Richard III Discovery: The Carpark Skeleton and Its DNA Proof

[00:00:00][Music] for centuries our kings and queens have  been laid to rest in the finest tombs but   for 500 years the body of one of them has been  missing almost infamous monic Richard the third last summer a team of archaeologists and  enthusiasts unearthed a skeleton in a car park   no no that might just be the missing king Richard  the third one of the moisture biodiversity in the   month since scientists have been trying to unlock  that skeleton secrets and reveal its identity   this is the exclusive inside story of that  incredible journey but I'm sorry I come and   the discoveries along the way the shape of the  vertebra changes as it goes down the spine we'll   learn how the man in the car park died it's a  very very dramatic injury and reveal his face   for the first time doesn't like the face of  a tyrant I'm sorry when it doesn't all of it   building to one result that might just rewrite  history where gender shocker in lab [Music]   [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's now  so this morning son they're in there but if your   investor [ __ ] and rutland this morning it's  the most exciting story for a very very good   this is history being made in Leicester today as a  search begins for the remains of a king of England   Richard the third could be buried underneath a  car park in the city centre and historians and   archaeologists alike will be eagerly awaiting  developments over the next fortnight they've   seen after Lee bonkers one things you don't  do in archaeology is you don't go looking for   a specific thing because the chances are you'll  never find it and you don't go looking for fames   of a problem the world's media oh I tell you one  thing it is very very exciting it's the first of   a search for the grave of an anointed king so to  find him it would be fantastic really fantastic   I mean we are pretty excited about it I'm not sure  that they thought bunch of cracks but I think that   they thought that it was a very long shot there  are people who have these great dreams of finding   things because there's an archaeologist I  just know how many sort of variables that   are at play on an excavation so chance of  finding Richard was a Oh No a million to one of all the kings and queens of England one  story has fascinated me since I was a kid   it's the legend of Richard the third  the hunchback King with a withered arm   who murdered the princes in the tower  and died in battle yelling for a horse Elizabeth the first there Henry the eighth her  father and Britain's first ever recorded fat man   his father Henry the seventh who took the crown  from which the third the Battle of Bosworth and   here is Wow the legendary erection the first  definitely see a kind of a hunch I've come to   this comedian/actor so my introductions  reached the third was Laurence Olivier's   depiction and he had this like I remember very  vividly he had a like that kitty cat she had   this prosthetic nose and I think it protrusion  of the chin and that sort of sets off clumping   across the set I can smile and murder Isles I  smile and cry content to that which grieves my   heart and wet my cheeks with artificial tears  and frame my face to all occasions the idea of   searching for the bones of a king who is  evil personified seemed intriguing enough but then on the way to Leicester I started  reading about the people behind the dig and   it got even more curious this project began  not with archaeologists or historians but as   the passion project of one woman Philippa Langley  going in search of his remains it's kind of the   Holy Grail three years of basically non-stop  non-stop cajoling non-stop begging in some   places from her home in Edinburgh Philippa helps  organize the Richard the third Society a group   who believed Richard was a good king horribly  maligned by Shakespeare and that this is a wrong   that must be righted Philippa joined forces with  a historian who was investigating the legend that   Rich's body was unceremoniously holed in a river  after his death in battle it became obvious to me   when I looked into this story that it was one  of the many myths about Richard Evert John was   interested in an old theory suggesting Richards  grave in fact lay in the Church of a medieval   friary somewhere under the carpark of Leicester  social services when we actually looked at the   car park for the first time when it was empty low  behold in this very spot there was a parking space   with our marks on the tarmac I got the strangest  sensation when I was in that that area in that   place absolutely knew that I was standing on  Richards grave hmm more convinced than ever   Phillipa took the project to the archaeologist  at Leicester University initially I thought oh   dear it's somebody who thinks it's going to  be really easy just to dig in the right spot   and find exactly what they want but then it  became clear that actually there's some very   good solid research behind her idea of looking  in the grey from hers together they set out to   raise the money and when ten thousand pounds  in funding fell through Philip had turned to   her fellow Ricardian for help literally within  moments of sending out the first emails they   started coming back and they started coming back  from America from Canada from Australia from New   Zealand from Belgium from Brazil Germany Austria  in two weeks not only did we raise ten thousand   pounds they'd raised more as the cash was gathered  the university did their own research tracking   the location of the friary through time it  did appear to be under the carpark but they   couldn't tell was where exactly the friary stood  or the church that might hold the grave it was   put to trenches in and hopefully find a bit of  the friary that we could recognize if we could   pinpoint where we were within the friary then  we could actually start looking for the church incredibly the archaeologists research set  them digging right on the very spot where   Philippa had her strange sensation I was  gobsmacked because the first part of the   first trench was running right over the letter  arm we were very on hoping to see signs of war   hoping to see maybe some some of the church  floor tiles some evidence of that sort no we   didn't see walls and no we didn't see  Church floor tiles we found leg bones both bone I think it may be human bone I went  in and carefully uncovered just enough of it   to see if it was actually connected to and  I found the other leg the right thing to go   with the left leg so at that point I