Feature: 500 years on, England's King Richard III's reburial watched by millions

The last English king to die in battle was finally laid to rest Thursday in a ceremony laced with pomp.

Millions of people around the world tuned into what has been described as the most unusual funeral ceremony ever witnessed, the reburial of a monarch slaughtered in battle more than 500 years ago.

The service at Leicester Cathedral is a far cry from the day in 1485 when the body of the 32-year-old king was carried naked on horseback into Leicester after he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field.

His death bought to an end the 50-year-long War of the Roses when the two most powerful dynasties in England, the Houses of Lancaster and York, clashed in a power struggle.

Queen Elizabeth II did not attend the cathedral service, but she did send a message to the city. She was represented by three members of the royal household, Princess Sophie the Countess of Wessex and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

This week, more than 20,000 people from around the world queued for hours to file past the king's coffin, made of English oak, in the cathedral.

The king's body was discovered three years ago beneath a car park in Leicester. That followed intensive detective work by the Richard III Society, with society members being among the main guests Thursday.

Also among the guests were two descendants of the king, both commoners sharing the same DNA as Richard III. Descendants of soldiers from both sides of the fateful battle that ended in the death of the king also attended, as a signal of reconciliation.

Some 200 members of the public attended from around the world whose names were drawn from thousands applying for a seat at the service.

The service was conducted by the head of the Church of England, Archbishop Justin Welby, assisted by religious representatives from the Roman Catholic Church.

In a eulogy, Prof. Gordon Campbell of the University of Leicester told the congregation how Richard's body had been brought in ignominy into Leicester after his death and given a simple and rushed, burial by religious friars.

He said Richard had been harshly judged in the 15th century, including by William Shakespeare whose play, Richard III, is one of the playwright's best known works.

On Thursday, British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, a distant relative of the king, read a poem specially written by the royal family's poet laureate Caroline Duffy. Cumberbatch plays the part of Richard III in a soon-to-be-aired television series.

Inside the coffin of the Catholic king was a rosary, a set of beads important to Catholics, and soil gathered from his birthplace in northern England as well as from the battle field where he died.

At the end of the service, the king's body was lowered into a tomb in the most religious part of the cathedral where it will remain for all time.

The final chapter in the king's life included a lengthy battle that ended in the highest law court in England over where the king should be buried. Richard had made his own arrangements for his final resting place to be in York, but judges ruled Leicester would be the resting place as it was the closest to where he fell.

The burial of the king in Leicester is expected to become one of the city's main tourist attractions, as people follow the incredible journey of the medieval English monarch. Endit