XPost: soc.history.war.misc
On 3/24/23 10:36, a425couple wrote:
Richard III revisited, ‘The Lost King’ movie
A modern lady goes on a quest and gets visited.
from
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-study-finds-that-king-richard-iii-was-buried-in-a-hurry-79909330/
New Study Finds That King Richard III Was Buried in a Hurry
The British king’s remains, discovered in a parking lot, were dropped in
an awkward position in a grave that wasn’t dug large enough
Joseph Stromberg
May 23, 2013
New archaeological analysis shows that King Richard’s remains were
buried in an awkward position, leaning against the wall of a grave that wasn’t dug large enough.
Image via University of Leicester
Last September, a team of archaeologists in the UK made a remarkable
find: under a city council parking lot in Leicester, they found the
remains of King Richard III. The king ruled England for just two years
(from 1483 until 1485) before his violent war-time death.
In February, after comparing DNA taken from the skeleton to surviving descendants of the king and testing its age, the group officially
confirmed the identity of the body. Since then, forensic analysis
indicated that the king was killed by traumatic sword blows to the head—perhaps with enough force to drive his crown into his skull.
Now, the first academic paper to be published on the discovery provides
more unnerving details on the circumstances of Richard III’s death. In a study to be published tomorrow in the journal Antiquity, the University
of Leicester team writes that the king’s body looks like it was buried
in a hurry, crammed into a hastily-prepared grave that was too small for
him. Further, he was left in a strange, slightly folded position,
perhaps even with its hands tied together.
Instead of a carefully-dug grave with straight walls, as was customary
during the era, Richard III’s has sloping walls, with a larger size at
the surface than at the bottom, as the team determined by comparing the
layered patterns in the dirt abutting the grave with the unordered soil
filling it and surrounding the king’s remains.
What’s more, the king’s head was left leaning against one corner of the grave, indicating that a gravedigger stood in the hole to receive his
body and didn’t bother rearranging him at the center after putting him
down on the ground, and there’s no evidence that a coffin or even a
death shroud was used. Given the historical context of Richard III’s
death, none of this is a huge surprise, although the apparent lack of
care surrounding the burial of this king might exceed even what
historians had previously expected.
A facial reconstruction of King Richard III based on his skull and other forensic details. Image via Leicester Arts & Museums
Richard III was killed at age 32 during the Battle of Bosworth Field,
close to the end of the infamously violent War of the Roses period—a
30-plus year battle for power between supporters of competing branches
of the royal family for control of the throne. After he was defeated and
killed in battle by the forces of rival Henry Tudor (who would become
King Henry VII), the new king reportedly kept the burial location
intentionally secret—he feared it would otherwise become a rallying
location for his enemies—and knowledge of Richard III’s grave was lost
over time.
Now we know that Richard III’s body was brought to the nearby city of Leicester, passed along to Franciscan friars and buried at what was then
Grey Friars church “without any pomp or solemn funeral,” according to
the contemporary historian Polydore Vergil. (Legend holds that his body
was stripped naked, transported on the back of a horse and mocked by
passers-by during the entire journey.) Eventually, the church was
dismantled, and the site was paved over.
Apart from analyzing the unusual characteristics of the king’s grave,
the new paper also provides the first peer-reviewed forensic details
about his remains. As the archaeologists had previously mentioned in
public statements, the body matches the physical details of Richard III
as described in historical sources: a curved spine, due to childhood
scoliosis, and slim features. In addition to the fierce blows to his
head, there were a total of 10 wounds discovered on his body, including
stabs in his buttocks and back that the researchers believe were
probably made after he’d already been killed, because of their location
and the fact that they couldn’t have been made while he was still
wearing armor.
So, did Richard III die in violent humiliation? The new findings seem to support this idea. At the very least, he was buried in a manner that
certainly didn’t befit a king. But now, a number of groups and
localities are suddenly interested in giving him a proper burial. The
cities of Leicester and York are dueling over the right to preserve his
remains and attract the tourists that will flock to see the king who was
buried in a parking lot. We can only hope this new battle doesn’t last
for another 30 years.
Joseph Stromberg | | READ MORE
Joseph Stromberg was previously a digital reporter for Smithsonian.
BRITISH HISTORY
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