The king's remains will be taken by a cortege in a lead-lined oak coffin through the streets of Leicester at the start of a number of events ahead of his re-burial on Thursday.
Rt Rev Tim Stevens, Bishop of Leicester, said today's events would be "intimate, thoughtful, and an emotional moment".
"It happens at dusk as the sun sets and as the thoughts of people always turns to the night and to the possibility of death," the bishop said.
"We're looking forward to the opportunity to remind people of the extraordinary moment in English history the death of Richard III marks.
"It was a change of dynasty, an end of a period of violent civil war, the beginning of the period in which Shakespeare was to write his great tragedies, including Richard III, and a different way of governing the country.
"That's an important point for all of us, whether we happen to be Christian observers or not."
The king's grave site was discovered in 2012 at a Leicester City Council car park.
The Dean of Leicester Cathedral, the Very Rev David Monteith, said: "There are no people immediately affected by this death in the way a close family member dying would have an impact upon you.
"That's not to say there isn't sadness about it and certainly for some a great sense of injustice.
"There's a sense of trying to put some things right from the past.
"But I'm aware you can't undo history, you have to live with history as it is and try to understand it.
"There's an opportunity for us to make history and I hope that becomes vivid and clear."