Details about Thursday’s reinterment service for King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral have been announced today.
The Bishop of Leicester, Rt Revd Tim Stevens, Dean of Leicester, the Very Revd David Monteith and The Revd Canon Johannes Arens announced the details at a press conference this morning.
The service will begin with the coffin laid in its current position by the font, a eulogy will be read telling of the King’s story. Richard’s coffin will then lie in the centre of the cathedral where it will stay for the majority of the service. Following on from Bishop Tim Stevens service, the coffin will move through the gates of the Nicholson screen shouldered by soldiers to the place of burial in the newly created ambulatory where the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will pray as the coffin is placed in the ground.
“The service which we will have tomorrow is a contemporary service but it draws deeply and heavily from other texts and traditions, particularly a service which we very much had in mind from the 15th Century which was used for the reburial of a high status individual” says the Very Rev David Monteith, Dean of Leicester
Benedict Cumberbatch is to a read specially-written poem at the reinterment tomorrow, as the king’s coffin is lowered into the tomb, which is made of Swaledale stone
