!

You see, it really is best, I never get close to RA, otherwise I would never stop asking questions ;o)


If you have questions you would like to ask him, please comment. Suggestions are very welcome, to complete my kilos of notes ;o)

King Richard & Magic

King Richard magically appeared again this year, in the media and hopefully also for real, when the mtDNA can confirm the archaeological find.

But what has King Richard III, who is magic, especially in combination with Mr. Armitage and his intended project of a film, to do with magic?

Servetus researches this in a week of pure magic:

King Richard Magic Week 2012

See her first post, analysing the question: Was Richard III really threatened by witchcraft?

New Suggestion for King Richard III ...

If the English towns can't decide where to bury King Richard III, I would suggest some neutral ground.
Perhaps Bavaria?
You smile? - Believe me, it really would have some points in its favour, e.g.

• it has rough climate, which is associated with the English north,

• the people are naturally grumpy, which also is said to be part of the Northern mentality of England,

• Bavaria has lovely catholic churches enough to chose from

• it is neutral ground, as King Richard had no bad experiences, enmities or betraials from Bavarians whatsoever

• and in addition, Bavarians nowadays love their Kings, even when they had their bad sides as well

• Bavarians only revolted and rose up, when their kings tried to swap or sell them or the kings had 'affairs de coeur' outside their marriage, so King Richard is at no danger at all here.

Füssen - Artificial lake in front of Castle Neuschwanstein

King Richard really could feel at home in Bavaria and relax.

As both towns, Leicester and York temporarily were against King Richard and his family, Bavaria, which never opposed him, but together with the emperor even sent some soldiers to his aid, really could start a 'rescue party' ;o)


I sit back and am curiously watching the escalating fight with now a new party.  (I must extend my rose analogy somehow, as now there are Westminster, York, Leicester and Worksop, fighting more or less for the king.)

In my opinion the whole fighting has one really good side, it keeps King Richard III at the top of the news, when otherwise the interest would have gone down, till the results of the mtDNA research come in. So it is an excellent marketing technique for our 'forgotten' king under a carpark and seems like he has his hands in it somehow.

But regarding otherworldly and magical influences, we will hear more soon ...
After all, Halloween is fast approaching ;o)

New War of the Roses...

... only this time, there are three roses involved.
Should this tell us somehow, that there is a freemasons' conspiracy behind this all?

Even "Spooks" visually brought in the topic in connection to politics, by placing the Home Secretary William Towers (= Simon Russell Beale) in front of a freemasons window with different significant symbols.

York for sure is the white rose,
Leicester might take over the red rose from Lancaster, as it is where the victor placed King Richard III,
but what colour would the third rose have?

If we follow the freemasons symbolism, it has to be a pink rose.

The underlying symbolism behind the three roses:

White = The beginning, the birth, the start into life, the purity, the innocence
Pink = the life itself, its joys, as well as worries and burdens, the mixture of light and darkness in reality
Red = the death, the ending, the resolution to it all, the fulfillment

These are only a few of the potential readings of these symbols, but I don't want to give you a lecture about the freemasons roses, but about the new War of the Roses.

Leicester, York and Westminster (London) are fighting over King Richard III.

Leicester = red
York = white
London = pink

In a poll on KRA you now can chose freely where you would see the fitting resting place for King Richard III. As supporters of King Richard III, we have discovered our king long before politicians and the marketing departments of the tourism industry.

Read more about the positive and negative aspects of each location and the background of the poll on KRA.

Only the best place for King Richard !


P.S.: My opinion on a state funeral. He has endured so much already, he will bear this with good grace as well ;o)

Laboratories and Their Historical Reliability

The last week(s) were a wonderful row of discoveries.
For me, though lots of work tried to overthrow me, this time was phenomenally interesting.

Richard III - Cardiff Castle
Source: Flickr (Leo Reynolds)

For me Philippa Langley, the major force behind the whole developments around King Richard III, brought back a strong optimism with her message:

Believe in your dreams!

Now it is up to laboratories to prove, if the found human remains really belong to King Richard III.
But...

Has there always to be a 'but' for CDoart?

Yes, and even a large one,
as the laboratory can only research our expectations.

That means, expectations and research in two directions,

• first premisse is, that Mr. Michael Ibsen really is a relative in the female line of King Richard III

• and second, that the human remains, as connected to Mr. Ibsen with the mtDNA, belong to King Richard III.

