Waching daily Feb 2 2018

'Slave, I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die:

I think there be six Richmonds in the field; Five have I slain to-day instead of him.

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!'

In 2012, an excavation in the city of Leicester was started...

In 2012, an excavation in Leicester was started as an attempt to find Richard III's remains.

One of the most known and infamous kings of England's history, even ruling for only two years.

And where the excavations were conducted?

In a beautiful church? In an amazing cathedral? In a fantastic mausoleum for kings and queens?

In a parking space...

Dr. Marcia, good morning. How are you?

Good morning John. I'm so late.

Ednelson, park the doctor's Pick-up car on top of the king!

But firstly, who was Richard III?

Born in 1452, he wasn't the family's elder son.

The first born was his brother, king Edward IV, who died,

and who should then became king was one of his sons, who would be called Edward V.

Richard III was the chosen one to be the boy's tutor,

so they decided to travel to London and waint inside the Tower of London, at the time, a castle, not a prison

for the coronation. But there was a turnaround,

Edward IV's marriage to the mother of the boys was considered illegimimate, since Edward IV had

promissed to marry to another woman before wedding the boy's mother,

so the church accused him of bigamy.

And the widow, that wished to see her son in the throne to become the regent, ended up

failing to put her son in the throne.

So Richard ran to set up everything to be crowned the new king,

what happened in 1483.

As for his nephews, they were never seen again.

But in 1485, in a battle against Henry Tudor, he got murdered.

In fact, I talked about Henry Tudor in the 'children's day' video. For those who want to check it out, it's above,

Henry considered himself a legitimate heir to the throne, because like Richard, he descended from Edward III,

that ruled England during the 14th century.

Henry Tudor ascended to the throne and did everything (stupid pun in Portuguese, just ignore it, it isn't worthy)

to make Richard III look like a cruel, vile and monstrous man.

So he saw his nephew's disappearance as an opportunity to make up a story.

So everybody started to believe that Richard III had ordered his nephew's execution, so there was no danger

of having them claiming the throne in the future.

Tudor Era propaganda was a success, and made everyone, including Shakespeare, author of Richard III

to believe that the king killed in battle was an extremely cruel person, and that his death was good for England.

Besides that, Henry made sure that Richard III's physique

was consistent with his cruel behavior,

so he spread the rumour that Richard III had an awful hunchback that let him with a monstruous aspect,

a sort of English hunchback of Notre-Dame.

What was believed is that after he was killed in battle,

Richard III was stripped of his armour,

a rope was tied to his neck, so he could be removed from the field,

and that his corpse was thrown at thr river with no ceremony at all.

But maybe this excavation could deny this rumour.

The first thing done to indicate the spot where he could possibly be buried,

was to compare some maps from different times of the same location,

Greyfriars, in the city of Leicester.

Many maps were analysed, and the conclusion was that, the car park

was built over the church where Richard III was buried.

This church was part of a monastery,

and curiously, this project didn't started with archaeologists, but with Philippa Langley,

of Richard III Society's presidents,

a society that tries to prove that he wasn't the vile and cruel man

that Tudor propagand tried to make him.

Passioned with the idea of finding the king's remains,

she took her project to the Leicester University Archaeology department,

and they accepted to help her. Besides this, within two weeks,

she was capable of raising suficient funds to make it happen,

donated by people from all around the world, including Brazil.

The most curious thing, is that the first spot they started to dig into, had a letter 'R' painted on.

And on the first day, in the first spot, they already found traces.

In this exact location stood the church that was part of the friary, and where the king was supposed to be.

And continuing with the excavation,

archaeologists were able to find bones from a leg.

Some time later, a skull with battle wounds was found.

But the position of the skull in comparison with the position of the leg,

suggested that those parts didn't belonged to the same person.

Were there two people buried? But both parts belonged to the same body.

The thing is that as the excavations went on, it was possible to see that the spine

had Severe Scoliosis, some sort of hunchback.

So the Tudor propaganda wasn't lying,. He actually had a scoliosis,

but it wasn't so exaggerated as they told. They made the fact bigger, but they didn't make it up.

So what he had wasn't the kind of elevation at the back,

but at the side of his body. So his shoulders were

one lower than the other. What made his locomotion a little difficult,

maybe even the armour usage,

and fighting in the battlefield. What made battles harder.

After rescued, the bones were taken to be analysed in a ceremonious way.

The bones were laid inside a box, and on top of the box

Richard III's flag, even without assurance that it was really him.

But the bones really belonged to Richard III?

The bones went under radiocarbon dating,

his DNA was tested and compared with a descendant's,

and there was also a MRI test,

especially the skull, to verify the wound founded in detail.

After that, the skull would be used for a facial reconstruction.

Michael, a woodworker in London, descendant of Richard III

was found, and had his DNA tested for the research.

The fun fact is that he visited the museum where a picture of Richard III is exhibited,

and his features are compared to his ancestor's, and they are actually very similar to each other.

Besides that, the radiocarbon test result was positive for the year of his demise, 1485,

that fits among the period of time that the test revealed.

Long story short, it was Richard III, and this is his Facial Reconstruction.

After the confirmation, the bones were placed in a new coffin,

and taken to a ceremony in Bosworth Field, where he was killed in 1485.

He was welcomed there with honours, cannon shots, and people dressed as they were in the 15th century.

A pyre was lit in his tribute,

and after that, the coffin was taken to Leicester Cathedral, where he would be buried again.

During the beautiful ceremony, the team that examined him was present.

Also Philippa Langley, responsible for the whole project, that fortunately reached her goal,

Michael, Richard III's descendant,

and Doctor Strange's actor Benedict Cumberbatch,

that played Richard III on 'The Hollow Crown' series,

also declaiming a beautiful poem during the ceremony.

By the way, Richard III's documentary with details of the excavation,

and also his funeral are linked below.

And just like our other friends that were exhumed, and buried again,

I wish Richard III to rest in peace and eternally,

because unlike what the Tudor propaganda used to say,

I think he deserves it.

If you like this video, thumbs up! If you don't...

A special thanks to Lóiam Torres, the unicorn's real owner.

No unicorns were harmed during the production of this video.