The ground beneath our feet tells many tales. Look down at where you’re standing now. It may look like a regular ordinary floor be it tile or carpet or wood planks. Maybe you’re outside looking at the grass or sidewalk. Maybe you’re driving over a road or parked in a parking lot. Nothing too interesting there. But what might you find beneath that layer? Evidence of times come before? An older floor or foundation? Artifacts, bones, fossils? What story does the Earth beneath your feet hold? Over in England there was a just as ordinary seeming car park, what we call a parking lot in the US. Standing in that parking lot in the modern city of Leicester you would look around you and see nothing special: a paved road, a brick sidewalk, some brick and stone buildings neatly aligned. There’s a hotel, a pub, a school, an Argentinian restaurant nearby. It could be anywhere. But peel back the layers beneath your feet and you would reveal centuries of history, whole lifetimes come and gone - first the remains of a Victorian era outhouse, then the brick foundation of some 19th century building long gone, keep digging and you’d uncover paving stones from a long forgotten garden, and then eventually the remains of an old tile floor from the 1400s, remnants of a 15th century church, and then, just a bit below that, bodies, 15 in all, a lead lined coffin inside a stone sarcophagus, likely an early benefactor of the church, and just next to that, a skeleton without a coffin, shoved hastily into a too small grave, unassuming, unadorned. And yet, this is exactly the man you were looking for. Because these weathered bones, with a distinct spine curvature, these might appear to be the remains of some unnamed pauper, but they aren’t. They are instead the remains of Richard III, King of all England in the 1480s. Let’s fix that. 

Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. I wasn’t really planning for last week’s episode about the War of the Roses to be a two parter, and I guess it isn’t really but this is sort of an expansion of one of the characters from that story, Richard III who ruled as king of England from 1483 until his death in 1485. And really this episode is mostly about Richard after he died, specifically the discovery of his body in a parking lot in Leicester, England. Richard is a complex and misunderstood historical figure. He lived and reigned during a very tumultuous time in British history and he was ultimately defeated by an unlikely usurper, his distant cousin with little claim to the throne, Henry Tudor who then went on to become King Henry VII, father of Henry VIII and patriarch of the Tudor dynasty. Richard only reigned for two years but he is significant. He was the last Plantagenet king after 331 years of that family ruling England. He was also the last English king to be killed in battle. 

Richard gets a bad rap for the most part and it may or may not be warranted. A lot of that is because of Tudor propaganda. For example, Henry VIII’s chronicler Sir Thomas More wrote about Richarrd murdering the princes in the tower as if it were fact but much of this was completely unsubstantiated. They just wanted to paint Richard as a villain. It was Henry VIII’s father after all who had defeated Richard in battle. Remember history is written by the victors.  Shakespeare continued this when he wrote the play Richard III over a hundred years after the actual Richard III’s death. And in that play, Richard is portrayed as a villain. He is the antagonist of the play. He is a manipulative, murderous, ruthless, cruel tyrant who eliminates anyone who stands between himself and the throne, even members of his own family. And part of this is more Tudor propaganda. Shakespeare wrote this during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I who was the granddaughter of Henry VII who defeated Richard and took his crown. So obviously he’s going to be on team Tudor to please his queen, not team Richard. But part of this is also a little bit based in truth. Maybe. Because during Richard’s reign, the rumor on the streets was that he had had his two nephews, 12 year old Edward V and 9 year old Richard of Shrewsbury, secretly murdered in the Tower of London so that they would not pose a threat to his reign, Edward of course being the actual heir to the throne. I actually put out a mini fix about this on Wednesday over on Patreon, as promised, exploring this 500 year old cold case because, while we’re pretty sure the princes in the tower were murdered, I mean we found, possibly their remains, we aren’t positive who actually had them murdered. Was it Richard? Was it someone else? I explore all of that in the latest mini fix. Here’s a quick preview: 

The Tower of London has to be one of the most conflicted places on Earth. If you believe in ghosts, if you believe in energy fields, whatever it is you believe, to stand there on the grounds of the Tower, one of England’s most famous buildings dating back to the days of William of the Conqueror in 1078, is to bear witness to extemes, extreme events, extreme emotions, excitement, fear, grief. For centuries the Tower of London was used for various contradictory purposes. It was the place where future monarchs awaited their coronations, excitement, nervousness, resolve. It was also the place where many prominent people were taken to be publicly executed, beheaded, some without trial. Two of Henry VIII’s wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, who was just 18 years old, Lady Jane Grey, only 17, Thomas Cromwell, Sir Thomas More, William Hastings. The list goes on. So in 1483 when two little boys are taken to the tower by their uncle, one of whom is set to be the next king of England, everyone begins to wonder. Which purpose are they there for? Coronation or execution? Let’s fix that. 

