Ok, it's not about beefburgers or even guns .
But buried in a car park in Leicester they have found...
Drum roll...
Richard III ...
Ta Dah!
(Apparently he owes a fortune in car parking fees...)
There's a nice graphic here showing the location
Channel 4 tonight - 9pm...
The car park fee joke is doing the rounds at the moment - everyone is working it out at the NCP day rate.
I'd just direct NCP to look for a thorn bush - they should find the fee hanging there.
Do you think his funeral will be Anglican or Catholic?
I watched the Channel 4 documentary last night ("The King In The Car Park"); an absolutely fascinating evening's viewing, and simply wonderful to see history 'come alive' in this way.
Thanks, jeremy h, for mentioning it - otherwise I might have missed it. An extraordinary story.
The Tudors (and Mr Shakespeare) weren't the only individuals busily spinning in this tale; it also seems saintly Sir Thomas More (when commissioned by newly crowned monarch Henry VIII) also wrote a report which purported to investigate the circumstances of the disappearance, and presumed deaths, of 'the Princes in The Tower'. Obviously, at that time, Sir Thomas had a future career to think of and drew his conclusions accordingly.
It's why the vikings got a very bad press
It's always been said that history belongs to those who write it.
It's why the vikings got a very bad press, the monks were not their number one fans.
I'd love to see that family tree to the Ibsen family, that provided the DNA. Seventeen generations - all well documented.
In my opinion, it was the Norsemen (Normans) who settled in Northern France who caused us the most problems...
Anyway back on topic of that child murdering, deformed monster *
There's some nice stuff on the University of Leicester's website. One bit I really liked is where they guess what he might of sounded like. To me it sounded like an odd cross between sing song old English and modern English.
* It was interesting how many of the non-academic people featured took such passionate sides on the subject. I remember once seeing an interview with the leader of an (English) civil war reenactment society. He was asked how they assigned people to each side. He burst out laughing and said if they did that there would be a real war - people just knew what side they would have been on.
The next challenge is to find the remains of Alfred the Great.
The next challenge is to find the remains of Alfred the Great.
The comparison between the (well known) portrait painted in the century immediately after Bosworth (which, as the documentary pointed out, subtly altered his features, and not for the better) and the facial reconstruction crafted by the experts (whose normal work lies in supporting criminal police investigations) was absolutely extraordinary.
How could he fight effectively with that spine problem? Seems stupid for a crippled royal person to go up against actual tough warrior types in close, physical battles. The 8 wounds to his head seem to prove that point. Oh, and one to his arse...
A great story, terrific detective work.
Aren't the DNA bods messing about in Winchester at the moment on this one?
Yes, that was amazing - particularly how they'd altered the painting.Who needs Photoshop eh?
One thing that 'disappointed' me was there was talk of a bodkin in his spine before the program. Had it not been a Roman nail and actually a bodkin (that had managed to penetrate his top quality kingly armour) then an awful lot of longbow types would have collapsed with over-excitement about the implications.
The scoliosis looks rather severe but the experts suggest it would not have been particularly obvious when he was clothed and, as scepticalscribe notes, he had quite the military career. One contemporary (a lady) danced with him and said he was the most handsome man in the room. He may have had an asymmetry to the shoulders and rib cage but neither seem to have interfered with his physical abilities. Skeletal-related changes ascribed to the use of high draw-weight bows during the period include scoliosis so whilst the king's was pretty extreme, he was not alone in suffering it.
I'm not sure I'd agree archery was regarded as obsolete by 1485, particularly not in English armies of the time. I'm not one of the 'longbow types' but they were (and would remain into the sixteenth century) an inherent part of the English tactical system.
Yes, the facial reconstruction (rather than the subtly doctored portrait) does suggest that he was quite a handsome man. (I'm curious as to the source you mentioned, who was the lady with whom he danced?)
Re longbows, I suppose that what I was trying to say is that while they did indeed continue to be a part of the English tactical system until into the 16th century, and retained an affectionate hold on the English historical & military imagination on account of their decisive role in a number of well known (to the English, that is) battles, such as Crécy and Agincourt, (the French historical memory and myth tends to prefer to place an emphasis on other battles, naturally enough), by the late 15th century, the French had begun to develop tactics to begin to deal with the longbow, and it was no longer the fearsome weapon (along with democratising the battlefield) that it has become in the English imagination.