How King Richard III died

The continuing story of the analysis of King Richard III's skeleton has now produced this report on the BBC website today about how he appears to have died at the battle of Bosworth in 1485. It can be read at Richard III death injuries revealed.

A newly perceived problem for the fifteenth century soldier

This evening I met a friend on his way to travel to Tewkesbury for the annual renactment of the battle fought on May 4th 1471. I have attended this several times in the past and it is good fun - especially the medieval fair with seemingly everything you could want to be properly fifteenth century - my favourite was an armourer's stall entitled "Dressed to Kill" 

My friend, who is fair skinned, had realised he was without sun cream. I opined that this was a significant new insight into fifteenth century warfare that I for one had not thought of before. Could one imagine King Edward IV turning that May morning Richard Duke of Gloucester to complain he had no sunscreen, and so the battle was off, or, on the Lancastrian side, Queen Margaret refusing to allow her son Edward Prince of Wales to go out without his sunfilter? Moving on to 1485, can one imagine King Richard III on August 22rd shouting "Sunscreen! Sunscreen! My kingdom for some sunscreen!"? 

Maybe not. 

The King under the car park

Last week I was posting about the King over the water, this week it is the King under the car park.

Yesterday came the announcement of the results of the DNA testing on the skeleton found on the site of the Leicester Greyfrioars and generally assumed to be those of King Richard III which confirmed that the remains are indeed those of the King. There are reports from the BBC here and from the Daily Telegraph here.

 

Then and now - King Richard III

Image: BBC

 

Today there is much more, including this piece, again from the BBC, about the facial reconstruction of the skull which can be read here. This has a whole series of links to other pieces about the King's death and the excavations which revealed his remains.

There is a detailed and very well illustrated account of the remains and of the facial reconstruction on the Daily Mail website which can be seen here.There is also another article, again from the Daily Telegraph, with links to others on the topic, which can be read here.

So have they found King Richard III?

It looks possible, indeed probable, that the excavations in Leicester on the site of the Greyfriars which I mentioned some weeks ago may indeed have yielded what the archaeologists hoped for - the physical remains of King Richard III.

In the middle of the choir in which he was buried they have found the skeleton of a man who had suffered a serious head injury, had an arrow in his spine and displays scoliosis - curvature of the spine - which have caused the right shoulder to be higher than the left. All of that fits with what we know about King Richard's death and physical appearance. Modern archaeological science may be able to his identity and tell us much more about his medical history and about his actual appearance.

The latest BBC report on the archaeological findings can be read here.There are more details here in the Daily Telegraph report which can be read here.  In the report in the Times the story is told that the King's white horse became stuck in a marsh and that the monarch was killed by a blow delivered by a Welshman, Wyllyam Gardynyr, with a pole axe.

There is talk of reburying the remains, after DNA testing, in Leicester Cathedral, in whose parish the site of the Greyfriars lies. I wonder if such a reburial will be accompanied by rites the King would have been familiar with - or in communion with. As Desmond Seward pointed out in his book on him he was a King notable for establishing requiems for those in whose deaths he might well be regarded as having participated or benefited thereby. The unkown sailor from the Mary Rose was buried with a Sarum Rite requiem as would have been offered in 1545. Will King Richard III in death, assuming that the bones are indeed his, receive a rite he would have known in life?

Looking for King Richard III

Wednesday was the anniversary of the battle of Bosworth in 1485 and today there are these internet reports of an attempt by archaeologists to locate the grave or remains of King Richard III on the site of the Greyfriars church in Leicester where he was buried, and which can be read here  and here.