Have they found Richard III? Archaeologists searching for 'tyrant king' under Leicester car park find skeleton with a curved spine and metal ARROW in its back



Teeth and femur from the skeleton, which was buried without a coffin, set to undergo DNA testing at an undisclosed laboratory



Barbed iron arrowhead was found between vertebrae of the skeleton’s upper back

Also has spinal abnormalities and an individual form of spinal curvature, consistent with accounts of Richard III



Searching for a medieval king who had been lost for 527 years always looked like a long shot.

In a discovery worthy of a Hollywood film, however, archaeologists yesterday announced they had unearthed what appear to be the remains of Richard III.

Using historic maps, they traced a friary where he was rumoured to have been buried after being killed in battle – underneath a social services department car park in Leicester.

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The spot (circled in red) where archaeologists found the remains of the 15th century monarch

And after only three weeks of digging, to their astonishment they found the skeleton of an adult male who was well-built and clearly of noble descent.

His injuries – a metal arrowhead embedded in his back, and a severe blow to the head – are consistent with the king's death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.

Even more persuasive is the fact that the man has a severely curved spine; Richard was famously nicknamed Crookback.

The revelation that the skeleton, exhumed on September 4, had severe scoliosis provoked a gasp at the packed press conference in Leicester's Tudor-era Guildhall building yesterday.

He was not a hunchback, the archaeologists said, but his right shoulder was higher than his left – consistent with accounts of Richard's appearance.

As any scholar of Shakespeare will know, the king was famously ridiculed as a hunchback in the Bard's play, described as 'rudely stamp'd, deformed, unfinish'd'.

The final resting place of Richard III? A body matching his description was found here buried in a shroud

Experts stress that the remains must be subjected to rigorous DNA testing, to be undertaken over the next three months, to be sure if it is him. But they say the discovery is a potentially 'historic moment'.

Richard Taylor, of Leicester University, said: 'This search has at times resembled a Dan Brown novel in its twists and turns.

'We have all been witness to a powerful and historic story unfolding before our eyes.'

Michael Ibsen, a 16th generation relation of King Richard III gives a DNA mouth swab at Greyfriars Car Park, Leicester. His DNA will be used to determine whether the skeleton found is King Richard III

Richard III, the last monarch of the Plantagenet family, ruled for only two years before dying in battle in 1485 when he was 32.

It marked the end of the Wars of the Roses and the victory of Henry Tudor, the first of the new dynasty.

Under the new regime, Richard was portrayed as a hunchback and a power-mad child-killer said to have slaughtered his two young nephews to seize the throne.

A map of the medieval chuch of the Grey Friars where the remains were found.

Archaeologists have found a skeleton they believe could be the remains of King Richard III, the tyrant king. It has an arrow in its back and a curved spine, a condition believed to have affected the monarch.

Closer and closer: Fragments of what could be the east end window of the church

The earliest surviving portrait of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. Archaeologists are hoping to find his grave under a council car park in Leicester.

Historians say that the find could help settle a five-century-long controversy over whether the king was the villain of legend, or a victim of malicious propaganda.

Richard III was thought to be buried at Grey Friars, a Franciscan friary destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, but it was later claimed his body was thrown into a river.



In the early 1600s the site of Grey Friars was bought by the mayor of Leicester, Alderman Robert Herrick, and used as his garden.

In 1612 Christopher Wren, father of the famous architect, recorded seeing a 3ft stone pillar in the garden inscribed: 'Here lies the body of Richard III, sometime King of England.'

The site was bought by Leicester City Council in 1914.

Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley said: 'We were very lucky it was a car park, and the remains, at the entrance to the choir, were just under the trench we dug, when there were several buildings at the friary.

'He's a prime candidate. I'd be very surprised if someone else was buried at this same spot with critical injuries.'

The university intends for the body, if it is proven to be Richard, to be buried in the city's cathedral.

As for the social workers, the academics said, it will be 'quite some time' before they get their car park back.

A lead window came (a section of leading that supports stained glass windows from the Grey Friars church