thought  yes we got burial but didn't really think   much about it because I've got no evidence  at that point that we were in the side of   building let alone the church so we just  carefully covered it back up and left it the biggest darkest cloud came over  and there was this incredible tempest   [Music] really was like some Shakespearean  theme this tempest arrived the minute we   discover human remains if it was Richard he  was ready to be found he wanted to be found the joke doing the rounds in Leicester was that  the only bones they'd find on this dig would be   in a fried-chicken box in fact 10 days in the  search for the grave of Richard the third is   going surprisingly well realistically I  thought we'd be doing well just to find   a few Ferrari buildings dig those do a bit of  sample excavation close it up and off we go but   it became clear pretty soon that there's going  to be more to this project than we written in   thought we were finding things every day lots of  points we were finding things every hour the team   have dug three trenches in all so far they've  not only unearthed the friary they've had a   major breakthrough and found part of the church  where they suspect Richards grave might lie it   turns out the legs they found on the first day  under Philip as are are actually lying inside it when that found the bones whoa and they're  going in some pretty serious work going on   there pioneers are gonna dig out another section  of that wall there so that we can we can get in   the bowl a bone expert Joe Appleby has come to  investigate whether these legs are attached to   a complete skeleton and Philippa is transfixed  I was just sort of watching Philippa I thought   this is gonna be a long process and she  said to me I think that's I think is him   I think it's him I just thought she was insane  because but this is ridiculous it's the first   the first thing we found what's the chances  of the trench being cut in the right place I   mean it was bizarre [Music] are you nervous  about this yeah yeah strangely I am actually   I'm feel sick which is a bit weird isn't it  SiC that I do I suppose it's a weird thing   digging up a dead body yeah it is and I think  the whole point of this journey this project   was to try and honor this month hmm yeah  I mean it might not even be him but right   just being a wolf no no it's quite it's quite  it's quite an emotional thing isn't it really   that suddenly struck me just now just coming and  peering in this was someone's relative husband   father brother son yeah and of course it might  not be Richard but whoever it is was a person yeah so would it meant Phillipa of time she  was you know in ten years more or less and I   thought even though his King has been dead  for 500 years this means the world Philip   his emotion seemed surprising because the  Richard depicted in Shakespeare was not a   man who shed a tear for but I that am NOT shaped  for sportive tricks nor made to court an amorous   looking-glass I that am rudely stamped and want  loves Majesty to strut before a wanton ambling   him Richard wasn't born to be king there was  his brother Edward the fourth who emerged from   the Wars of the Roses with the crown but as  Shakespeare tells it Edwards early death led   Richard to seize his chance murder his nephews  the printers in the tower and take the throne   for himself that is the legend Philippa and her  clan are doing battle with we have over three and   a half thousand members worldwide worldwide  frequently asked questions are you winning   there's a war being fought the truth that  Richard the Ricardian say evil richard was   a myth invented after his death by the Tudors to  justify their flimsy claim to the throne and by   the time Shakespeare wrote his play a hundred  years later this propaganda had taken hold as I read more I learned Richard was a good and  just king he didn't murder the princes in the   tower and he wasn't even a hunchback Richard may  have had a slightly raised shoulder from training   for combat but this is conjecture so we're not  going to find a Shakespearian now is the winter   not gonna find one of those guys I was starting  to realize just how much was a stake on this dig   if the archaeologists find Richard and he isn't a  hunchback who had exposed that Tudor myth for good   then later that day there's another breakthrough  the archaeologists digging near the bones under   Philip is our find evidence they're in a part  of the church called the choir where the friars   buried important people then Joe found something  curious I hear we've discovered something to go   with our with our legs yeah Joe's just found a  skull in the grave yeah bit of a problem knowing   that it seems to be a lot higher than where we  had the legs right so we're gonna have to clean   down carefully and see if it is actually the skull  for this variable I'm quite excited because that   appears to be a hole in the rest of the bones we  found so so far good six inches below that and   I cleaned this bit back yesterday to a much lower  level without finding any bones but we then needed   to go further into this side to try to pick up  the whole burial so it was just basically taking   it down with this mattock here and unfortunately  that's gone into the top of the skull so that's   what's caused that all right so we're thinking  that maybe the whole skeleton underneath but   these these bones are on top yes we think it's  quite likely that this skull is actually not   associated with the with the skeleton underneath  the most likely thing is this is going to be   isolated and we'll then come so what's the plan  now Joe just keep keep going bang this up being   carefully around this and excavator it and take  it out and then we can carry on and work our way   down to where the grave hopefully is underneath  yeah well we shall leave you to it the skull of   any skeleton we find would help us identify if it  was the king medieval accounts of the Battle of   Bosworth described the last moments of Richard's  life and the blow to his head that killed him right in the middle of the battlefield  site here in this area and 1485 there   was a marsh and this was probably  more or less where Richard died [Music] on the ground it was attacked killed by a blow  to the head his clothing his valuable armor are   taken away Richards naked body is left lying on  the field [Music] subsequently Henry the seventh   needs this body because it's it's how he's going  to prove to everybody that Richard is dead so he   needs to have this body he sends people over  the battlefield to