Richard III - No hunchback

The archaeologists of Leicester University have now revealed some more details about their finds beneath the Leicester car park.  The remains they have uncovered are of a man who has clearly died in battle. He has an arrow in his back and a severe head wound.  Given the position of the burial in prime position in front of the altar of the friary church and the documentary evidence suggesting this is the burial site of Richard III, they are pretty confident that they have found the grave of the king who died in battle at Bosworth Field, a short distance from Leicester, although they are awaiting the result of confirmation via tests on DNA of one of his maternal ancestors. 

From my point of view an interesting detail is that the skeleton indicates that the man suffered from advanced scoliosis, a severe curvature of the spine which would have made one shoulder appear higher than the other, which contemporary accounts indicate was a feature of Richard III, but he does not have a hunchback.  My identification of Richard with the portrait of St Ivo must therefore be wrong - one cannot argue with archaeology - and my portrait of the King in Master Merryman is therefore out on this one detail (not significant for the plot it must be said). However I am not too downcast because I think I am right in other respects.

 

Some people now think it's a bit infradig for an English King, the last of the Plantagenets, to be buried underneath a car park, although it wasn't a car park at the time.  It is interesting to note that his body was not flung in a ditch, or the river, as previously claimed, but decently if quietly interred in a nearby friary, a respectful and prudent move on the part of Henry VII since he wished to marry his niece who might have taken umbrage at the desecration of her uncle's body.  The plan is to re-inter the remains in Leicester Cathedral although since Richard was a passionate Yorkshireman hailing from Middleham perhaps he would prefer one of the beautiful Yorkshire cathedrals like York or Ripon but I dare say Leicester, which does not have a great many claims to fame, would like to hang on to him as a tourist attraction.