It has emerged today that the digging up of a Leicester car park has indeed been fruitful, a corpse (believed to be belonging to Richard III) has been found after extensive (and expensive) digging work begun a few months ago.
Archaeologists believe that the bones belong to Richard III for two main reasons. Firstly, the corpse was found in the place where the last King to die in battle was said to have been shot with an arrow and secondly (and perhaps most conclusively) the corpse was found with an arrow implanted into its back.
But perhaps most alarmingly and excitingly, there may be further historical knowledge to reap from this corpse. In one of Shakespeare’s plays, Richard III is portrayed as a hunchback. Historians regard this as a factual inaccuracy that has been taken from Shakespeare’s plays. Here’s the catch – when the corpse was uncovered, it exhibited signs of scoliosis, more commonly known as severe curvature of the spine.
So now, more than 500 years after the King’s death, we finally have closure over where he lies. The body is due to be buried in Leicester over the next few days in a special cathedral ceremony.
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