As it is, even if the laboratorial research would not prove the connection, I would not entirely see the possibility gone, that the found human remains still belong to King Richard III.
As a matter of fact, the female line in general is a very badly documented one, the more the research of Dr. Ashdown-Hill (interview on KRA here) is immensely impressive to me.
Females did not inherit the main estates or were seen as main heirs and so documentation except for marriages, often is quite scarce. Also, un-recorded adoptions of relatives' siblings were not uncommon, especially in the non-inheriting female line.
To gap 17 generations, a reliable female line can have various sources of disruption.

So in my view, it would be absolutely miraculous, if the laboratorial research would confirm the archaeological and historical indications.


Though the research of the mitochondrial DNA in general is technically a reliable one, there are enough factors which might cause errors, that I would not put my entire trust in it, should it result in no match. I see it more as one piece in a puzzle, not the whole solution of this already far grown picture.

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Special Reading Tip:

Fitzg - Canada and King Richard III - Fitzg wonderfully describes her reactions and musings to yesterday's discoveries on the KingRichardArmitage website!

Leporello at a Loss...

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... or why Leporello would not do as servant for King Richard III.

Leporello, the servant of Don Juan, had to register all the love interests of his master.
You say, King Richard III was monogamous and was faithful to his wife?

Admittedly, the known love interests of King Richard III most likely would not even fill one page, much less an endless page like in a leporello folded book.
So why do I compare King Richard III to Don Juan and even say, Leporello would not even be able to keep book?

Because King Richard III has over 900 supporters by now !

Imagine the folded book of Leporello trying to keep track of that number.
Either he would need to have an excessively small handwriting, good indexing, to find the required names again, or he would need our website KingRichardArmitage, to cope with us all - us supporters of King Richard Armitage and our film petition.

We also intend to grow further.
What would Leporello invent, or would he just swap his booklet for an iPhone or computer, to register all of us signers of the petition?
I had problems imagining the servant of Don Juan with an iPhone ;o) but modern theatre performances surely will invent something to cope and bridge the understanding gap for the problems he had with registering all the amorous interests of Don Juan for today's theatre goers.

Fortunately we don't have such problems with the Petition for King Richard Armitage and the film about King Richard III by Richard Armitage. We can bridge the time gap of over 500 years.

Thank you for all your support 

and please do not stop spreading the word about it further !

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King Richard Week 2012 with the daily Quiz questions for the scavenger hunt during the event week.
(KRA Week 2012 News - Day 7)


Guest of the day is the Richard III Foundation, Inc. with wonderful articles, which shed more light on the character of King Richard III, which, with the few reliable resources is no easy research. But Joe Ann Ricca, founder of the Richard III Foundation, did a great job with that and packed it in wonderfully readable articles. See for yourself:

• About the Boar Badge of King Richard III 

• About his friend Francis Viscount Lovell

Did you have a go with the Scavenger Hunt yet? Servetus' gives tips and hints on her blog Here are some examples.


Phylly's discovery - Sing along with the ballad of King Richard III.

Holbein and King Richard III - Art and History

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Some time ago I stumbled upon a website, which from the dates given, already seems to be in place for quite a while.
This site is so filled with information that after a few days I had forgotten most of them. So, I always wanted to go back to this page and closer read the content and discern the credibility of this information.

I still did not come to a conclusion, how far I trust the given information, or how far I think it is possible to get information out of hints in a picture to such an extent
Still, I want to present this website to you anyway, as it is so rich in detail and deserves a closer look and is an entertaining and informative read for everyone interested in King Richard III and his surroundings.

The thought provoking re-interpretation of most facts about and around King Richard III, the speculation about motives of persons around King Richard and of himself, are so daring and provoking, that they deserve a closer look.

So here comes the website: www.holbeinartworks.org about the research by Jack Leslau

The analyzed image is:

Portrait of the More family by Hans Holbein the Younger

I am quite curious what you think about this website, the image and the interpretation and to what conclusions and further hints you come through this website.

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King Richard Week 2012 with the daily Quiz questions for the scavenger hunt during the event week.
(KRA Week 2012 News - Day 6)

Blogger of the day is Fitzg with her blog post about Leicestershire and its influence on Richard Armitage on the KRA-website.

Did you have a look at Servetus' blog, to get tips and hints about the Scavenger Hunt of the KRA Week? Here are some more.


