Did Richard III get a bad rap?

• Position: England - Brief article

If you've read Shakespeare's play, you may think of Richard III as a murderous humpback who clawed his way to the English throne. But Richard's supporters have long charged that he was maligned by the Tudor monarchs who succeeded him, like Henry VIII and Elizabeth I-and that Shakespeare and others helped cement his bad reputation. Now the discovery of a skeleton believed to be Richard's may help settle the debate. Found in the ruins of a monastery in Leicester, England, it has a skull wound consistent with accounts of how Richard was killed in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. It also has a slightly curved spine from scoliosis-but no humpback. If DNA and carbon tests confirm the skeleton is...