If you aren’t already subscribed to the Patreon you can do that for just $5 a month or you can buy just that one mini fix episode for $3 if you’re like “I really want to know more about the Princes in the Tower mystery but I don’t actually care about all of the other awesome bonus content and getting regular episodes 2 days early and ad free and supporting an independent podcast that I love.” See what I did there? Patreon.com/historyfixpodcast. 

So Richard III. Hopefully you listened to or watched the latest full History Fix episode about the War of the Roses because then you already know who Richard III was and that’s super helpful. If not, it’s cool cause you know I’m gonna recap it for you. Basically what happened was, starting in the late 1300s with the death of England’s King Edward III, cousins kept stealing the throne from each other back and forth, various descendants of Edward III. That’s why the war of the roses is also called the cousin war. When Edward died, his oldest son had already died so the crown went to his grandson, the oldest son’s son who was named Richard. And so Richard became King Richard II at just 10 years old. Not our Richard, this is a different Richard. But then, his cousin Henry takes the crown from him. Henry becomes King Henry IV. His son and grandson rule after him as Henry V and Henry VI but then a cousin of Henry VI takes the crown and becomes King Edward IV. Edward III had 5 sons and all of these guys who are taking the crown now are descended from different sons. So Richard II was the son of the first son. Henry was the son of the third son. Edward was descended from the fourth son. Too many sons, too many male cousins, too many male heirs. It’s a problem. So now Edward IV is king. He’s a York, okay because his people, his line of the family are the Dukes of York. These are all members of the Plantagenet family but there’s like different sects based on these dukedoms, right, Henry’s a Lancaster, Edward’s a York. And that’s the war of the roses really, these two sects of the Plantagenet family, the Lancasters and the Yorks, fighting each other for the English crown. 

So Edward IV is king, he has successfully taken the throne from his distant cousin Henry VI. However, Edward dies at the age of 40 from some natural cause, we don’t really know what. Some think pneumonia, some think typhoid, melancholy, fevers, syphilis… it’s a bit of a mystery. Which leads me to be like, was it a natural cause? Was it? If we don’t know the cause could it possibly have been unnatural? Kings were dropping like flies in the War of the Roses which was, in case you missed it, the inspiration for Game of Thrones. You win or you die right? But, I mean supposedly Edward IV died of natural causes so whatever. He had plenty of children. He had ten children with his wife Elizabeth Woodville, three of whom were sons. The oldest of those sons was set to become King Edward V, but he was only 12 years old. So the plan was for his uncle, his father’s brother Richard, to act as Lord Protector, as regent until he was old enough to rule on his own. Richard has other plans though and this is what I go into in detail in that latest mini fix. He decides instead, instead of playing regent to a boy king, he decides to have Edward V and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, these two nephews, declared illegitimate and therefore unable to inherit the throne. I talked about this last week and again in the mini fix so I won’t go too deep but this is all based on the boys father King Edward IV marrying their mother, this woman Elizabeth Woodville without like council consent or whatever. Because she was not nobility. Her family did not have any titles. She was not considered to be a suitable match for a king. But Edward married her anyway because he like loved her or whatever, go figure. Actually, it may not have even been that. I think he married her because she was super beautiful. She was said to have been the most beautiful woman in the Island of Britain, but whatever. Basically what you need to know is that Richard gets his two nephews out of the way and gets himself crowned King Richard III in 1483. So Richard is king but these are the cousin wars remember and there is another cousin, though very distant this time, with his eyes on the throne: Henry Tudor. Henry is only related to Richard through his mother whose grandfather was an illegitimate child of Edward III’s third son John of Gaunt. So basically not in line for the throne in any way. His great grandfather had been legitimized when John of Gaunt married his mistress but he was not able to inherit the throne. Legitimized but not all the way. So Richard is a descendant of the 4th son. Henry is a descendant of the 3rd son but not fully legit. Honestly it’s like neither one of them should have been anywhere near the throne but here we are. So Richard and Henry are battling for the crown. This all comes to head at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485 where Richard III is defeated, killed in battle, the last English king to be killed in battle. Henry Tudor is crowned Henry VII and becomes the patriarch of the Tudor dynasty that would go on to include Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. 