Phylly's discovery - Sing along with the ballad of King Richard III.

Germans Everywhere? - Even without a functioning Tourism Industry

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Last Wednesday, the 22nd of August 2012, a man who had influenced me while growing up, in my beliefs and the true value of lived charity and friendlyness, died. He was very old, so you can't say it was unexpected, but thinking and remembering the good times and wonderful events we had attended and where we had often met, I remembered a quote, because I will ever remember this man with great fondness. His encouraging nature and care for others created an atmosphere of friendliness and with this he could set the tone in a whole town. You see, I am still impressed by this person's achievements.
The quote I remembered, mentions 'a great heart' and this, not only because of his passing away on the same day as King Richard III reminded me of the king and let me also think about what King Richard III as a person would have been like or what he missed out on because of his loss at Bosworth.

Now here the quote I refer to:

"...three fingers taller than myself...also much more lean; he had delicate arms and legs, also a great heart..." - Nicholas von Poppelau, Diary,1484 (Quoted after: www.richard111.com)

Nicholas von Poppelau (also written Popplau), a Silesian Knight working for the Emperor Friedrich III, traveled Europe and its important courts. In the year 1484, he came to England, on his tour and here he traveled north, to meet the king. First of all, he had already visited other European courts to compare King Richard III's court with, because of his previous journeys. Second he is assumed to have written down his reports from his notes during the journey, after his return home in the years 1485 and 1486. So his opinion must still have been the same, after seeing the courts in Spain and Paris. What he tells about the king, lies in stark contrast to what we otherwise know about King Richard III.

Nicholas von Poppelau tells about the king that he was musically interested - in such a way, that the choir and mass Nicholas von Poppelau heard at his court, was among the best he had ever heard and he was full of praise for the musicality of the king.

He also writes, that King Richard was 3 fingers larger than himself (who as knight can't have been too small for the time). So no trace of the hunchbacked, deformed and belittled king, who was envious and angry, because he could not compare with the impressive brother, King Edward IV. Though he describes King Richard III as larger, but skinnyer than himself.

Nicholas von Poppelau clearly was impressed from the openness, piety and entire behaviour of the king and praised Richard III for his clear head.

Nicholas von Poppelau's travel report is a good source, as for one, it shows that 'Germans' can be found everywhere, even before a working tourism industry. And for another, he comes to England at a critical time, during his reign as king of England in May 1484.
He also is invaluable, as in his role as independent visitor, (working for the Emperor, but neither for the Lancastrian or Yorkist side) he neither has interests in the Lancastrian or Yorkist point of view and so is an outside report about happenings and the conduct of the 'maligned' king. His report therefore does not have the goal to either promote or disgrace King Richard III. He most likely was there, to gain support and favourable opinion for the emperor in search for allies.

So Nicholas von Poppelau certainly is a source worth examining closer.
There are articles about Nicholas von Poppelaus diary I could not get hold of so far, but those would certainly  be an interesting read. (Noted for later detective work ;o)

So far a wonderful resource was:
Dr. David Hipshon's work: "Richard III and the Death of Chivalry"

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King Richard Week 2012 with the daily Quiz questions for the scavenger hunt during the event week.
(KRA Week 2012 News - Day 5)

Blogger of the day is Fabo Laktuko at her blog WhiteRose: Sincere and Simple Thoughts (you may guess twice, what the white rose stands for). Fabo Laktuko is an experienced film-commentator and goes into analysis, which directors could possibly support Mr. Armitage in his filming project "King Richard III".

Did you have a look at Servetus' blog, to get tips and hints about the Scavenger Hint of the KRA Week? Here are some more for day 5.
And Servetus in her unique way analyses King Richard III's thumbs in comparison to Mr. Armitage's and their decisiveness in battle ;o)

Bosworth 1485 - by Mike Ingram

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King  Richard III - from a military perspective

Again, you will say, but this time, I have a real reading tip for you:

In a very sound research, with an abundance of additional information, war techniques, military strategy, knightly equipment and knowledge of the time are described in a fluent and captivating way
This praised book is the newly published work by

Mike Ingram "Bosworth 1485" (2012).


 
(Available as print book and as Kindle version, so both are linked in for your convenience. You know, earnings go to RA's charities. You can also buy via RichardArmitageNet.com, to earn affiliate fees for the charities there.)

