The only English monarch without a marked grave, his remains were found beneath a council car park in Leicester two years.

The remains of the Catholic king were identified using DNA analysis and other medical assessments.

The king, who reigned from 1483, was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, in the final battle of the War of the Roses.

Richard had been hastily buried in the grounds of a Franciscan friary, which was subsequently dissolved in Henry VIII's reign.

The reinterment service will take place at Leicester Cathedral on March 26, following a week of events in Leicestershire to honour Richard.

It will be invite-only, but will be broadcast live on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.

The remains will be transferred into a lead-lined coffin at Leicester University on March 22 and will travel by hearse to Bosworth for a day of events marking the king's final movements.

The journey will see the hearse travel through villages that were significant to the monarch's final days, ahead of a service in Bosworth.

The coffin will then return to Leicester Cathedral in the early evening where a service of reception will be attended by guests invited by David Monteith, the Dean of Leicester.

The monarch's remains will then lie in repose, his coffin covered with a commissioned pall, for three days to allow for members of the public to pay their respects.

The reinterment comes after a battle between the Plantagenet Alliance - set up by descendants of Richard's family who wanted him to be reinterred in York Minster as he was known as Richard of York - and Leicester organisations.

A UK court ruled earlier this year that Richard should be reinterred in Leicester - the city where he lost his life.

There had also been some commentators who argued Richard III should be given a Catholic funeral, as he was a Catholic and the Church of England in its present form did not exist at the time of his death.

Sources

• Sydney Morning Herald
• The Express
• Breitbart
• Image: BBC

The possibility that a further heir to the British throne were raised a Catholic, means there is an "obvious difficulty" for that person to also be a head of the Anglican Church.

Currently, the Queen joins "in communion" with the Church of England, is the Supreme Governor of the Church and promotes the Anglican Church in Britain.

"The scenario does beg the question of whether it remains appropriate for the monarch to be required to be in communion with the Church of England," the committee said.

Suggesting that Parliament may with to reconsider the current relationship between the monarch and the Church of England, the committee said, "The most obvious difficulty in having a Catholic monarch - beyond the purely statutory obstacles - is the Crown's role as supreme governor of the Church of England."

Graham Allen, chairman of the committee, said the report was "leaving the door open for the Government if they want more change".

He added: "There could be more in this if the Government were prepared to ask us to go and delve into it a bit more."

A spokesman for the Church of England said: "You can't be Supreme Governor unless you are in communion with the Church of England.

"The sovereign should join in communion with the Church of England and it is integrally bound up with there continuing to be an established church, which is something that the Government has confirmed its commitment to."

Source

• The Telegraph
• Image: National Post