WHAT WE LEARNED ABOUT RICHARD III

Five facts the excavation revealed about the medieval king

1 The king had a curved spine

Shakespeare gave us a “deformed” Richard III “not shaped for sportive tricks”, with a hunched back, a withered arm and a limp. Archaeology gave us instead a curved spine: a rare form of scoliosis that developed in Richard’s adolescence, resulting in a squat torso and uneven shoulders. He had no other skeletal conditions, however, and could have been as physically active as others around him, though he was not particularly strong. Osteologist Jo Appleby (below) briefly wondered whether the skeleton was female before concluding that it was that of a man with a delicate frame. 2 He enjoyed a life of luxury

Studies of the remains showed that Richard ate well, consuming a high-protein diet including plenty of seafood. Towards the end of his life he ate more luxury items such as game birds, freshwater fish and, possibly, wine. Shortly before his death, he was infected with roundworms.

He was born in the east Midlands, moving west by the age of seven or eight. Such scientific confirmation of historical details is extremely helpful; for archaeologists, these were significant results from a battery of studies more usually applied to prehistoric remains with no alternative historical evidence to test them against.

3 Richard suffered a violent death

The king’s bones exhibit signs of at least 11 wounds, all received around the time of his death on or near Bosworth Field. A dagger was driven down into the top of his skull, and three slivers were shaved off the side by what was probably a single sword, but he was finished off by two blows at the back of his head just above his neck. A halberd (a combined axe and pike on a long pole) or heavy sword almost entirely removed the bottom of his skull on the right side, and a blade penetrated 10.5cm into his brain before the skull’s inner wall stopped it short. Either blow would have caused almost instant death.

4 His burial was simple but respectful

The excavation cleared up much confusion about Richard III’s burial, arguably influencing how we might view the politics of the occasion. The grave was simple and probably hastily dug, being too short for the body. There was no shroud, coffin or evidence for a grand tomb, and his hands may have been tied. Though lacking public ceremony – a contemporary wrote that there was no “pompe or solemne funeral” – interment was not disrespectful. That much is proved by the location of the burial: a friary church’s choir, which was both inaccessible to the public and appropriate for a prestigious figure. Despite being forgotten, the grave was never disturbed.

5 Portraits of Richard were largely accurate

Modern concern with improving the king’s image dates from Josephine Tey’s 1951 novel The Daughter of Time. In it a policeman, inspired by a portrait of the king, exposes as myth the long-dead monarch’s alleged crimes and crippled appearance. More than 20 portraits of Richard survive today, most showing a raised right shoulder. X-ray images of two such paintings suggested they had been altered later to depict uneven shoulders, bolstering the view that Tudor historians invented Richard’s deformities. The skeleton, however, has a raised shoulder, and facial reconstruction based on the skull closely matches the portraits. The paintings show a true likeness – a rare confirmation of historic representation.