The remains of King Richard III, discovered under a city car park, were found in a hastily dug, untidy grave, researchers have revealed.
Academics from the University of Leicester said the bones of the last Plantagenet king were placed in an odd position and 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 for the body 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.
It comes after the announcement in February that the monarch's remains had been discovered.
There were no signs of a shroud or coffin, in stark contrast to other medieval graves found in the town that were the correct length and dug neatly, academics said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article