Science

New Details on the Unroyal End of Richard III, 'King in the Car Park'

For two short years he was King of England, one of the most powerful men in the world. Then he was killed, desecrated, and dumped in a hastily dug grave, the location of which would be forgotten and rediscovered, centuries later, under a parking lot. So ends the tale of Richard III, which over the last several months has played out like a Game of Thrones episode combined with CSI and told by archaeologists.
  • An Ignoble End
  • Lost to History
  • Cause of Death
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For two short years he was King of England, one of the most powerful men in the world. Then he was killed, desecrated, and dumped in a hastily dug grave, the location of which would be forgotten and rediscovered, centuries later, under a parking lot. So ends the tale of Richard III, which over the last several months has played out like an episode of Game of Thrones combined with CSI and told by archaeologists. In February, researchers announced a DNA match between Richard III's living descendants and the skeleton believed to be his. Now a new article in the journal Antiquity describes the king's demise in gruesome, glorious detail. On the following pages, Wired looks at the king's final resting place. Above:

An Ignoble End

Richard III died in 1485 in the battle of Bosworth, the last clash of the War of the Roses, a decades-long struggle for England's throne between the royal houses of Lancaster and York. Richard III was the last Yorkist king, and his succession by Henry Tudor marked the end of the Middle Ages. A century of peace would follow, but it started on a bloodthirsty note. Richard III's body was reportedly stripped naked, despoiled and publicly displayed for several days before its burial at the Greyfriars monastery in Leicester.

All images courtesy of the University of Leicester.

Citation: "‘The king in the car park’: new light on the death and burial of Richard III in the Grey Friars church, Leicester, in 1485." By Richard Buckley, Mathew Morris, Jo Appleby, Turi King, Deirdre O'Sullivan and Lin Foxhall. Antiquity, Vol. 87 No. 336, June 2013.