The expertise of Mike Ingram about battle techniques is so rich that the he can knowlegeably use the newest research results of the year 2010, to overthrow a lot of long established battle believes about Bosworth, e.g. taking place at Albion Hill, and lighthandedly can rewrite the battle story of Bosworth. The latest research and findings of relics from soldiers, the boar badge, believed to be a sign from the armour of members of the royal guard of King Richard, now make an entirely new location and structure of the battle likely.

The additional information given in this handy and compact book, are so detailed and informative, that one gets sucked into the book at any place one starts to read.
For example, did you know that for some gunpowder making procedures in the 15th century the urine of wine drinkers was needed? (I am sure all the passengers found me to be a bit crazy, when I encountered that detail in an open train compartment ;o)
If you want to know more about the armour of the knights, the way they bound their armour parts or the knowledge about the battle area at Bosworth, reveal that the author has first hand knowledge about the location himself. He is an expert for battle techniques, not only late Medieval battles, but also can compare them to modern ones'. This makes his explanations the more understandable for modern readers.

Mike Ingram also holds guided tours from time to time and shows the area and explains the advantages and disadvantages of each position, either for Richard III and Henry Tudor and their armies. Between the video of the year 1994 (presented here) and the research work done by Mike Ingram, it becomes clear that years of research and extensive findings lie between those two studies.

The research work is wonderfully up to date and for anyone interested in the Battle of Bosworth, I can only recommend the book by Mike Ingram as obligatory material. Really a read worth its time and a remaining source for details about the battle and last days of King Richard III and first days of the reign of Henry VII.

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Last two hours to join in !

TV-Documentation about King Richard III needs our help TODAY!

Please comment today, to support a filming of a documentation about King Richard III. Take 2 minutes and voice your opinion on Saturday 25th of August, 2012 (U.K. time) to convince Channel 4 that it is a necessary endeavour and lots of people are already waiting for a documentation about King Richard III and his life, which will take into account all the new research results and finally bring some of the mis-constructions about this English king to an end.

You can put your comment here, to show your support:
http://www.channel4.com/4viewers/contact-us

Thank you !!!

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King Richard Week 2012 with the daily Quiz questions for the scavenger hunt during the event week.
(KRA Week 2012 News - Day 4)

Blogger of the day is Servetus at her blog Me+Richard Armitage with a witty article about King Richard III's story. (Pssst..., I must reveal something. - She had 1.000.000 clicks on her blog lately and that really is a reason to celebRAte ;o)

Did you have a look at Servetus' blog post how to Spend our Money! ?
Servetus' analysis of a KRA-fangirl's mind is one further example of her exceptional examinations! - Richard III won’t make me squee. Right?
And I must also reveal, Servetus gives tips and hints in her latest post to help with solving the quiz questions.

The Last Days of Richard III

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One of the newer researches about King Richard III which really impressed me, was
"The Last Days of Richard III" by Dr. Ashdown-Hill (2010)


 
 (Available as print book and as Kindle version, so both are linked in for your convenience. You know, earnings go to RA's charities. You can also buy via RichardArmitageNet.com, to earn affiliate fees for the charities there.)


More than the title says and being a detailed and interesting to read account of the last days in King Richard III's life and the motives and personal interests surrounding him, the book also reveals informative details about the burrial place of King Richard III.
This was the reason, that some time ago, when we got the Archaeology Appeal about the planned digging in Leicester, I took this book out and started reading again.
What impresses me with the research work by Dr. Ashdown-Hill, is the readable conclusions and density of information he reveals in his publications. So this work "The Last Days of Richard III" is no exception and far more information is given than a mere day to day account and research into King Richard III's last moves. Reasons, motives, plots, different concurring interests and a wide variety of persons influenicing the last moves, are drawn together and create a vivid image of the happenings before, during and after the Battle of Bosworth.

More details about the book are also on the KRA website. Here also the very interesting DNA analysis is mentioned, which has a major role to being able to discover King Richard III's burrial place in the planned archaeological diggin in Leicester.

The KRA website will keep us updated here about the digging.
I can't wait for news ;o)

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TV-Documentation about King Richard III needs our help TODAY!

Please comment today, to support a filming of a documentation about King Richard III. Take 2 minutes and voice your opinion on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of August, 2012 (U.K. time) to convince Channel 4 that it is a necessary endeavour and lots of people are already waiting for a documentation about King Richard III and his life, which will take into account all the new research results and finally bring some of the mis-constructions about this English king to an end.

