**UPDATE** Body of King Richard, III, Found

[gatagato]

Looks like Bono to me.

[icheerthebull]

Richard III: DNA confirms twisted bones belong to king

Skeleton found beneath Leicester car park confirmed as that of Richard III, as work begins on new tomb near excavation site

Not just the identity of the man in the car park with the twisted spine, but the appalling last moments and humiliating treatment of the naked body of Richard III in the hours after his death have been revealed at an extraordinary press conference at Leicester University.

There were cheers when Richard Buckley, lead archaeologist on the hunt for the king's body, finally announced that the university team was convinced "beyond reasonable doubt" that it had found the last Plantagenet king, bent by scoliosis of the spine, and twisted further to fit into a hastily dug hole in Grey Friars church, which was slightly too small to hold his body.

But by then it was clear the evidence was overwhelming, as the scientists who carried out the DNA tests, those who created the computer-imaging technology to peer on to and into the bones in raking detail, the genealogists who found a distant descendant with matching DNA, and the academics who scoured contemporary texts for accounts of the king's death and burial, outlined their findings.

"What a morning. What a story," said Philippa Langley, of the Richard III Society. She had been driving on the project for years, in the face of incredulity from many people, and finding funds from Ricardians all over the world when it looked as if the money would run out before the excavation had even begun.

Work has started on designing a new tomb in the cathedral, only 100 yards from the excavation site, and Canon David Monteith said a solemn multifaith ceremony would be held to lay him into his new grave there, probably next year. Leicester's museums service is working on plans for a new visitor centre in an old school building overlooking the site.

Richard died at Bosworth on 22 August 1485, the last English king to fall in battle, and the researchers revealed how for the first time. There was an audible intake of breath as a slide came up showing the base of his skull sliced off by one terrible blow, believed to be from a halberd, a fearsome medieval battle weapon with a razor-sharp iron axe blade weighing about two kilos, mounted on a wooden pole, which was swung at Richard at very close range. The blade probably penetrated several centimetres into his brain and, said the human bones expert Jo Appleby, he would have been unconscious at once and dead almost as soon.

The injury appears to confirm contemporary accounts that he died in close combat in the thick of the battle and unhorsed – as in the great despairing cry Shakespeare gives him: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

Another sword slash, which also went through the bone and into the brain, would also have proved fatal. But many of the other injuries were after death, suggesting a gruesome ritual on the battlefield and as the king's body was brought back to Leicester, as he was stripped, mocked and mutilated – which would have revealed for the first time to any but his closest intimates the twisted back, a condition from an unknown cause, which began to contort his body from the age of about 10. By the time he died he would have stood inches shorter than his true height of 5' 8", tall for a medieval man. The bones were those of an unusually slight, delicately built man – Appleby described him as having an "almost feminine" build – which also matches contemporary descriptions.

One terrible injury, a stab through the right buttock and into his pelvis, was certainly after death, and could not have happened when his lower body was protected by armour. It suggests the story that his naked corpse was brought back slung over the pommel of a horse, mocked and abused all the way, was true. Bob Savage, a medieval arms expert from the Royal Armouries who helped identify the wounds, said it was probably not a war weapon, but the sort of sharp knife or dagger any workman might have carried.

Michael Ibsen, the Canadian-born furniture maker proved as the descendant of Richard's sister, heard the confirmation on Sunday and listened to the unfolding evidence in shocked silence. "My head is no clearer now than when I first heard the news," he said. "Many, many hundreds of people died on that field that day. He was a king, but just one of the dead. He lived in very violent times, and these deaths would not have been pretty or quick."

It was Mathew Morris who first uncovered the body, in the first hour of the first day of the excavation. He did not believe he had found the king. The mechanical digger was still chewing the tarmac off the council car park, identified by years of research by local historians and the Richard III Society as the probable site of the lost church of Grey Friars, whose priests bravely claimed the body of the king and buried him in a hastily dug grave, probably still naked, but in a position of honour near the high altar of their church. The leg bones just showing through the soil were covered up again.