retrieve the body they find   it naked we're told they put a rope around the  neck probably this was to drag the body across   the field and they take it to Henry who then has  it put over the back of a horse and transported   into Leicester the dead Kings body was put on  display in the city some contemporary camps did   say he was then buried in the gray friars but a  legend took hold that his body was hurled into   the river the story of the body in the river can  only be dated back to 1612 and the mapmaker john   speed he went to Leicester Luke's foreach at the  Third's grave site couldn't find it said he could   only find weeds and nettles and uh he had actually  gone to the site of the black friars Priory and no   wonder thing that he couldn't find Richards  tune because he was looking the wrong place the archaeologists were also convinced  the speed map was wrong which meant if   Richard's body wasn't in the river it was  here right in the area they were digging   now everyone was super excited because all  we had to do there must dig into these into   these graves and we would we would inevitably  find here some skeleton of some remains and   one of them we hoped would be Richard then  we got this call from the skeleton we found   on the first day and joe said a thinking  bear coming look at this and I stood and I   looked into the grave if I'm gonna remember  this for the rest of my life this moment you remember this morning we talked about  the skull that we found and we said that   we didn't think that it could possibly be part  of the same person as as the the legs that we'd   found earlier because the orientation of it was  completely wrong yeah and that's that's true the   orientation is completely wrong for a normal  body but I've just been excavating the spinal   column and if you take a look at it along here you  can see that there's a really abnormal curvature   of it so what we're actually seeing here is that  this skeleton in fact has a hunchback well no no you mind if I sit on mud Luffy  gonna ever have a seat if Philippa   had found Richard this wasn't the  Richard she was looking for [Music] 13 days after breaking the tarmac in the carpark  we were stood right on the spot of Philip as are   staring down into skeleton with a hunchback spine  we were all shell-shocked The Hunchback King was   supposed to be a Tudor myth don't get me wrong  here right but that curvature is major curvature   me yeah that's seriously something going on so  yes that armor on that I wouldn't try but you   know would that rule that help for you with your  with with you know that goes with the stereotypes   I haven't spotted him with a dog so you know the  arms are ok but of course he could have been a   hunchback but still being the nice guy let's not  forget that it doesn't have to you know go along   with all the all the other had some Bourne was  just something you know it's just funny we have   descriptions of Richard by people who met him and  they don't mention it yeah then Joe drops a second   bombshell there's a bit more earlier when you were  questioning me about the skull I was a bit of a   severe it yes and there is actually a wound it's  not very visible on the surface of the skull but   inside the skull you can see that some some of the  bone is broken away and he's actually being hidden   the head with something and when you turn over the  skull there's also some damage to the skull base and that was before dirty can you say that that  that I saw a chance that I could say after around   the time of death I can't be more specific than  that I'm afraid it's circumstantial evidence at   the moment but I think I think just to be on the  safe side we might we might do a DNA test on this   one I would say so it's that I think it's worth  doing isn't it as Jo lifted the skeleton out of   the ground it began to sink in this seemingly  bonkers project might just have pulled off the   impossible Sully thought I got a minute head  trauma to the head east end of the church of   the choir curved spine have we actually managed  to do this I mean the odds if you calculated   the must have been incredible yet by sheer  fluke we'd managed to put the first trench   and essentially the first thing we'd found in the  first trench on the first day was this skeleton the spine was the last thing to be lifted  we needed to treat it with a lot of cabs   this is obviously going to be sunning that was  gonna need to be intact and carefully looked   at in the lab Joe worked from the bottom  up and she'd got to nearly the last ones   and she'd lifted these two up and then there  was this little fragment of metal underneath between two of the vertebrae the bare the  corrosion has come off at this point and   it's only looks like some sort of metal shaft  anyway where it was found is quite interesting   exactly right in the middle of his back yeah  at the end of the pipe again yeah I mean it   could be all sorts of things a an x-ray would  say a bit clearer definition of those okay so   next railroad yeah see through the corrosion and  see what the solid iron is demo sites it doesn't it does this hunchback with a head injury now had  what appeared to be an arrow in his back [Music]   that was a very extraordinary moment  and I felt somehow that out of time   almost as if I wasn't there but I was looking in whoever this individual is he was brought here  through a building which isn't there anymore   through doors that don't exist he was buried  under a floor that's gone he's been here at least   500 years now he's packed in polythene bags in a  cardboard box and he's not going to be taken away   I was very conscious of this individual trying to  imagine how if he was looking down on us how he   might be seeing what we were doing I don't think  anyone was anticipating actually finding him so   there was no precedent you know I don't think a  Kings been found in a car park before not to my   knowledge anyway so nobody really knew what the  etiquette was what the rules to follow what I'd   quite like to do but I don't know how you feel  about this is the remains that we've uncovered I   know we don't know 100% if they are Richard but  when when we put the bones in the box I'd quite   like John Houser Richard the third standard and  I'd quite like to just put it over the Box to get   it into the the van if if you're absolutely fine  no I mean particular as you is a good indication   that the right ones that's fine that's right okay  thank you we're never gonna do this twice are we   no actually yeah and I would just like to mark  it it just seems right to