YORK and Leicester are today marking the reburial of Richard III, two years after his remains were discovered buried under a council car park.

As the Plantagenet king is re-interned in Leicester cathedral, commemorations in York are set to begin with a a choral evensong at the Minster followed by a procession across the city centre.

After the service, which starts at 5.15pm, a procession from the Minster will be led by the civic party and senior clergy across the piazza, along Stonegate to St Helen's Square and the Mansion House steps, where the Lord Mayor of York, Cllr Ian Gillies, will address the procession and those expected to line the route and pay their respects.

Later, St Wilfrid's Church will hold a requiem mass that would have been familiar to the medieval king.

Starting at 7pm the mass will be led by Rt Rev Terence Drainey the Bishop of Middlesbrough.

In Leicester, a special service will be led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who will preside over the service of re-interment.

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch will read a poem written for the occasion by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The actor, who is himself a distant relative of the king, is to play him in the BBC series The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses.

The Queen is expected to send a message for the service which will be attended by the Countess of Wessex, while living relatives of Richard III will also be there to cover Richard's coffin, made by another distant relative Michael Ibsen, with a pall designed and made for the occasion.

The lead lined coffin will then be laid to rest in a tomb made of Swaledale stone, and an anthem by York composer Dr Philip Moore will be played during the service.

Richard's coffin has been in Leicester cathedral since Sunday, when left the university, where academics and scientists studied the bones, and it was driven in a cortege procession on a 22 mile journey around the county.

Starting at Fenn Lane Farm, close to the Bosworth battlefield where the king was killed, the procession ended in Leicester cathedral for an evening service.

More than 35,000 people are said to have lined the streets of Leicester and Leicestershire to witness the final journey of King Richard III.