Ten days later, on 5 September, when further excavation proved Morris had hit the crucial spot at the edge of the choir in the church, he returned with Lin Foxhall, head of the archaeology department, and Appleby, swathed in crime scene overalls to prevent contamination, to excavate the body. "We did it the usual way, lifting the arms, legs and skull first, and proceeding gradually towards the torso – so it was only when we finally saw the twisted spine that I thought: 'My word, I think we've got him.'"

Turi King, leader of the DNA team, said she completed her work confirming the mitochondrial DNA match only on Saturday night, and there is more work to be done on the Y chromosome through the male line.

As far as Langley is concerned, Richard was the true king, the last king of the north, a worthy and brave leader who became a victim of some of the most brilliant propaganda in history, in the hands of the Tudors' image-maker, Shakespeare.

Foxhall quoted one contemporary description of Richard as "slight in body and weak in strength … to his last breath he held himself nobly in a defending manner".

There remains the dark shadow of the little princes in the tower, an infamous story even in Richard's day: the child Edward V and his brother Richard, declared illegitimate when Richard III claimed the throne, imprisoned in the Tower of London and never seen alive again. King said that although it is by no means certain that the bones claimed found at the tower centuries later were theirs, there may be more DNA detective work to be done there.

"I'm a medievalist really," Morris said. "I don't go much for the Tudors. Even if Richard did kill the princes in the tower, you have to judge him by the standards of his day – no other medieval king would have taken the risk of leaving them alive."



After Richard III, archaeologists hope to find grave of Alfred the Great

Application has been made to exhume bones in Winchester to see whether they belong to Saxon king

The next great mystery of where a king is buried could be solved as archaeologists try to find the grave of Alfred the Great.

An application has been made to exhume and study bones believed to lie in an unmarked grave at St Bartholomew's church in Winchester, Hampshire, to find out if they are the legendary Saxon king, who is said to have burned the cakes and defeated the Danes.

It is thought the grave may hold the bones of Alfred after a possible earlier burial of the king under the nearby ruined Hyde Abbey was dug up in the 19th century.

The next dig comes after the remains of Richard III were found under a car park in Leicester.

The University of Winchester is seeking permission from a diocesan advisory panel of the Church of England, which will consult English Heritage, and a judge will make a final decision.

Dr Katie Tucker from the university explained that it is not known if the bones of the king were disturbed when Hyde Abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII in the 1530s.

Since then there have been several digs at the site, all suggesting they have found the bones, with some being put on display in Winchester in the 19th century before they were buried in the unmarked grave at the church.

German scientists have analysed the skeleton of Alfred's granddaughter in Magdeburg, Germany, to try to get DNA, but that has proved unsuccessful, Tucker said, so experts will rely on radio carbon dating to get proof.

"If the bones are from around the 10th century then that is proof they are Alfred and his family because Hyde Abbey was not built until the 12th century and they would be no reason for any other bones from the 10th century to be there," she said.

"This is a long shot because unlike with Richard III there is no complete skeleton. We only know they are five skulls and some bones and we also don't know if the bones are monks from the abbey."

The university is hoping that permission will be granted this spring and results could be due in the early summer.

Alfred lived from AD849 to 899 and was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire. He is the only English monarch to be afforded the title "the Great". He was technically king of Wessex but was referred to as king of the English towards the end of his reign.

He united areas of the country and defeated the Danes in several battles before reforming the country and laying the foundations of a more modern state. He died in his capital, Winchester, and was buried there.

Legend has it he burned cakes he was asked to watch over while distracted trying to think how to defeat the invaders and he had to sleep with his horse as a punishment.

[ices]

Looks like they're back to finish the job!

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Johnny Wadd

UPDATE

A row has erupted between York and Leicester about which city has the right to bury Richard III's remains.

There are calls for a Leicester Cathedral interment, close to where he was found.

However King Richard grew up in North Yorkshire, and York City Council is writing to the Queen asking for permission to bury him at York Minster.

Thank you, Johnny Wadd! Do you want me to add it to the op?

I've seen a few of your movies

[DiamondSmiles]

Wow! A real group effort! I sincerely appreciate it

Thank you, icheerthebull and ices for your updates/contributions!