So, now you’re all caught up. Let’s talk about what happened to the body of Richard III after his death because that’s what this episode is actually about. Bosworth Field, where that final battle took place is in rural Leicestershire. Now Richard is not king of England anymore. He’s been defeated, Henry is king now. They aren’t too concerned about what happens to Richard’s body. I mean he isn’t getting like a king’s funeral with a procession and he’s not going to be buried in Westminster Abbey or anything like that. Instead, his body is brought to Leicester which is the city in Leicestershire. So the way this works, cause I wasn’t sure, Leicestershire is like the county and then Leicester is the city within that county. So the Battle of Bosworth Field, Richard is killed elsewhere in the county of Leicestershire, out in the country somewhere, rural Leicestershire, in a field, and then his body is brought to the city which is called Leicester. His body lies in state for a few days, so they aren’t just like chucking him a hole in the ground right away, he still gets some respect. Now it is August pre-airconditioning so part of me is like, yeah let’s maybe chuck him in the hole right away cause gross. But his body lies in state and then is buried by a Fransciscan holy order called the Grey Friars in their church there in Leicester. End of story for Richard III. 

Beginning of our actual story today. The Grey Friars this Frasciscan holy order, this is a Catholic thing. Right it’s 1485 all Christians are Catholics. It’s the only thing. But then we know that a few decades later, under the reign of Richard’s usurper’s son, Henry VIII, the Catholic church will be done away with in England and the protestant Church of England will be established so that Henry can divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, without needing the pope’s permission. So what happens in the 1530s with the Dissolution of the Monasteries is the Grey Friar’s church in Leicester under which Richard III was buried, gets torn down, it gets leveled. Eventually streets are paved, other buildings are built. It just turns into nothing, a modern street corner. Type in Richard III remains on Google Maps and hit street view. You can see exactly what it looks like now. 

There was a well known local legend that came about that Richard’s body had been dug up and thrown into the nearby river Soar when the monasteries were dissolved and the Grey Friars church was demolished. There was even a Victorian era stone plaque about it at the base of a bridge. They were like “yeah, everyone knows Richard’s body was thrown into this river.” So fast forward to modern times, people aren’t totally sure if this legend is true, if his remains were really thrown into the river or if he is still buried in the same place he was always buried, it’s just now a modern city street instead of a church. Many researchers believed that he was in fact still buried in the same place and had never been thrown into the river, that that was just historical telephone despite the plaque, and they start to put forward theories about exactly where his grave might be. In 1920 a researcher named Charles Billson concluded in “The King’s Fate” that quote “Richard’s remains must now lie, if undisturbed, somewhere beneath the Grey Friars Street or the buildings that face it,” end quote. So I’m looking at Google Maps of this area, of this block. If you’re watching the video version on either YouTube or Patreon you’re looking at it with me. Grey Friars street is sort of to the east. If you picture a city block it’s like a square right so Grey Friars street is on the right. On top, to the north is St. Martins. The bottom south street is called Friar Lane, and then the street to the west, the one on the left is New St. So Billson theorized that Richard’s body was under Grey Friar’s street. 

In 1962 a historian named Audrey Strange had a different theory for the location of the body. She suggested that it was underneath a car park, what we call a parking lot in the US, off of New St. that street on the left, the west side of the block, so a block away from where Billson thought it was, a street over. She goes to the Leicestershire Museums Service’s archaeology department. She’s like “I’m pretty sure this really famous king is buried under that parking lot, can we please do some digging and find out?” And they’re like, “nah, we’re good.” A couple years later David T.D. Clarke the Keeper of Archaeology at Leicestershire Museums was like “Hey I think Richard is buried under a car park on New St. in Leicester.” Duh dude, Audrey literally just said that and nobody listened to her. Why am I not surprised. 