put his colours over   I think we'll get Joe the osteolysis to to take  them off site Joe you want to come and do this [Music] do you think it's right for me to do it somehow do you want to do it John would you  like to carry the box where's the box just put it over and then I'll give it to you [Music] thanks for tuning in this morning on what could  well be and another great historic day today huge   plates have been a nurse but the last plantation  a cake there's been a major Richard thebirds   conference later this morning we could find  out if Richard the third has finally been found okay colleagues good morning my name is Richard  Taylor I'm from the University of Leicester and   I'd like to welcome you here to the City of  Leicester to hear an update on the university   search for Richard the third we have a man with  what appeared to be battle injuries who suffered   from severe scoliosis that is curvature of  the spine respectfully but modestly buried   in a place of honor in friary Church clearly we  are all very excited by these latest discoveries   this is potentially a historic moment for  the University on the City of Leicester researchers announced they found a skeleton  made suspect might be the long-lost remains   of Richard the third one of the most reviled  kings in British history his body was misplaced   there were rumors that it had been thrown in  the river but perhaps not perhaps it could be   found here underneath this parking lot in  the centre of Leicester [Music] so far the   pieces fit with some historical accounts of  Richard's death and burial and could rewrite   many of our history books five hundred and  twenty seven years after Richard's death   we must now wait at least another three  months to answer the big question [Music] to the world at large the Leicester University  team had found the bones of Richard the third   the truth was more frightening they still had a  mass of obstacles in their path before they could   actually prove this was the king hi you must be  Simon you must be Lynn I am very nice to meet you   very nice you're the boss of this establishment  yes I'm the head of archaeology in ancient history this is the box here's the box this is the box  oh wow it's astonishing isn't it it's such a   mundane setting this was like a Steven Spielberg  film that'd be the huge kind of white et like   containment those dry ice coming on the sides and  blue flashing lights but it's it's just not that   is it no no it's a cardboard box that afternoon  philip ER and i were taken through everything   that lay ahead the skeleton was going to be  carbon-dated its DNA would be tested against   a living descendant the bones and their potential  injuries would be scanned in 3d and images of the   skills sent to the best facial reconstruction  expert in the country they explained all of   the tests that they were going to to be doing  and you know I mean it just ran and ran these   lists of tests went on and on and on pages of  them and you know it's a really anxious moment   because any one of these tests could could say  work that's it no it's definitely not him [Music]   all of this made me more curious than ever about   the man behind the legend it's nice to  be heading back here to Richard's home kind of coming back to life [Music] in his early life Richard lived near  my home in Yorkshire [Music] as the brother   of the king he was commander of the north  and by all accounts a born soldier he was   in battle at 18 and in command by 25 with  a wife and young son he seemed to dote on discontent made glorious summer by this son of  York it was very strange coming back here they   must have been here a dozen times 15 times over  the years and always you know I've done my weather   damn routine and imagines but now I know now I've  seen him potentially in the ground his bones being   brought up out of the ground it's I feel a bit  like that's sort of sacrilege now this is a   lark about with his name because he was he was a  real person he was a real king and he lived here   I was becoming more and more intrigued by  Philip his version of Richard she left me   an interesting message about the way the  people of York responded to his death the day after he died at Bosma they said  King Richard late mercifully raining upon   us was piteously slain and murdered to the great  heaviness of this city they were writing this when   there was a new king on the throne a couple of  weeks later they called him the most famous Prince   of blessed memory and you know that that doesn't  strike of someone who was a ruthless tyrant to me   [Music] the rival versions of Richard were so a  towards the good King and the bad I wondered what   historians made abital why this man who'd ruled  for just two years was still so divisive today with see.well regard which he likes by them  very much Beauregard if he became admired for   his chivalry and he put himself out as as a man  who who would bring justice and fair play this   isn't sounding like an evil murdering despot  not at all now that doesn't appear in any way   whatsoever all the contemporary comics stress that  in the 14th 70s into the early 1480 Richard was   the loyal brother good old Richard so he was loyal  brother a great soldier a fair arbitrator in local   disputes well thought of by the people of the  north and his fellow so is him so what what the   hell happened it's just a big question isn't it I  mean yes but everyone argues about in the debates it was what happened in the Tower of London in  1483 that first split opinion about Richard when   his brother died Richard made himself protector  guarding the interests of his nephew young   Edward v but just three months later he acted to  make himself King it was all very fast it took   everybody by surprise the princes disappeared  the two boys they were already being housed in   the Tower of London they were described by local  London sources as having been smart of them said   they were seen shooting practicing archery in  the grounds and then was seen no more I have to   say I think they probably were dead yeah I don't  feel that Richard wouldn't you would have killed   I mean you know why well I do all that and then  have they still have the risk look they're there   in the tower they could escape from the tower  somebody else did it yeah how did orders if   it cannot be demonstrated beyond that you know  we just don't know they disappeared yeah they   did disappear from that moment the battle over  Richard's reputation began 500 years later that   King was just possibly lying in a cardboard box  facing a