The position of the skeleton’s skull — propped slightly forward and upward — was explained by the grave being slightly too short for the body. The feet, which would have extended beyond the end of the grave, were absent, probably because later disturbance had removed that portion of the burial. The hands were in a position that the excavators suggested might indicate binding, though this interpretation is uncertain and could have alternative explanations.
One detail that attracted initial attention but ultimately proved irrelevant was an iron nail found beneath the spine. The excavation team initially wondered whether it might be an arrowhead. X-ray analysis revealed it to be a Roman-era nail, almost certainly introduced into the deposit long before the medieval burial and unrelated to the individual interred above it. The Greyfriars site had Roman-period occupation layers beneath the medieval ones, and Roman-era artifacts occasionally survive in later archaeological contexts.
The skeleton was carefully exhumed over several days and transported to the University of Leicester for analysis. The excavation was documented photographically and through standard archaeological recording methods. Soil samples were taken from the burial context for environmental analysis.
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## The Role of the Richard III Society
The Richard III Society has existed in various forms since 1924, when it was founded under the name Fellowship of the White Boar — the white boar being Richard III’s personal heraldic symbol. The society was established around the view that the Tudor and Shakespeare portrayal of Richard was unjust, that the historical evidence was more ambiguous than the dominant tradition suggested, and that Richard deserved a more balanced historical assessment.