Audrey’s back at it though in 1975 in a publication called the Ricardian. She ends with a firm statement, a firm conclusion that Richard’s body was under the New St. car park. She’s like “it’s definitely there if anyone cares at any point ever.” No one does care really, not yet. Ten years after Audrey published that article, it gets reprinted in a book called “Richard III Crown and People.” The next year, a University of Leicester tutor named David Baldwin comes across this information while doing some research about Richard and narrows down the location further to the site of the old church choir on the north end of what is now this parking lot. 

Nothing really comes of any of this until 2011 when researcher Phillipa Langley sinks her claws into it. She proposed an even more precise location of where she thought the body might be buried under this parking lot. So basically this area where the grey friar’s church compound sort of area, the friary, used to be, by 2011, 83% of it was covered with new development. So anywhere there was a new building they would have dug down to lay the foundation, they would have found or destroyed anything down there, any graves or anything like that. Only 17% of this area had not been developed. It may have been paved over, but it hadn’t been dug up and developed. So that narrows it down quite a bit. He has to be in one of these open, undeveloped areas or else we would have found him. We would have dug stuff up when we were laying the foundations for these buildings. 

So Phillipa is pretty sure she knows whereabouts he is. She goes to the Leicester City Council and the University of Leicester Archaeological Services to propose an excavation and this time they’re like “okay cool, we’re in, just raise half the funds for it, we’ll cover the rest.” Which she does. She raises the necessary funds and the dig is scheduled to begin summer of 2012. Actually the first day of the dig was the very day, August 22, that Richard was killed in battle at Bosworth Field. 527 years to the day. Yeah, chills. They set aside two weeks to do this. They were going to spend two whole weeks carefully excavating this area under this parking lot. But, you guys, they find him within 6 hours of the first day in the very first trench that they dug. It was literally the first thing they found. The University of Leicester says quote “The first noteworthy discovery was a human left leg bone at the edge of the trench – a good find but not particularly surprising when excavating near a church. This was found approximately 5m from the north end of the trench, about 1.5m below modern ground level. Careful examination revealed a parallel right leg, indicating an undisturbed grave (pleasing but again not unexpected). The remains (A) were covered to protect them from the weather until more was known about where they were located within the friary. In hindsight, the rather Shakespearean thunderstorm that heralded the discovery and the letter ‘R’ painted in a parking bay nearby proved to be rather portentous!” end quote. Okay so they don’t know it yet but this is Richard! The first thing they found! But they just sort of covered it up to protect it and were like we have to sort of orient ourselves first. We need to figure out where we are in regards to the old church. This could be anyone. Let’s just find the church and go from there. Soon, that same day, they found the remains of a medieval robbed wall which is an old wall where the stones have been removed to use elsewhere so it just leaves sort of like a trench in the ground where the wall used to be. They found the remains of what looked like a low stone wall running beside the robbed wall and a bunch of medieval rubble like what might be left behind when you demolish a medieval building. So they’re like, okay this is probably the friary, this is probably the old church compound. Things are looking good. 

They keep digging. They dig a second trench. They find more robbed walls. They find the remains of an old tiled floor, a doorway, stone benches. And the discovery of the benches was super helpful. Because this was obviously a part of a building where people could sit facing each other, based on the orientation of the benches, and talk. So in a medieval friary that would be the chapter house. So now, because of the benches, they know where they are in the friary and they can use that to locate the actual church within the friary which is where they believe Richard would have been buried. Meanwhile, while they’re looking for the church they get permission to exhume up to 6 bodies. They’re only looking for Richard so they are only exhuming bodies that could possibly be him - males in their 30s with potentially fatal battle wounds, buried in the eastern part of the church which is where he was reportedly buried. Once they locate the actual church, they realize that that very first body they found was in fact buried in the eastern part of it. It was also a male in his 30s with potentially fatal battle wounds. What’s more, the spine showed a clear S shape curvature and Richard III was rumored to have had scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. Clearly fitting the bill, these bones were exhumed and sent to the lab for testing. The University of Leicester writes quote “Sometime later… long after everyone else had gone home, Jo and Mathew continued to carefully remove the skeleton, bagging and labelling each bone. The skull, lower jaw and right femur, which would be used for DNA sampling, were wrapped in baking foil to protect them from contamination. Finally, with the sun setting, everything was loaded into the van, the gates were locked, and the mortal remains of Richard III bid farewell to the church of the Grey Friars after 527 undisturbed years,” end quote. 