battery of tests to prove his identity   and one result was in already the investigation  of the arrowhead in the skeletons back so you   know tell us about the arrowheads that were found  in the back of a skeleton what have we discovered   is the the actual object it's still no easier to  see exactly what he was and when it was covered   in lots of wet soil and the only way really to  find out what it what it might be is to x-ray   it that's initial x-ray that we did what it looks  like is a slightly tapering a piece of iron here   you know got a shaft there and you've got the  suggestion of some little barbs coming off the   side there what we did then was to start having  a look at the kinds of heads that we might expect   to see at this kind of date yeah you know there  are some similarities there definitely yeah but   that wasn't really enough there's a couple of  things about the Arrowhead concerning me really   if we have a look at a replica Arrowhead of the  kind that was around in the late 15th century   you can see yes it's got Barb's their sweat  back close to the body of the arrowhead no   it's designed for piercing body armor what we  did was to take another series of x-rays just   to see what we've got and the second thing that  I was concerned about was this very thick white   line at the top here well what we've got here  unfortunately is a bit of iron that was in the   wrong place at the wrong time I'm afraid it's  a humble nail yes and probably a Roman nail   just fortuitously in the burial soil and just  happened to be right next to the spine now did   they use nail guns in medieval battles not as  far as I'm aware my clutching is strong yes   yeah nothing to be gained by going down their  Avenue no 17 and not the 14 17 that's right oh   dear it was a troubling start if the arrow was  just a nail what are the disappointments lay   ahead was our royal skeleton really just  a monk in serious need of a chiropractor for two weeks in October the box containing  the potential bones of Richard the third sat   in a locked room waiting for an appointment  at the local hospital somewhat bizarrely they   were going to scan this medieval skeleton  in the same machine than used for living   patients we are going to take a CT scan of  the skeleton the idea of that is that it   will give us a good 3d record of it and  it will enable us to look in more deep   the nature of the trawler on it and also  potentially the abnormality of the spine   she did not feature by dissembling nature deformed  unfinish'd sent before my time into this breathing   world scarce half made up and that so lamely and  unfashionable that dogs barked at me as I hoped the shape of the vertebra changes as  it goes down the spine and one of the   problems with this is of course is the  the vertebrae are not completely normal the finger bends apologize the images from this scan will create  a 3d model of every bone in the body   that allowed Joe to investigate  the skeletons apparent hunchback   the nature of its head injuries  even the weapon that killed him it was just possible this science  might rewrite the history of our   infamous King and all over the world  Ricardian x' were ready to do battle well we think of it and the skeleton that  he does have a hunchback he was he was in   any way seriously physically incapacitated  is utterly reading that he knocked off his   nephews I think it we're in fact hidden away I  think anybody who claims they know what happened   to the two boys is deluding themselves it's all  pure speculation thinking matter the princes in   the town he stood to gain didn't he know a little  bit of truth can be spun political spin and turned   into something else Judas have no rights of the  crown they knew that they say the witness history   right it's not this is fresh this is I just  happened it's like you know like the results   of some election am yesterday I will fight it  it will fight it with passion you know three in every way this medieval skeleton was coming  back to life the images from the CT scan were   now with a specialist at the University of  Dundee using technology developed for criminal   investigations she was going to reconstruct the  face of our skull in layers of muscle and skin   first of all just first impressions of this skull  is that it got quite a long grass Isle in other   words it's not very strongly masculine features  so it's you know it's an interesting school to   look at it's got quite a lot of teeth that have  been lost from the mandible so he's going to have   quite an interesting face with the process that  we follow for the reconstruction is to use little   virtual pegs and attach them to the surface of  the skull so that it gives a kind of contour   map within which we can work to produce their  depiction next step is to add the anatomical   structures starting with the eyeballs and  basically slowly build the face from the skull out   to the muscle structure as we put the muscles onto  this skull the face starts to develop so we can   start to see the shape especially around the lower  face around the jaw not for me in my mother's womb   to shrimp mine arm up like up with a shrub to  keep the nerdiest mountain on my back to shape   my dates of an unequal size to disproportion me  in every part no I was myth in fact more tangled   than in the question of what Richard actually  looked like his surviving portrait painted after   he died were a masterclass in spin it does  include two layers the layer of truth which   is certainly the likeness was no doubt about that  and that is quite like what word should look like   but the whole type was slanted as soon as  the Tudors started applying propaganda for   the matter it was of great importance the  children tentative at this man was a villain   it was essential otherwise there was no reason  for Henry to be on the throne so they tampered   with it oh yes the shoulders this one is slightly  higher from that and they made a great play of the   theory that he was disabled and at this time  a disfigurement of this kind would have been   assumed to have been due to the Vengeance of  God this is wrong in the Royal Collection it   looks meaner it's undoubtedly being tampered the  shoulder house being raised Wow his hands a claw   like his thumb just seems to be a spike it's quite  disturbing isn't it rich that's nice to me I was   horrible yes well again this is propaganda it is  quite subtle actually isn't it I would have gone   monobrow your monogram there can you give him what  they haven't done that have been a bit subtler   they've narrowed his eyes