King Power at King Power

King Richard must have been a Leicester City Football fan. At least that is what people are saying this year.

The Leicester City Foxes had never won a top division title in their 132-year history. That is a long time.

After the Reinterment, the Leicester City Football Club's fortunes began to change in an interesting and promising way. A not very wealthy team made up of good players who were a little bit out of control at times and unfocused, began to win games to keep afloat in the Premier League. They managed to just escape relegation at the end of the season by a whisker.

And then their manager Nigel Pearson, a difficult man at best, made a huge boo-boo. He insulted a journalist by calling him an ostrich.

Okay, that sounds pretty silly, and why did that make such a difference to the Foxes?

It didn't help that Nigel Pearson's son, a member of the team, was shortly afterwards involved in a sex tape scandal in Thailand at the time with a couple of other players. This was the last straw for the Club who let Mr. Pearson go.

Now how were those Foxes going to get out of this mess?

The arrival of Italian Claudio Ranieri was heralded with skepticism for the future of the team. With the beginning of the season, the Foxes were predicted at 5000/1 to actually win the Premier League. That was greater odds than if Elvis Presley (the King) was still alive, or even King Richard himself.

But the Foxes started winning. And winning, And winning.

By Christmas, the Leicester City Foxes were top of the Premier League table. Who would have thought that could happen?

I did. I started naively rooting for the Foxes the beginning of the season. I liked Claudio Ranieri, a soft-spoken Italian gentleman who inspired his team with promises of pizza and invoked a new team spirit of total cooperation. It really spoke to my heart and current situation, so why not? I believed they could win with this winning attitude.

Sometime in February 2016, when the Foxes were still on top of the table, people began to think, maybe this is the doing of King Richard. We just gave him a burial suitable for an English monarch, after he was lost for 500 years, and now look at the underdog team of the city. Something has gotten into them. Maybe King Richard is the Foxes most valuable player. The stadium in this kingly city is named King Power, after all!

To put a long and rather fabulous story short, the Foxes did it! They won the Premier League title with 10 points to spare. "Incredible!" shouted the world. Something nobody thought would every happen.

Yesterday was the day of the Champions parade. 240,000 people showed up in the streets to celebrate the Leicester City Foxes in their 5000/1 achievement. I like to think of Richard being there, too, celebrating with them.

The Blue Army in Victoria Park, Leicester

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King Richard Statue in Cathedral Square

One Year Out

One year ago I was in Leicester, helping to bury a King.




Today we are celebrating the one year anniversary of the Reinterment of King Richard III. There are lots of activities in Leicester today.

These include:

• Children's Easter bonnet competition with medieval activities
• Book launch for How to Bury a King by The Revd. Pete Hobson
• Conflict 1485 Bosworth, with soldiers of the household of King Richard marching through the streets of Leicester
• A theatre production called Uncle Richard
• Medieval cooking and food tasting
• Calligraphy workshop
• Floral seminar

All of these sound very enjoyable to me but I will get to do none of them, being here in the United States.

But I am able to participate in one activity for the day.

Earlier this year, the King Richard III put out a request on their website for photographs taken during the Reinterment Week. They were planning to create a very large portrait of Richard III in the Visitor Centre, composed of all of these tiny photos.

Of course, I had to send in some photos so that I could be a part of the project. I would be in Leicester without being in Leicester!

Today the exhibit opened. It looks amazing! 

Here is the article about Remembering the Reinterment.

I was quite tickled to read that photos "came from as far afield as the United States." Because that includes me!

Unfortunately, I won't get to see the exhibit. It will be taken down before I return to Leicester. I will have to rely on others to tell me about it, if they are able to. They might even find me in the portrait, because I'm there! 

What photos did I include? You will just have to go to the Visitors Centre and try to guess!

Richard III and Shakespeare's First Folio

Facsimile of the First Folio
Notre Dame's Rare Books and Special Collections

During the month of January 2016, my workplace, the Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame, has been fortunate to have been one of the first stops in the year-long journey of Shakespeare's First Folio, on loan from the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Shakespeare's First Folio

I have been fortunate myself to have been involved in the activities surrounding the Folio's arrival, events, and viewing. The Shakespeare at Notre Dame staff have been phenomenal in their plans and just being allowed to participate in them has been one of my biggest honours, next to the Reinterment, of course.

But with thinking about Shakespeare's life and death, it naturally means his play of Richard III is never far behind in my mind.

The Tragedy of Richard the Third was included in the First Folio. It was not one of the plays that was unique to the Folio, but because it was included, it is identified as important.

At the top of this blog entry you can see a facsimile of the Folio's first page of The Tragedy of Richard the Third with the famous speech, "Now is the Winter of our Discontent, made glorious Summer by this Son of Yorke;..." No matter what you feel for Shakespeare's Richard, this speech alone is enough to give you chills, its being one of the greatest dramatic speeches in the English language.

With the fabulous book, there was also a lovely collections of costumes in the library. These came from the Shakespeare at Notre Dame collection. And what costumes were included? Costumes from the 2013 Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival's last production of Richard III!

Richard III Costume
Shakespeare at Notre Dame

I was able to find out that this fall, the Actors from the London Stage are going to perform a new production of Richard III, but this production will include a female Richard! How will they do this? Will it make sense? I guess I will have to wait and find out.

Richard III's armour
from the 2013 Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival

That doesn't look like me!