King’s burial was ‘rushed and untidy’

Leicester University academics said the bones of the Plantagenet king were in an odd position with the torso crammed in.

He was casually placed in a badly prepared grave, suggesting gravediggers were in a hurry to bury him or had little respect for the murdered king. The lozenge-shaped grave was too short to contain the body conventionally, and there is evidence to suggest his hands might have been tied when he was buried.

Researchers said someone is likely to have stood in the grave to receive the body, suggested by the fact the body is on one side rather than placed centrally.

The findings were revealed as University of Leicester archaeologists published the first peer-reviewed paper on the university-led archaeological Search for Richard III in the journal Antiquity.

The paper is called The king in the car park and can be read on the Antiquity website.