they've given a point  ether exactly it's quite good isn't it do you   think I think it was pretty cunning certainly  these things were done and it's much easier   to exaggerate than it is to invent exaggerate a  little time in fact to make a man a monster and   if he had a deformity a slight deformity then it  wouldn't have been mentioned into his face or in   his reign but the military was dead buzz buzz  buzz if this skeleton was Richard that fabled   deformity was going to be classified and defined  by experts for the first time for Philippa and   me this process was also our first sight of  the skeleton since the dig here we are blimey we've got the skeleton here laid out and we've  reproduced the curve as best we can just to show   you a little bit about some of the bones we've  got here on this vertebra you can see how we've   got bone formed in the ligaments that connect  this vertebra with the one above which showed   the curve would have been pretty stiff would he  have had the hunchback that was reported in to   the tube two times well hunchback yes he would  have had a abnormal curve and an asymmetry to   the chest wall whether his right shoulder was  higher or lower it's not easy to tell from the   actual excavation but if we look at the end of  the clavicles you can see how the one on the   right is definitely a different size and shape  to the one on the left it's much bigger on the   right than on here so he may have found that  the shoulders may have been held in a slightly   different position Wow it's a lot to take in isn't  it Philip er you okay yeah I'm fine it's just a it's all quite clinical isn't it late like this hmm I'm sorry I can't it's quite help  cry overwhelming no you okay yeah okay I'm okay   I don't see bones on that toe but I see a man I  see a living breathing sort of human being and   you feel like you've got to know him you know  over the years I mean it's years that you put   into this and it's kind of like hearing that  diagnosis is you know it's just laid out for   the world to see again you know it's a but then  do you feel what we're doing this time is trying   to you know there's a lot of interest in this and  but we're trying to I guess get the truth out you   know we do we have to get to the truth you might  have to do it I'm sure they're ready to go yeah   hi guys yeah I'm really sorry so he saying he's  got a hunchback again it was kind of it's just   not me for six well it depends entirely what you  mean by a hunchback the hunchback isn't a medical   term it's just a popular term to meet someone's  got a spinal deformity is it not visible then   in in his clothing or is it not visible in his  body or is it visible in his body but not in his   clothing scoliosis is always much more apparent  when someone is wearing no clothes so a lot of   people will walk down the high street today and  you will not know they have a scoliosis perhaps   one percent of people in Britain have a scoliosis  of some kind but it doesn't mean to say that it's   severe enough to impact on how they live their  lives and so making most of the time you would not   notice they have a had one unless they were on the  beach this deformity was not the classic Hunchback   of not Redang the curve was sideways if this  was Richard outwardly he would almost certainly   have looked and walked like anyone else the one  shoulder was probably a bit higher than the other   that's the sort of the Shakespearean myth would  he have had a withered arm or any sort of oddness   in his in his arms if you compare humerus on one  side of the humerus on the other they're exactly   the same length same for the forearm they're  symmetric on both sides so there's no reason   to think that one side was withered compared with  the other one thing Joe and I did notice was that   the radius bones here are relatively grass Isle  or feminine is there anything we can categorically   say at this point would rule him out of course  if this was a female skeleton then that would   do it very definitively and the grace or nature  of the skeleton is is something that might set   a few alarm bells ringing there are also some  features on the pelvis this this feature here   the sciatic notches here are wider than we would  normally expect to see in a male skeleton this   is a feature that varies and in fact we have data  that's been done on burials of known people from   from Britain in the 19th century that show that  that you can have a feminine Society watch and be   male other areas of the pelvis suggest that this  probably is a male skeleton some of the aspects of   the skull suggests it probably is a male skeleton  Tudor's mr. trick there should have said he had a   hunchback and lady's arms I would have made  Shakespeare's play very actually one of the   historical sources I'm I'm afraid I forget which  one that refers to him as as fighting surprisingly   well in battle considering that he was lacking in  masculinity so so there is there is actually some   historical backup for that that view well gender  shocker in lab was expecting you're able to be [Music] royalty is a queer old  thing between the current queen   in our potential king there are  23 different monarchs [Music] but not one of them directly related to Richard since the day our skeleton was discovered the hunt  has been on for a living descendant someone from   the male or female line whose DNA might be a  match they fell gravy of workshops we're in   the right area so far the closest descendant  on the female side and potentially the newest   member of the royal family looks to be a cabinet  maker called Michael wait funny history isn't it   I mean given different set of circumstances  I'd be looking for Michael in some palace   somewhere or a castle but such is the strange  course we're here in North London I mean it's   nice but you know you know everything if DNA  from our bones matched Michaels our skeleton   would be a king hi I'm looking for a nephew of  Richard the third have I found him I think you   found one one an intriguing archaeological  mystery in England took on a Canadian twist   today to find out if the skeleton is genuine  they're testing major White apes 17th generation   descendant the King's sister his DNA will be  compared so Michael what is your exact relation   to the dead king well I'm enough here in the  17th generation 7 actually not that far away   part of my physical being is directly related  to the family of Richard the third and that's   it makes you stop and think and it's I find it  somewhat overwhelming at times yeah you should   call Richard the last