A murderous hunchback who Shakespeare had declare: “I am determined to prove a villain”, Richard III has been widely portrayed as evil and has fascinated historians and literary students since his death in 1485.
A murderous hunchback who Shakespeare had declare: “I am determined to prove a villain”, Richard III has been widely portrayed as evil and has fascinated historians and literary students since his death in 1485.
But who was the real king, the man behind the caricature?
If nothing else, it has been scientifically confirmed that he was deformed.
As part of SciFest Africa, on Sunday 16 March, Professor Sarah Hainsworth gave a lecture on the forensic work that led to the discovery of the actual skeletal remains of the dead king.
Olive Schreiner Hall, the lecture venue, was packed and the audience consisted of two school groups as well as a large number of ordinary Grahamstown residents.
Professor Hainsworth was part of the team responsible for locating and identifying the remains found in the Social Services Parking Lot in Leicester, UK.
Together with her colleagues, who consisted of anthropologists, genealogists and osteologists, she tracked down and uncovered the ancient bones.
“It just shows the diversity of sciences that come together to find a 500-year-old king,” she said.
The skeleton was found on the site of what used to be Grey Friars church.
The arms were crossed over the pelvic region, which was highly unusual for the period and suggested that his arms were bound before he was buried.
The spine was very visibly curved, forming a C-shaped arch just below the line of the shoulders.
By examining the vertebra, the scientists determined that the man had suffered from Idiopathic Adolescent Onset Scoliosis.
“What idiopathic means is we don’t know what the source of it was. But it sounds a lot better than ‘dunno’.”
What Hainsworth and her peers did know was that the condition developed during adolescence and would certainly have had a very noticeable effect on the appearance of the sufferer.
They could also observe that the skeleton belonged to someone who had died a very violent death.
As concurs with historical accounts of Richard III’s death, the forensic anthropologists believe that the man they found was killed by two blows to the back of the head.
Richard III died in battle on 21 August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth.
Judging by the nature of the damage to the skull, it is believed that he was killed with a short sword or long dagger which penetrated his brain.
He was also stabbed in the pelvis after death, which is believed to have been for the purpose of insulting him.
His body was then transported back to Leicester, where he was interned in the church.
Using carbon dating, the team of scientists determined that the skeleton belonged to the correct historical period.
This placed the skeleton at the right place and the right time to potentially be the correct body.
But it was not enough to comprehensively conclude they were dealing with Richard III.
The team had to use Mitochondrial DNA from the bones and track down the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Richard III’s mother, Cecily Neville.
This man was Michael Ibsen, a Canadian very surprised to find he was related to antiquated British royalty.
Amazingly, his Mitochondrial DNA was an exact match for Richard’s.
This served to confirm that the body truly was that of the dead king.
Richard III was the only member of the British monarchy whose final resting place had been unknown. With this discovery, the mystery was finally laid to rest.
