THE tussle over the remains of Richard III may have ended in Leicester’s favour, but at least York – where many argued that the controversial king’s bones should have been laid to rest – will play a musical part in the re-interment ceremonies next March.

The city's long-established early music band, The York Waits, have accepted an invitation to perform a concert at the Bosworth Field battlefield where Richard was slain on August 22 1485.

The five-strong group will participate in an event at Bosworth on March 28, after several days of elaborate ceremonials in Leicester, where archaeologists unearthed the bones of the last English monarch to have been killed in battle. His body rediscovered under a carpark, his remains have since undergone new DNA tests that have revealed the long-lost king was blue eyed and most likely blond haired.

The York Waits, meanwhile, have been unearthing music fromRichard III’s turbulent times for their latest album, The White Rose And The Red, perfomed on a wide range of early wind and stringed instruments and sung by the soprano Deborah Catterall.

‘’York’s close links with Richard in his lifetime are well known and we have made two recordings of music from his time, so we're really pleased to be asked to take part in the events next March," says band member Tim Bayley.

"The late 1400s were very rich musically and we've become really absorbed in the repertoire of the period.‘’ Meanwhile, this month marks the tenth anniversary of The York Waits' winter album, Yule Riding, whose title is taken from an ancient York ritual at Christmas time. The recording – still available – features music for the festive season from throughout Europe, sung by Deborah and played on shawms, recorders, harps, bagpipes, violins, sackbut, hurdy gurdy and many other instruments.

These instruments will be heard once more in York this Christmas, when the Waits perform a midday concert of ancient music for the festive season on Saturday, December 20 in the atmospheric setting of St Denys Church, Walmgate, where they will be joined by York trombone specialist Anna Marshall.

She will switch to the old form of the instrument to add extra sonority to a programme of splendid Christmas music from renaissance Germany, England and Spain, complemented by ‘’street music’’, such as French and Dutch carols, performed on hurdy gurdy, bagpipes, renaissance guitar and a bizarre device known as the rommelpot.

This humble drum, which looks more like a cook stirring a bowl of cake mix when played, combines an earthenware jug with a stretched surface of a pig's or cow's bladder and a wooden stick.

Tickets for December 20 cost £12, concessions £10, students £5, on 01904 658338, at ncem.co.uk or from the National Centre for Early Music box office in Walmgate.