of the Plantagenet  but it's not true because you're your last   [Music] they're faint resemblance I mean if  you imagine Michael with with the wig and [Music] I'm just adding some skin we do this  as we would with real clay really is   just add kind of balls of clay over the  muscle structure and start with quite a   rough shape and then it becomes more and more  detailed as we move along into the process really from the muscle structure onwards   were starting to see what the  face is developing into [Music] some of the skin mer over the top of the forehead  so you starting to see the shape of the top of his   head where should Richard the third final resting  place be live on p.m. by two MPs will tell us my   final resting place for him would be Leicester  Cathedral works of these the halfway point in   York and Leicester but he'll never go to work so  I mean the sense of expectation in the country was   rising but by mid December we still couldn't  prove the skeleton was Richards and one test   had us all nervous the carbon dating that would  tell us what century our bones came from that's   cut and dried if we've got a 14th century a 13th  century burial you know it's game over then it's   definitely not Richard the date we needed to  be in sight of was the year of Richard's death   1485 we had sort of hopes that we'd get within  80 years was that was that was the thing so we   could eliminate any of this of early and medieval  burials we've got position at least the initial   dates coming they're suggesting fourteen thirty  to sixty which is a bit on the early side but   because the individual had a high-protein diet and  particularly was eating a lot of marine fish by   eating marine fish the marine fish are absorbing  lots of earlier carbon-14 and it's distorting the   day so then it's remodeled it then gives us  a 95.4% probabilities is ad 1450 to 1540 so   again it was fourteen well nice five point four  percent probability is 1450 to fifteen fourteen   ninety five percent plus category now in terms of  Philip I only needed an hour on the in the carpark an average person in medieval Leicester wouldn't  be having a very high protein diet not much fish   not much meat and most most people will be eating  pottage and some vegetables and things like that   within the friary they probably have quite a bit  quite a bit of fish although it's quite a poor   order so you know much so it's a high-status  individual which is also five months on from   breaking the tarmac evidence was mounting that our  skeleton was indeed Richard the third a medieval   grave in a sacred place a curved spine and bones  dated to the 15th century the cabinetmakers DNA   was now being processed alongside the skeletons  and the 3d face was being transformed into a   physical head this is really nice isn't it the  detail that you can see up here is fantastic in   Leicester one last investigation was underway  a trauma specialist and an armory expert were   trying to match injuries on the skull to  medieval weapons scanned across it in two   different directions one direction it looks  a bit like a scoop yes that's definitely as a   blade coming across in the accounts of Richard's  death they described him being brought down in a   Mele of men with one surging forward with a pole  axe to kill him no one knew if they were accurate   or part of the myth spun after his death on this  image it looks very scooped and then this image   here is much flat something like an axe blades  or at the quite sturdy sword as they identified   each injury on our skeleton medieval accounts and  21st century science began to tell the same story   everything suggested that for the first time they  might be able to tell the story of Richard's death [Music] the team at Leicester had pieced together what  looked to be the last moments of Richard's life and joined by a forensic pathologist they  were starting to identify the fatal blows   we found a series of injuries on the skeleton  tell us about the moments leading up to his   death and immediately afterwards there are some  some injuries that are very obvious but there   are also some injuries on here that are that are  much less obvious I just move it in the light you   can see that there's a bit of a slice here and we  think that what's happened there is that perhaps   somebody has taken a slicing action acting with  it with a sharp blade weapon it's just nicked the   top of her head the plate is sort of a scooping  depression and the still striations on there   so the blade came came in and out he will have  charged into that battle in full armor by this   time the helmet is a way you don't get I wouldn't  like that or other ones that were seeing wearing   a helmet determine would have come off before he  got to the he probably got to that point and then   in the in the ensuing melee hmm which would  have been possibly and it would be a number   of people were very very tightly packed together  in this very very small area and a helmet could   have been knocked on so then we also have this  this much more noticable but still quite small   wound it's a penetrating injury of some kind you  can see there's just a very small entrance wound   on the on the top of the skull it strikes me that  this is actually the result of probably a dagger   there is some type of dagger at this period called  the rondell dagger there are the illustrations   which show you holding it in one hand and then  basically about pushing it down with the other   hand so you've got this extra strength as well  this is a man who's not on a horse as well he's   already officers at this stage he's off his horse  as well he's recorded by even those who don't look   upon him favorably as he he fought manfully to  the end type of thing and scenario and this is   what I think some of these wounds are showing  he did he was he was there in the middle of it   right to the end mm-hmm and then of course we  come to the the most obvious of the wounds on   the skull which is this very major slice that's  been taken off and we actually have part of the   of the slice of bone that's been cut away here and  that that shows us that it must have still been   in some way attached maps as a flat afterwards  it's a very very dramatic injury again usually   but a lot of force behind something to actually  cut through this girl like this certainly if you   look at where this injury is the brain would be  visible through that so I think that's perhaps   the blow what did it probably that's the fatal  blow yeah yes you don't walk away from something   no not even today with modern