The Real King Richard III Revealed

“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
― William Shakespeare, Richard III
Last September British archaeologists in Leicester dug up part of a parking lot and found an amazing grave containing the bones thought to be the real King Richard III, last Plantagenet King of England and the last King who died on the battlefied, beaten by Henry VII, ancestor of the modern royal family. Now the bones have been proven beyond a doubt to be King Richard, verified through DNA testing with descendents as well as historical accounts of his appearance and wounds in battle.

Will this change the way scholars and actors interpret Shakespeare's play, which paints Richard as a villain and murderer? That remains to be seen. What will happen next is that the body will be buried in nearby Leicester Cathedral, and a display for visitors will also be built. That is, if the city of York doesn't interfere. They have written a letter to the Queen of England, asking that the body be buried there instead because Richard was both coronated and married in York Minster Cathedral.

BREAKING! World first - The complete skeleton showing the curve of the spine #RichardIII ow.ly/i/1t0gN

— Uni of Leicester (@uniofleicester) February 4, 2013

From CNN.com

Since his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Richard III has been portrayed as hunchbacked and hateful, accused of killing his own nephews, the "Princes in the Tower," to usurp the throne.
But the Richard III Society believes the monarch has been unfairly maligned by history and in particular the Tudors who ousted him.
It says its three-dimensional model of the king shows a face "far removed from the image of the cold-blooded villain of Shakespeare's play."

. . . Society chairman Dr. Phil Stone told reporters in London that the discovery and identification of the monarch had been "a momentous time" for the society. He praised screenwriter Philippa Langley's "tenacity and bloody-mindedness" in pursuing the project to locate his remains. Langley said her aims had been two-fold -- to try to find Richard III so that his remains could be retrieved from an "undignified place" and to "go in search of the real Richard III."

Stone said in a statement that the face was "younger and fuller than we have been used to seeing, less careworn and with a hint of a smile."
Richard III seemed "alive and about to speak," he said. "At last, it seems, we have the true image of Richard III -- is this the face that launched a thousand myths?"

From Reuters

Devotees of Richard, who have long campaigned to restore his reputation, proudly revealed a 3D reconstruction of the long-lost monarch's head on Tuesday, introducing him to reporters as "His Grace Richard Plantagenet, King of England and France, Lord of Ireland".

They said the face appeared sympathetic and noble - not that of a man cast by William Shakespeare as a villainous, deformed monster who murdered his nephews, the "Princes in the Tower".

"I hope you can see in this face what I see in this face and that's a man who is three-dimensional in every sense," said Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society, who led the four-year hunt to find the king's remains.

"It doesn't look like the face of a tyrant. If ... you look into his eyes, it really is like he can start speaking to you," Langley told reporters.

Guardian UK

Rival claims to Richard's body have erupted within 24 hours of the formal confirmation that the remains excavated from a scruffy car park in the centre of Leicester are indeed those of the last Plantagenet king. Leicester has him, but York wants him. So far Westminster Abbey, which holds both Richard's wife, Anne Neville, and Henry VII who defeated him, is maintaining a tactful silence, and nothing has been heard from Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire where he was born – but that may be just a matter of time.

As the face reconstructed from the skull was displayed – a faintly smiling man with a big nose and a notably determined jaw – Kersten England, chief executive of the City of York council, said it would be writing formally to the Department of Justice and the Crown "to invite their consideration of the views of the Duke of York's own people". Roughly translated, these views are: "Hand him over."

Leicester is equally determined to keep the man where he has lain since August 1485, when his body was brought back into the town naked and slung over the back of a horse – the traditional account newly confirmed by the revelation of the injuries to the skeleton. His body was claimed by the priests of Greyfriars church, and buried hastily but in a position of honour in the choir near the high altar.