[Pyramid_Head]

That is amazing, after all these years he's been found.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Pyramid_Head

That is amazing, after all these years he's been found.

It is pretty amazing! Very interesting!

[kellyhound]

There was an audible intake of breath as a slide came up showing the base of his skull sliced off by one terrible blow, believed to be from a halberd, a fearsome medieval battle weapon with a razor-sharp iron axe blade weighing about two kilos, mounted on a wooden pole, which was swung at Richard at very close range. The blade probably penetrated several centimetres into his brain

Violent but interesting times

[Johnny Wadd]

Originally Posted by diamondsmiles

Thank you, Johnny Wadd! Do you want me to add it to the op?

I've seen a few of your movies

Only if you think it would help

My 70's heyday is a LONG time ago now

[DiamondSmiles]

**Moderators, I just realized both Sharon and Kelly have posts about this man. Popular guy! Perhaps one of you would like to combine them.

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...cester-121407/

http://www.documentingreality.com/fo...l-site-131098/

Nidhi Subbaraman, NBC News
7:10 PM ET, September 03, 2013

University of Leicester file, (photo below)

The skeleton of king Richard, III was found at the Grey Friars Church excavation site in Leicester in September, 2012. Scientists have discovered that the hunchback king was infected with intestinal parasites. Richard, III may have been a blue-blooded royal, but to the roving parasites of the late Middle Ages he was just another piece of tasty human gut.

New analysis of the king's remains indicate that Richard, III had a clear case of intestinal parasites, brought on by hygiene that was at best medieval.

"This is the first time anyone has studied a king or noble in Britain to look for ancient intestinal parasites," Piers Mitchell, a paleoparasitologist and orthopedic surgeon at the University of Cambridge, wrote to NBC News in an email.

In a sample taken from the king's remains, Mitchell and a team of researchers have found the eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, a simple roundworm.

"They may have been spread to Richard by cooks who did not wash their hands after using the toilet, or by the use of human feces from towns to fertilize fields nearby," Mitchell explained. Perhaps "salad vegetables became contaminated with eggs and were then eaten," he suggested.

In a brief report in the medical journal, The Lancet, Mitchell and a team describe their analysis of the sample, and include an image of isolated roundworm egg seen under an optical microscope.

"Despite Richard's noble background, it appears that his lifestyle did not completely protect him from intestinal parasite infection, which would have been very common at the time," Jo Appleby, lecturer in human bioarcheology at the University of Leicester, who was part of the team that helped extract Richard's remains from a Leicester parking lot in 2012, said in a release.

Roundworm eggs, were not found at other locations on the site, suggesting the worms were buried with the king.

If Richard had sought treatment, it would have involved, "bloodletting, modification of the diet, and medicines to get rid of the excess phlegm and so return humoral balance to normal," Mitchell explained.


Piers Mitchell

The hardy eggs of the intestinal parasite Ascaris Lumbricoides, or the roundworm, was found in samples taken from Richard III's gut. Roundworm eggs make a poo-borne getaway from a host, and travel to a new one when fecal matter contaminates food, (photo below).

Today, poor sanitation is a major contributor to spreading infection. The parasite is, "uncommon," in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but afflicts up to 1.2 billion people worldwide.

According to the World Health Organization, roundworms claim 60,000 lives, mainly children, every year.

Gut bugs have been a global menace all through human history. Roundworms, tapeworms, hookworms and whipworms have been infecting humans for thousands of years. Among the oldest evidence, 10,000-year-old human coprolites, (aka, droppings), from caves in Utah contained traces of pinworm infection.

Ascaris lumbricoides, the kind of roundworm eggs found in Richard, III, is well traveled, and the worm's progress is well documented due a tough chitin coating on the shell which allows the capsules to resist erosion by weather and time.

Fecal evidence shows that it was infecting settlers in Peru in 2277 B.C. and Brazil in about 1600 B.C., and the worms were also found in an Egyptian mummy dating back to 1600 B.C.

In June this year, researchers showed that Richard the Lionheart's crusading armies were being cut down from within — waging and losing a war with gut parasites on their travels.