So now they have to identify these bones. Are they really the bones of Richard III? Did we really find him halfway through the first day of digging in the very first hole we dug? They carbon date the bones to between 1455 and 1540. So that checks out. Richard died in 1485. They determine that the bones belonged to a male in his 20s or 30s. That checks out. Richard was 32 when he died. Which like, I don’t know why I assume everyone in these stories is older than me. He was only 32. Dude was not that old. They do DNA testing and link the bones to Richard’s descendants. So at this point, they can say with 99.999% accuracy that these are the bones of Richard III and it was announced to the world in February of 2013. 

Now that we know it’s Richard, let’s take a closer look at the find and what it tells us about Richard’s death and burial. This is coming straight from the University of Leicester which was involved in the excavations, linked in the description of course, quote “Although the feet and one lower leg bone (left fibula) were missing – these were removed long after burial, perhaps when a Victorian outhouse was built on top of the grave – Richard III’s skeleton was otherwise complete. It is amazing that there was so little damage, as in places, the 19th-century brickwork was just 90mm above the skeleton (thats 3 and a half inches). If the Victorian workmen had dug much deeper or wider, Richard III’s remains might have been severely damaged or even completely destroyed. Richard III was buried at the west end of the church choir, in front of the southern choir stall. This location is slightly ambiguous. The choir was in one of the more important parts of the church, though not the most important (the presbytery), and it would have been very visible to the friars attending their daily services. However, this place was not generally accessible to the public, thereby preventing widespread veneration of the tomb. Out of sight, out of mind? The irregular grave appeared to have been hastily dug and was noticeably too short for the body, which was propped up awkwardly at one end. Richard’s body was not in a coffin and there was no evidence that he had been wrapped in a tight cloth shroud. Instead, he lay to one side of the grave, his torso and head crammed up against the edge. This would appear to tally with historical accounts suggesting that Richard III was buried rather unceremoniously. However, it should also be remembered that he was killed in August and his corpse had been on display, unembalmed for three days before burial. Decomposition would have already started and haste may have been a necessary practicality rather than lack of respect for the deceased. The arrangement of the body suggests it was lowered feet first, head last. This explains why the legs were straight, but the upper torso and head were partially propped against the grave side. The way the hands are arranged, crossed at the wrist (most likely right over left) and placed askew above the right side of the pelvis was unusual. It is possible that they could have been tied together, either to keep the limbs tidy or perhaps because they were never untied after Richard III was taken down from the horse which transported his corpse back to Leicester. No traces of clothing or personal ornaments were found in the grave. This is normal in medieval burials, although kings were often buried in their official robes with emblems of office. For instance, King John (d. 1216) was buried with a sword, whilst Edward I (d. 1307) was buried with a mortuary crown and sceptre,” end quote. 

Studying Richard’s skeleton debunked some old misconceptions about him. Many thought of Richard as hunchbacked with a withered hand and limping gait. And this mostly comes from Shakespeare’s play Richard III where Richard is portrayed as a villain. Shakespeare calls him a quote “poisonous bunch backed toad.” Yikes. So we know from the bones that Richard did have scoliosis but it wasn’t serious enough to even really be noticeable while he was alive. He certainly wouldn’t have been described as a hunchback. Bryony Jones writes in an article for CNN quote “For the archaeologists searching for Richard’s remains, the sight of the freshly-uncovered skeleton’s twisted spine was the moment the hairs began to stand up on the back of their necks; tests later revealed the King suffered from idiopathic adolescent-onset scoliosis. But while the skeleton’s curved vertebrae are striking, experts say the resulting disability would not have been obvious in Richard III when he was alive. It would have meant his right shoulder was slightly higher than the other, but this was likely disguised by clothing, and so only apparent to the King’s closest family and confidantes,” end quote. His hand was fine. He didn’t have a withered hand that’s just fiction mistaken as truth thanks to Shakespeare. 

