Even though King Richard III did not deserve his reputation, battles waged in his name have continued for hundreds of years. On the eve of the premiere of a film about the amazing discovery of his remains under a car park, the great "lost king" of England is once again in the spotlight.
The group of expert archaeologists who retrieved his bones from the hidden ruins of the Greyfriars church 10 years ago last week are fighting to stop their side of the story being buried. They fear that The Lost King will reduce their role in the find.
Professor Turi King spent hours in the laboratory and provided conclusive evidence for his studies.
The Canadian-British geneticist said he had to start from scratch on both historic work and modern-day samples.
The filmmakers didn't check with us. I showed their location scout around and offered to explain, but they didn't listen.
The defenders of Richard III have argued since his death that he was never a scheming malcontent. He wasn't the killer of the princes in the tower.
Historians disagreed over the fate of his corpse, which was either thrown into the River Soar or hastily interred after being humiliated in a public parade. When his skeleton was found, there was a fight over where he should be buried.
The Toronto film festival will host the premiere of The Lost King next month. Steve Coogan plays the husband of Philippa Langley, the woman behind the campaign to find Richard Plantagenet.
Langley is a member of the Richard III Society and the woman who persuaded the local council to start the dig.
Langley told the film-makers an incomplete version of the story because she thought she was cut out.
King said Langley was inspiring but did not have the experience to lead them. She said that everyone brought something to the table. Philippa was kept involved all the time. Why wouldn't we? We moved backwards.
Richard Taylor said this weekend that he thinks the film doesn't pay due respect to the late David Baldwin, who was one of the first academics to suggest that the car park could be a possible burial site.
Taylor told the world that Richard III had been found at a press conference in February of 2013) and he is upset that the film proclaims itself to be the true story.
He said that it would not have been possible without the university team. Tension makes a good story but it doesn't mean it's true. If you want to portray real people, involve them. I think it's pretty reckless.
The academic bureaucracy that Langley felt stood in her way is depicted in the film by Lee Ingleby. He made fun of her intuition about where Richard was.
I was surprised to be the bad guy. He said that there was dialogue that didn't happen like that. She was included and given her number to the press.
Langley told the Guardian last week that she felt marginalized by the academics and the archaeologists on the dig. I was not safe. I am not a physician. I'm not a teacher. In the end I found my voice.
Langley says she funded a lot of the early work. King claims that the university made the first major payment and that the council joined in.
Mathew Morris, the excavation director portrayed in the film by Alasdair Hankinson, is worried about how the film is shown. If it doesn't show our relationship with her, it's unfair.
The Lost King will open in British cinemas on October 7th and in Australian cinemas on December 26th.
The academics from the university have been invited to attend the screening.
Even though no one has yet seen the film, the film producers are fascinated to know of the interest of so many of those associated with the story. Without the single minded and steadfast determination of Philippa Langley, the remains of King Richard III would not have been found.
An exhibition about the film will open next week. The lost king is Richard III.
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