neurosurgery  you know that that kills you brutal brutal yes considering the amount of damage that he  has received what might be very apparent   when we're looking into this face is actually  it is complete that this sort of quite obvious   if you think about it for a moment people  actually wanted to see it was Richard mm-hmm   yeah they wanted to see his face there is the  king or the Pretender usurper there it is he's   dead come and see for yourself if you don't  believe me so then there's one final wound   on the skeleton and again we're very sure  that this is something that happened after   the death of Richard and that's on the pelvis  there's actually a line across here and if we   look at this as an equivalent line on the part  of the bone that's broken away we can see that   something's come in from your back it's penetrated  slightly to the front there so what we think is   that somebody has actually stabbed him with some  kind of a bladed weapon this seems to fit in with   the idea if we imagine and accept the accounts  that he is bound over horse trusts and legs a   tangling one side the the arms the other side  it means his buttocks are about head height as   he's being led from Bosworth celesta and that  is such an opportunistic target for somebody   with it with a dagger just to go like that  in the buttocks yep into the backside Minton why would you bother stabbing someone you  know and the bombers are passing by that   wouldn't happen to an ordinary it heads in a  certain direction no I think it's all we're   always very careful in forensic pathology not  to overstate it but it's all highly suggestive   and you take everything in context the injuries  that he's got as he said the stature you've got   to start getting close to a serious conclusion  I submit I was quite skeptical at the beginning   but I know the more I've looked at this with  Joe and everybody else so I think it is the   combination of the curvature of the spine and  the pattern of injuries is not just the single   injury that caused death but the pattern of the  injuries suggests very strongly that this is him well I was prettiest pretty brutal in there I  mean to have a chunk taken out of your skull   and then something resembling a hammer blow  and then you know spike through the head and   then the back of his head taken up and  his brain spilling out just pretty and   then let's face it you know after what real  kind of you know inferring for the same as   a poor guy you know he got stabbed you know  in his ass basically and but least that was   brown those are brutal times that was a  medieval battle was pretty pretty sort of   ruthless and also what confirmed for me is  that is Richard the third there is no way   in my mind this is Richard a third that has  not reached a third that is one unlucky monk beautiful isn't it so this is where this is where  it all happens John yes yes I thinking about this   last night so going to bed one of the things  that came into my head is how brave he was I   suppose there's a leader because I was thinking  he's the last English King to die in battle you   couldn't imagine I'm the king now and he he  took it upon himself he said I'm I'm gonna   fight Richard thought that he was going to win  he was pleased when he heard Henry Tudor was   coming because he thought that he was going  to settle this issue and all his preparations   for the battle show confidence that's a sort of  comforting thoughts to me that it must have come   as a shock to him but hopefully that it came as  the last-minute shock and then and you know what   he was a warrior king and he died as a warrior  king you know and maybe that's what he that's   what he wanted he thought I'm gonna die then I'll  die that way yes everything suggested the skeleton   in a car park was Richard but one final piece  of proof was needed if it's ancient DNA didn't   match a living descendant then the truth of his  identity would always be questioned I genuinely   don't know what the DNA result is it seemed  only right that Tory should tell Michael first   it has much more impact on him than anybody  else it's quite big news to absorb isn't it Michael hello if you look at the DNA of Michael and you  look at the DNA from the squeakily remains   there's a match Wow Jame the tiny evidence  points to this being rich the third Wow so we can categorically say we found  King in a car park yes yeah any of you   is thinking of going to the local car  park and digging it up this is a very   unusual situation you're not good not to be  tried in your local social services these   people are experts on a gray London day  three and a half years after starting her   quest Philippa has reached the end of her  journey I feel quite nervous here [Music] the same signs that can put a face  to an unidentified victim of crime   will allow us to stare into the face of  Richard the third a King of England who   died 500 years ago when he was just 32 let's go okay yeah okay all right I  know cue noise immunity yeah Wow remarkable being hardened see the man when he call me doesn't look like the face of a tyrant I'm  sorry but it doesn't and there's no children   mythology all over him you know he's a bonny  lad yes he does he's very handsome it's like   you could just talk to him of a conversation with  him really [Laughter] it's been a complete roller   coaster ride and to see this now to sit here  for years on after everything that's happened   after everything they've been through and to see  the real Richard the third I'm just full of joy what I found most fascinating about this  journey has had two sources of information   as a science side and the historical side and  the science information so it gets narrower   gets more concrete you know so we we know what  he looked like and how he carried himself and   Eve even what he ate how he died in battle but  the more you're looking to the historical side   of thing is a narrative of Richard's life  if you like the murkier and murkier it gets   but I think that's what I've learned to love  about history it's all open to interpretation   everyone's entitled to their opinions it's like  two football commentators arguing over the same   penalty decision and both seem the same  thing as what they both come to different   conclusions and I guess the conclusion I've  come to is that I am a Ricardian wow I never   thought I'd hear myself say that my name is  Simon fauna Beane I am the Ricardian [Music] good morning my name's Ricky Baylor I'm  from the University of Leicester and I'd   like to welcome you here to the City of Leicester [Music]