Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Medieval News



I started reading Medieval News, via Google Readers, some months ago, and have been enjoying news of medieval Europe ever since. One story that started in August concerned archeologists digging in Leicester, England, in hopes of finding the medieval Grey Friars Church.

That is the church where the body of Richard III was taken and buried after the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. The location of the church was known into at least the early 17th century, but the knowledge has been lost for centuries.

About ten days or so ago, the archeologists found what they thought was the cloister of the church, so they started another trench.

Then they turned up a couple of skeletons. One is the disarticulated remains of a woman. The other is a man with an arrow near his spine, a killing wound in the back of his skull, and severe scoliosis.

The bones are out for DNA and other testing, but really, it is very hard not to believe that the long lost remains of Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England, have been found.

4 comments:

john_burke100 said...

That is really cool--thanks for this post. I think the Olivier film of Richard III is a lot more fun than either his Hamlet or his Henry V--he doesn't make a meal of the part, he throws a damn banquet.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Yeah - I'm completely flabbergasted.

Karen Schousboe said...

Do you know about www.medievalhistories.com?

Lisa Hirsch said...

Now I do!! Thank you so much.