King Richard Armitage Week 2012 puzzle solution [sources]

A quick note that the fourth KRA 2012 champion, who was previously anonymous, has outed herself. It’s Fabi! Congrats to all the winners.

The question was: “What does Richard Armitage seek to do with his Richard III project?” and the answer was:

Clue solutions follow. Hope they help!

4. [Three words, third word, first letter]: Author of novel that, via his father, inspired Richard Armitage’s interest in pursuing a Richard III project.

A: Sharon Kay Penman [=P]

Source: Vulpes Libres, “In Conversation with Richard Armitage,” July 8, 2009: “one of my father’s favourite novels is The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman, and I read this many years ago. In recent years it has lead to a tentative interest and line of research into the rehabilitation of this story.”

10. [Three words, first word, second letter] Richard Armitage’s breakthrough career production in terms of public perception.

A: North & South [=O]

Source: Richard Armitage Online, Biography: “In the spring and summer of 2004, he filmed his first leading role on television, that of mill-owner John Thornton in the BBC’s adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s 19th century novel, North and South. His co-star was former EastEnders and My Family actress Daniela Denby-Ashe. It was to prove his breakthrough role.”

7. [Two words, first letter of either word] Source of only surviving contemporary visual depiction of Richard III.

A: Rous Roll [=R]

Source: This is the picture. Scholars agree that all of the known portraits of Richard III date from after his death. The contemporary depictions of Richard III (both of which follow generic conventions) date from late medieval family histories which were preserved in the Rous Roll (the Warwicks) and the Salisbury Roll (the Nevilles), which can be reliably dated from before Bosworth and reproduce the same image. For choosing between these, the clue told you that the answer was alliterative (both words of the answer started with the same letter).

1. [One word, ninth letter] City where Richard Armitage was born and Richard III buried.

A: Leicester [=T]

Source: Richard Armitage was born in Leicester; Richard Armitage Online biography. Richard III was initially buried somewhere in Leicester, a conclusion upon which both Yorkist and Tudor histories (including the post-Bosworth revision of the Rous Roll) agree; “The burial place of Richard III,” Richard III Foundation website. Just in the last few days we received the information that the Greyfriars Car Park excavation site is indeed located atop the site of the medieval Greyfriars’ church, so if a body is found there that can be connected to Richard III’s genetic material, it looks like the Tudor historians will have been right about this.

11. [Two words, first word, fourth letter]: Name of role for which Richard Armitage drew on the history of English kings including Richard III.

A: Thorin Oakenshield [=R]

Source: io9.com interview with Richard Armitage, ComicCon San Diego, July 14, 2012: “I looked at Shakespeare, a lot of my preparation I was looking at Henry V and bits of Richard III, just to find roots in British literature that were deeper.”

5. [Two words, first word, eighth letter]: Founder of the Scottish Branch of the Richard III Society, screenwriter, and fundraiser for the current excavation of Richard III’s body in Leicester.

A: Philippa Langley [=A]

Source: King Richard Armitage Support Network, “URGENT Richard III Archaeology Appeal,”July 12, 2012: ” Philippa Langley, who inaugurated the project, has been working closely with a prominent TV production company and has garnered considerable interest from a major UK TV channel. The possibility of such a programme would ensure the opportunity to tell King Richard’s real story on screen for the very first time. Philippa Langley is a screenwriter and founder, in 1999, of the Scottish Branch of the Richard III Society.”

17. [Four words, first word, seventh letter] Who owns this picture of Richard III?

A: Society of Antiquaries, London [=Y]

Source: English wikipedia, s.v. “Richard III.”

2. [Two words, first word, first letter]: One of the two most important female roles to be cast in any depiction of Richard III’s life, two recent informal polls of Armitage fans were inconclusive about who should play her in a new film adaptation.

A: Anne Neville [=A]

Source: Fan polls were taken here and here. Neither provided a strong answer among the options offered.

16. [One word, first letter]: Richard Armitage’s favorite part of playing any role, but especially a character perceived as a villain.

