Richard III's hunchback would not have held him back in battle - Telegraph
30 May 2014
Richard III's hunchback would not have held him back in battle
A good tailor would have been able to hide Richard III's hunchback and it would not have prevented him from taking part in battle,
new research shows.
Richard III would have been able to lift his sword and take part in battle, according to new research that has used scans of his skeleton to examine whether his hunchback was a disability. The Plantagenet king suffered from scoliosois, a curvature of the spine. He is portrayed in art and literature as a crippled ‘hunchback’ who walked with a limp and who would have struggled physically in the fray of battle.
But now scans have shown that the curve in his spine was not overly debilitating and the extent of his hunchback have been greatly exaggerated as it could have been hidden by ‘a good tailor.’ Academics at Leicester University have created a 3D model of Richard III’s spine. It shows that although one shoulder was higher than the other, his ‘well balanced’ curve would have meant that his head and neck were straight, and not tiled to one side. The experts conclude that his condition would not have been visible, particularly if he wore well-designed clothes or armour.
Dr Jo Appleby said: “Although the scoliosis looks dramatic, it probably did not cause a major physical deformity. “This is because he had a well-balanced curve. The condition would have meant that his trunk was short in comparison to the length of his limbs, and his right shoulder would have been slightly higher than the left, but this could have been disguised by custom-made armour and by having a good tailor. (The) curve would not have prevented Richard from being an active individual, and there is no evidence that Richard had a limp as his curve was well balanced and his leg bones were normal and symmetric.”
Shakespeare described him, through the words of Queen Margaret, as a ‘poisonous bunch-back’d toad’, an ‘elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog,’ and ‘loathed issue of thy father’s loins.”
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