England's King Richard III found after 500 years

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• published: 04 Feb 2013
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A skeleton with a cleaved skull and a curved spine entombed under a car park is that of Richard III, archaeologists said on Monday, solving a 500-year-old mystery about the final resting place of the last English king to die in battle. Cast by Shakespeare as a deformed tyrant who murdered two princes in the Tower of London, Richard was slain in a bid to keep his crown at the 1485 Battle of Bosworth Field, immortalized by the words: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" In one of the most significant archaeological finds of recent English history, a team from the University of Leicester said evidence showed a skeleton found last year in excavations of a mediaeval friary under a city car park was that of Richard. "It's the academic conclusion ... that beyond reasonable doubt the individual exhumed at Grey Friars in September 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England," lead archaeologist Richard Buckley said. The skeleton had 10 wounds, eight of which were to the head clearly inflicted on the battlefield. A photograph showed a sword had cleaved away part of the rear of the skull. A metal fragment was found between Richard's vertebrae. After the battle, the victor, the future King Henry VII, had Richard's naked body exposed to the people of Leicester to show the battle was won, ending the bloody 30-year civil conflict known as The Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster. Other wounds were consistent with being caused after death when his body was taken from the battlefield to the nearby city of Leicester on the back of a horse. All of the wounds were from swords or daggers and it appeared his hands had been bound. Confirmation the bones were Richard's hinged on DNA taken from the skeleton matching that of Michael Ibsen, a Canadian-born furniture maker in London who genealogists said was the direct descendant of Richard's sister, Anne of York. Admirers of Richard hope that the discovery will fuel interest in the mediaeval monarch and dispel Shakespeare's physically impaired protagonist who said: "And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover ... I am determined to prove a villain." CROOKED BONES REVEAL KING'S SECRET The curvature of the spine, so ruthlessly mocked by Shakepeare and famously depicted by Laurence Olivier, was striking. After a detailed presentation focusing on the life, wounds and physique of Richard, Buckley, announced his conclusion to world media amidst cheers and applause. The project almost ended prematurely, but funds from countries ranging from the United States and Germany to Australiaa nd Belgium kept it afloat. Richard, who died aged 32 after just two years on the throne, will be interred at Leicester Cathedral, which traces its history to a Saxon bishop in AD 680, in line with guidelines about burying bodies close to where they are exhumed. The grey, concrete car park with its red-brick walls and a payment hut, under which the bones were found contrasts sharply with the grandeur of traditional sepulchers for English kings and queens at Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey. Asked whether the prime minister agrees with some Conservative MPs who said they believe the late king should receive a state burial, a spokesman for David Cameron said: "The decision on burial is a matter for Leicester University who hold the license to exhume the remains." The evidence ends the centuries-old mystery which has fascinated historians in Britain and around the world and which has provided material for a welter of legends, one of which maintained the body was dug up in the reign of Henry VIII, thrown in a river and the stone coffin used as a horse trough. One of the most famous English kings, Richard's grave, which was lost after Henry VIII ordered the monasteries dissolved, had been as elusive as his reputation. Richard was cast by Shakespeare as a monster but supporters say he was enlightened and unfairly maligned by a victorious House of Tudor. Read more : http://patrynworldlatestnews.blogspot.com/2013/02/englands-king-richard-iii-found-after.html Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews