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Richard III Suffered an Ignominious Burial, Researchers Find

Posted by samzenpus on from the hold-the-pomp dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Richard III may have been the King of England and the subject of a Shakespearean play, but even that couldn't keep him safe from ending up in a hastily-dug grave that ultimately became part of a parking lot, according to a new study published in the journal Antiquity."

9 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Re:News for nerds by osu-neko · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your "dupe" has no information about the conditions of his burial, which is the main point of this May 25th article.

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  2. Re:Better than cremation by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It really would be news if we were to learn that Richard suffered from his burial. That would indicate that he was aware of his surroundings three days after he had clinically died. THIS IS A CASE FOR LIFE AFTER DEATH!! The question that Richard failed to answer is, which, if any religions, offers any real promise of salvation or happiness after death. Poor, suffering Richard - does anyone think that he is still suffering after all this time?

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  3. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    News for nerds? No. Stuff that matters? No.

  4. Shakespeare??? by ignavus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Um, Richard III died in 1495 while Shakespeare was writing plays (like, you know, "Richard III") around 1592 - a hundred years later.

    So how was Richard's burial going to be affected by a play that hadn't yet been written, and which wasn't going to be written for another 100 years?

    Do you think the early Tudors might have thought, with a little effort: "Oh look! Some playwright will write about this dead king in a hundred years, and the dead king and the playwright will still be famous in 500 years time, so we had better bury this dead king properly."

    --
    I am anarch of all I survey.
  5. Re:A bit of perspective folks... by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Evil Welsh half-French Bastard Henry VII (EWHFBH7)

    FTFY.

    He was a right cunt, wasn't he? Just like all the Tudors. The thistle-arsed bastard Stuarts weren't exactly great, but after the Tudors they were a relief.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. I'd rather not be a 'king'. by SternisheFan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd take living in this modern life as a 'peon' any day over being any royal person in history. We live better than any kings and queens of yore. We have modern plumbing and sanitation instead of having to defecate into holes, and nothing beats a hot shower on demand. In the 1400's the average english person took a bath every 7 years, the world was filled with dirty smelly people. Heat and air conditioning on demand, not cold castle walls. We can get to anyplace in the world in a matter of hours, not yearlong odyessee's. Only royalty got to wear the color purple, today we have the full spectrum of color available. Disease and plagues are not something to be feared as back then, healthcare today is top-notch. And all the world's knowledge is all available on your portable phone, there's no need to live in ignorance provided by royal magical wisemen. We live better and longer than kings and queens of history ever did. This story, repeat though it is here, reminds me to be grateful for the marvelous lives we lead today, the best time in all of history to be alive.

    1. Re:I'd rather not be a 'king'. by SternisheFan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "healthcare today is top-notch"

      Written by someone who has never been sick

      Or perhaps by someone who has never lived in the US

      I am 53, live in the U.S., and have woken up in emergency rooms in my day with traumatic injuries. Injuries so bad that if they had happened 10 years earlier there would have been nothing doctors could have done to repair the damage done. I've had cataract surgery a few years ago, and now I see better than I ever have in my life, night driving on rainy nights especially is much easier now. I have no complaints about modern healthcare in the U.S.

  7. Re:ignominious? by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even kings start to smell bad after a couple of days.

    Just dig a hole and drop him in it, he's putting me off my eel pie...

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    No sig today...
  8. Re:I guess he started to stink . . . by rgmoore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For honored dead, it was called lying in state, for dishonored it was parading the body, but in both cases the reason was the same: to get as many witnesses as possible to the fact the person was well and truly dead. Otherwise, there would be persistent rumors that they were still alive, people pretending to be them (or their children born after their official date of death), and the like. So it was gruesome but completely practical.

    And it's not as if the need for this kind of thing has completely gone away. There are still people who are rumored to be alive long after their deaths, like Elvis Presley. In the fight against terrorism, there have been several cases where the US has published pictures of the obviously dead bodies of prominent enemies as a way of proving they're actually dead, and there was considerable speculation among conspiracy theorists about why Osama bin Laden's body was disposed of so quickly.

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    There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.