A: contradictions [=C]

Source: Vulpes Libres, “In Conversation with Richard Armitage,” July 8, 2009: “I always look for good within bad and vice versa. That’s what appeals to me about Richard III. The villain, the hunchback, child murdering, usurping monster – I want to try and find the man who loved Anne Neville, passionately, from childhood until death, who was inconsolable at the loss of his only son and who put in place the ‘even handed’ judicial system, which we enjoy today; and then have him ‘slaughter’ the Princes in the Tower. It’s all about contradictions.”

Source: Alice Wyllie, “So bad, he’s good,” The Scotsman magazine, July 23, 2011, archived at Richard Armitage Online: “My ‘thing’ that I’ve always really enjoyed doing is when you do get cast as the hero you look for all the flaws, for the dark side to the hero. And then with the bad guy you look for the good side of the bad guy.”

9. [Two words, second word, fifth letter]: Historian who believes research into the legitimacy of Edward IV’s marriage is key to understanding the political position and legitimacy of Richard III.

A: John Ashdown-Hill [=O]

Source: King Richard Armitage Support Network, “Dr. John Ashdown-Hill talks about his research regarding King Richard III,” August 23, 2011: “To my mind the first key area to be investigated is Edward IV’s marriage – because Richard III’s right to the throne depends upon the claim that Edward IV was married to Eleanor Talbot, not Elizabeth Woodville.”

13. [Two words, first word, fourth letter]: Renaissance humanist known for smearing Richard III’s reputation.

A: Thomas More [=M].

Source: Richard III Society, American Branch, “Richard III’s historians.” Of the authors of “adverse views” noted there, the two noted as humanists are Thomas More and Polydore Vergil. (You did have to choose between to answer the question.)

3. [Three words, second word, seventh letter]: Theatre company where Richard Armitage received important early training.

A: Royal Shakespeare Company [=P]

Source: Richard Armitage Online biography.

18. .[Two words, second word, first letter]: What Richard Armitage wants to surpass with his Richard III project.

A: history lesson [=L]

Source: Vulpes Libres, “In Conversation with Richard Armitage,” July 8, 2009: “My challenge is to convince commercial producers to see beyond ‘history lesson’[.]”

14. [Two words, second word, second letter]: Richard Armitage’s most recent mention of his desire to continue to pursue the Richard III project came in an interview in which newspaper.

A: The Telegraph [=E]

Source: Here’s the interview. The King Richard Armitage Support Network collates Richard Armitage’s statements about this project in order of their appearance here. This is the most recent statement of which we are aware (as well as the most recent point at which a response to this question appeared in a published interview).

6. [One word, third letter]: Company that has produced Richard Armitage’s very successful audiobook recordings of Georgette Heyer novels.

A: Naxos [=X]

Source: Richard Armitage Online, audiobooks pages. All of Armitage’s recordings of Heyer works were produced by Naxos.

19. [One word, fourth letter]: Richard Armitage’s very earliest theatrical role (that we know of).

A: donkey [=K]

Source; “A star is born?” Women’s Weekly, December 13, 2010, archived at Richard Armitage Online:

8. [Three words, first word, second letter]: What the King Richard Armitage project asks supporters to do.

A: sign a petition [=I]

Source: King Richard Armitage Support Network.

15. [Two words, second word, seventh letter]: Historian who believes an understanding of fifteenth-century chivalric practice is central to an explanation of the successes and failures of Richard III.

A: David Hipshon [=N]

Source: amazon.com, David Hipshon, Richard III and the Death of Chivalry: “David Hipshon argues that the result might very well have been in his favor, had not his support for James Harrington in a long-running family feud with Thomas, Lord Stanley led to the latter betraying him. Bosworth was the last English battle in which the monarch relied on feudal retainers: at Stoke two years later professional mercenaries were the key to Henry VII’s victory. The author examines how the power politics of the conflict between the Stanleys and the Harringtons, and Richard’s motives in supporting the latter, led to the king’s death on the battlefield, the succession of the Tudors to the throne of England, the “death of chivalry,” and the end of the Middle Ages.” Read a more detailed explanation of Hipshon’s views at historyextra.com, the website of the BBC History Magazine: “Treachery: What Really Brought Down Richard III.”

12. [Two words, second word, fifth letter]: Place where legend says Richard scraped his spur on the way to battle, foreshadowing his demise.

A: Bow Bridge [=G]

Source: English wikipedia, s.v. “Richard III.”

~ by Servetus on September 6, 2012.