Forensic sleuths sketch Richard III’s brutal end

England’s King Richard III might well have lost his kingdom for a horse. The reviled king suffered nearly a dozen injuries on the battlefield, but the fatal blows were probably only sustained after he had to abandon his horse, according to new research. It appears King Richard III suffered a brutal death at the hands of assailants who hacked away pieces of his scalp and rammed spikes or swords into his brain as the helmetless monarch knelt in the mud. Since the skeleton of the 15th-century king was discovered under a parking lot in central England in 2012, scientists have done numerous studies on the remains and the latest report, published Wednesday, exposes the horrific demise of one of English history’s most controversial monarchs. The results back anecdotal evidence, made famous by Shakespeare, that Richard was unhorsed before he met his doom.

The most likely injuries to have caused the king’s death are … a large sharp-force trauma possibly from a sword or staff weapon, such as a halberd or bill, and a penetrating injury from the tip of an edged weapon.

Guy Rutty, pathologist at the University of Leicester

The new paper documents nine injuries to the head at or shortly before death, and two to the torso that were likely inflicted post-mortem. Non-fatal injuries included three cuts to the top of the skull that would have sliced off much of the scalp. A knife or dagger was stuck right through his face, from right cheek to left.”Richard’s head injuries are consistent with some near-contemporary accounts of the battle, which suggest that Richard abandoned his horse after it became stuck in a mire and was killed while fighting his enemies,” said Rutty. Richard was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire, central England, on August 22, 1485 at age 32 after just two years on the throne. The monarch’s death was the culmination of a three-decade war for the throne, bringing the curtain down on the three-century dynasty of his Plantagenet clan, and ushering in the Tudors.

Science