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Richard's body found?
Much of posterity has not been kind to Richard III. The Tudor propaganda machine, already active during his short reign was relentless in depicting him as a murderous and misshapen villain. This was to culminate in [[Shakespeare]]’s depiction of him, over 120 years after his death, as the evil hunchback. (Contemporary accounts describe him as slight and not particularly tall with one shoulder higher than the other, but there is no mention of deformity.) There can be no doubt of his ruthlessness, but taken within the context of the age, the executions of Earl Rivers and others he considered dangerous to his cause are not out of the ordinary. There is no evidence that he ordered the deaths of the [[Edward V|Princes in the Tower]], although it must be considered as a possibility. The earlier death of Henry VI, even if he can be blamed (and there is no evidence at all for his involvement) has a precedent in the usurpation and murder of [[Richard II]] in 1400, events that paved the way in the minds of men for subsequent villainy.
Much of posterity has not been kind to Richard III. The Tudor propaganda machine, already active during his short reign was relentless in depicting him as a murderous and misshapen villain. This was to culminate in [[Shakespeare]]’s depiction of him, over 120 years after his death, as the evil hunchback. (Contemporary accounts describe him as slight and not particularly tall with one shoulder higher than the other, but there is no mention of deformity.) There can be no doubt of his ruthlessness, but taken within the context of the age, the executions of Earl Rivers and others he considered dangerous to his cause are not out of the ordinary. There is no evidence that he ordered the deaths of the [[Edward V|Princes in the Tower]], although it must be considered as a possibility. The earlier death of Henry VI, even if he can be blamed (and there is no evidence at all for his involvement) has a precedent in the usurpation and murder of [[Richard II]] in 1400, events that paved the way in the minds of men for subsequent villainy.
==Breaking news==
After the Battle of Bosworth Field, Richard’s body was brought to Grey Friars Abbey in [[Leicester]] and buried in an unobtrusive tomb beneath an important part of the church. During [[Henry VIII]]’s “Dissolution of the Monasteries”, the abbey was destroyed and the site levelled. In due course it became one of the ubiquities of the 20th/21st centuries - a parking lot.
During the summer of 2012 a team of archaeologists from the University of Leicester began digging up the carpark. In the second week of September they found the body of a man meeting all the requirements for identification as Richard – age, battle wounds, size, curvature of the spine, location within the church according to contemporary records.
Certainty will come with the [[DNA]] results in about 12 weeks.
[[Category: English History]]
[[Category: English History]]