Richard III’S last stand
The discovery of the king’s skeleton in 2012 shed new light on his brutal final moments at the Battle of Bosworth
A detailed look at the final moments of the last Yorkist king at the Battle of Bosworth
On 22 August 1485 the course of English history changed forever at the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire. The battlefield death of Richard III was the end of many things: he was the last Yorkist and Plantagenet king and the final English monarch to be killed in battle. Although Stoke Field was the last major battle of the Wars of the Roses, Bosworth was the decisive blow that permanently crippled the Yorkist cause and catapulted the Tudors to power under the victorious Henry VII.
“A bold and most valiant prince”
Richard’s maligned and deeply controversial reputation has its roots in subsequent Tudor propaganda, but even hostile historians could not deny his bravery at Bosworth. By the time of his death, Richard had lost his horse and helmet and fought alone. He had been offered a horse to escape, but a Spanish account recorded that he said, “God forbid that I retreat one step. I will either win the battle as a king – or die as one.”
Polydore Vergil, an Italian historian at Henry VII’S court, also confirmed Richard’s defiance, “that he would either make an end of war or of life” for “such was the great fierceness and force of his mind”. Vergil then stated that Richard fought and died in the “thickest press of his enemies”, while the contemporary historian John Rous said, “[Richard] bore himself as a gallant knight and acted with distinction as his own champion until his last breath.”
The Croyland Chronicle, which was otherwise implacably opposed to Richard, unambiguously praised his last moments, “For in the thick of the fight, and not in an act of flight, King Richard fell in the field, struck by many mortal wounds – as a bold and most valiant prince.”
The newly crowned Henry VII ordered Richard’s body to be stripped and flung naked over a horse before it was paraded to Leicester. What happened to his body afterwards became an unsolved mystery until a remarkable discovery shed more light on how Richard was killed.
An archaeological miracle
In 2012 an archaeological excavation uncovered a skeleton in Leicester underneath a car park where the lost Greyfriars Church once stood. In one of the most extraordinary historical discoveries of modern times, DNA tests confirmed that the skeletal remains belonged to none other than Richard III himself.
The king had been unceremoniously buried in a hastily dug grave that was too short, with no evidence of a coffin, shroud or clothes, which fitted historical accounts. It was discovered that Richard stood at 1.74 metres (five feet eight inches) tall and, most astonishingly, suffered from severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine). This would have lifted his right shoulder higher than his left and partially confirmed the Shakespearean popular view that Richard was hunchbacked. Nonetheless, the king’s spinal condition would not necessarily have been too physically noticeable or hindered his movement.
Richard’s slight disability certainly did not hinder his ability to vigorously fight in armour, and the accounts of his isolated last stand were seemingly confirmed by the injuries on his skeleton. At least 11 injuries were identified, mostly located on his skull, although there were others on his ribs and pelvis.
The wounds on the skull were created by sharp, bladed weapons including a dagger and sword. The largest fatal wound was a hole underneath the back of the skull. Although the weapon responsible could not be proved, it was consistent with a halberd, which was a combined spear and battleaxe. Another mortal injury was a wound on the left base of the skull where a bladed weapon cut through the bone, penetrating 10.5 centimetres (4.1 inches) in.
These head wounds matched contemporary accounts, which agreed that Richard was killed by one or multiple blows to the head. Some claimed that his killers were Welsh infantrymen armed with halberds, and the evidence suggests that he was killed by more than one person in a series of violent attacks. The fact that the vast majority of his injuries were on his skull indicates that Richard lost his helmet at some point during the battle or had it forcibly removed. He may have been struck elsewhere on his body, but it appeared that he was still wearing body armour at the time of his death.
One interesting aspect of his injuries was that some of them would have been difficult to inflict if Richard were wearing his armour. One wound was a stab through the buttocks, which may have been a deliberate assault on his body after he was killed. If Richard had been stripped and paraded on horseback after his death it would have been easy for one of Henry VII’S soldiers to inflict a final, humiliating blow on the dead king.
A desperate last stand
Richard III’S skeleton revealed new clues about the king’s last moments and proved what a horrific death he suffered. During the closing stages of the battle it appears that the defeated Richard found himself surrounded by enemies and received two wounds to the chin, where his helmet straps were presumably cut open and the headgear thrown away. Richard fought on but his head was now exposed to repeated blows. A dagger may have punctured his head and brought him to his knees before a fatal blow from a halberd cut through his skull. With Richard on the ground, a sword was then thrust through his head. It was an extremely violent end for the last Plantagenet king and the official termination of medieval England.
“ACCOUNTS OF HIS ISOLATED LAST STAND WERE SEEMINGLY CONFIRMED BY THE INJURIES ON HIS SKELETON”