You can put your comment here, to show your support:
http://www.channel4.com/4viewers/contact-us

Thank you !!!

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King Richard Week 2012 with the daily Quiz questions for the scavenger hunt during the event week.
(KRA Week 2012 News - Day 3)

Blogger of the day is Maria Grazia at Fly High! with a review about a novel "Some Touch of Pity" by Rhoda Edwards, depicting King Richard III's story.

Did you have a look at Servetus' blog how to Spend our Money! ?
Servetus' analysis of a KRA-fangirl's mind is one further example of her exceptional examinations! - Richard III won’t make me squee. Right?

Wars of the Roses - King Richard III on DVD

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The banner of my home-village cunningly resembles the logo of one side of the warring families. Unfortunately for me, the 'wrong' side, though - to my great relief - in early depictions, it did not always have this colour ;o)
But the resemblance is so great and for a small village so unlikely to invent such a special and detailed rose drawing, which has no similarity to any other in the region, that it was even speculated, that someone from England might have emigrated here and brought the special way to draw the rose with him. So as a child, I did not see the Wars of the Roses as such a far distant battle, as my own village, though hundreds of kilometres away, might have been involved in it.
I doubted that 'invented' legend, but found roses very fascinating none the less.

In my late search for news and information about King Richard III, I stumbled upon a video about the "Wars of the Roses", which quoted Polydore Vergil (Anglican History) on its cover and this way immidiately had my full interest:

"King Richard alone was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies."

The DVD presents King Richard III and the entire battle story of the Wars of the Roses from a military perspective:



"Wars of the Roses, Blood, Treachery and Cold Steel" (1994) 
Produced & directed by Bob Carruthers,
Narrator: Brian Blessed
Crowell Productions Ltd. 1994

What disappointed me a bit, was the depiction of the battle scenes. Re-enactors playing the believed events at the battle is one thing, on a documentation, I had expected a bit more location shots and detail. That can be because of my hightened expectation. So I was disappointed that the sole focus was the military perspective upon the "Wars of the Roses" and all other motives behind the military activities were not brought into closer focus or even mentioned in the interview parts of the film.

War as a form of spreading itself, certainly at that time has a good foundation in arguments, at a time, where soldiers often were not fighting for the cause they believed in, but for those who could pay them the most money. Soldiers previously fighting in France and now out of work, needed a new working area, but as an argument for the long lasting fights, it is not even a main reason for the wars, as the nobility, responsible for the dispute, did not draw especially into account to create reasons to keep their soldiers employed.
 What on the other hand was impressively shown in the film, was the helebard and the new battle power of foot soldiers. So all in all, I found the time watching the video well spent and a short and handy overview of all the major battles and scirmishes of the "Wars of the Roses".
The bonus material like images and quiz do not really add much to the experience of the DVD, as they are much too short to give a complete or summarising impression. And the research status still is 1994, this means, Albion Hill is seen as the area of the Battle of Bosworth, though new research found the more likely place of the deadly battle of King Richard III. But this does not have a central position in the arguments of the video and so I just want to mention this in a side-note and otherwise recommend the video as a quick introduction into the long series of battles and the fighting techniques.

If one wants to know more about reasons, developments and persons involved in the long going dispute, deeper research and studies have to follow after this video.

In the next days I will collect some more reading tips and information to give you a deeper impression and more details about the magnifold reasons, intrigues, betrayals and different kinds of interests influencing this long going battle between two lines of one family and cumulating in the Battle of Bosworth, where King Richard III died (22th August 1485).
 

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TV-Documentation about King Richard III needs our help!

Please support a filming of a documentation about King Richard III together with me. Take 2 minutes and voice your opinion on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of August, 2012 (U.K. time) to convince Channel 4 that it is a necessary endeavour and lots of people are already waiting for a documentation about King Richard III and his life, which will take into account all the new research results and finally bring some of the mis-constructions about this English king to an end.

You can put your comment here, to show your support:
http://www.channel4.com/4viewers/contact-us

Thank you !!!

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King Richard Week 2012 with the daily Quiz questions for the scavenger hunt during the event week.
(KRA Week 2012 News - Day 2)

Blogger of the day is Phylly at Phylly's Faves with a very special Birthday list ;o)

Have a look at Servetus' blog to get an idea how to Spend our Money!