Portraits of Richard show him as having darker hair, dark brown hair, and sort of steely gray eyes but these were painted some 20 or 30 years after his death. Genetic analysis of the bones suggests that that depiction was not accurate. Genetic specialist Turi King from the University of Leicester told CNN quote “The genetic evidence shows he had a 96% probability of having blue eyes, and a 77% probability of having blond hair, though this can darken with age,” end quote. 

We learned a little about Richard’s diet from studying his bones. Jones writes quote “Scientists at the British Geological Survey measured the levels of isotopes including oxygen, strontium, nitrogen and carbon in Richard III’s remains, revealing clues to what he ate and drank. They spotted a dramatic change in the last few years of his life – suggesting his dietary habits became markedly richer once he became King,” end quote. Geochemist Angela Lamb says in that same CNN article quote “We have the menu from his coronation banquet and it was very elaborate – lots of wildfowl, including real ‘delicacies’ such as peacock and swan, and fish – carp, pike and so on,” end quote. But that rich king’s diet did not appear to protect him from parasites. Jones says quote “Researchers examining soil samples from the pelvis and skull of the skeleton spotted roundworm eggs in the area where the dead monarch’s intestines would have been. Roundworm eggs…  are ingested via contaminated food, water or soil; once hatched and matured, the worms can grow up to a foot long,” end quote. 

And of course we were able to confirm how Richard died by studying his skeleton. Italian born English historian Polydore (po-li-door-ay) Vergil (vair-gel), recorded in his “Anglica Historia” that: quote “King Richard alone was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies,” end quote. While studying the remains, archaeologists found evidence of 11 wounds, 9 of them to his skull and 2 to other parts of the body. Jones says quote “The position of the injuries suggest that Richard had lost both his horse and his helmet when he was set upon by opposition troops,” end quote. The types and locations of these injuries were consistent with contemporary reports of what happened at Bosworth Field. According to Professor Guy Rutty quote “The most likely injuries to have caused the king’s death are the two to the inferior aspect of the skull – a large sharp force trauma possibly from a sword or staff weapon, such as a halberd or bill, and a penetrating injury from the tip of an edged weapon,” end quote. They also found an injury to the inside of Richard’s pelvis which suggests that his body had been mutilated to some extent after his death. And this is consistent with contemporary reports as well that he had been subjected to ritual humiliation by his enemies. The University of Leicester breaks down each of the 11 injuries with photos of the skeleton showing the cut marks, it’s linked in the description, very cool, very morbid if you’re into that kind of thing. They say of this pelvis injury quote “This was produced by a sharp weapon such as a sword or dagger. The weapon was thrust from behind, entering the right buttock and penetrating right through the body. Such a blow would be difficult to inflict during battle, when the king would have been protected by his armour. This injury may also have been inflicted post-mortem, as an act of humiliation,” end quote. They stabbed him in the buttcheek, basically, somebody couldn’t help himself. How funny would it be to stab a king in the butt. Ha ha very funny guys. 

So there you have it, the car park king Richard III, a fairly misunderstood historical figure. You guys know I love scientific historical evidence and so any time we can find and study a body like this, I mean just look at how much we were able to learn about Richard’s life and his death from this over 500 year old skeleton. Amazing. Today there is a visitor center located on the site of Richard’s grave with a glass floor so you can see down into the now empty grave. Richard’s remains were reinterred with full royal ceremony at Leicester Cathedral in 2015. And part of me goes, well that’s good, that’s good, he was a king after all he deserved a proper king’s burial. And then the other part of me goes, did he? Because I need to know, you know, did he kill the princes in the tower? Did he kill those innocent little boys, his own flesh and blood, to steal their throne? Cause if so, I’m not so sure he did deserve a king’s burial. But of course the answer to that question is lost to time probably forever and all we’re left with now is flawed portraits, an exaggerated reputation from a fictional play, and a skeleton, unadorned hastily buried, coffinless in a too small grave. In the end, I still don’t know who Richard III truly was and what he did or didn’t deserve. But I do know that he was significant, his brief 2 year reign was one of the most infamous of all English kings, and that finding his body in that unassuming place was a win for history. 

Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix. 

Information used in this episode was sourced from the University of Leicester, Historic UK, Cambridge University, History Hit, and King Richard III Visitor’s Center. As always, linked in the show notes.