Richard III managed to hide his scoliosis until death in 1485

Richard III kept his physique, not least the scoliosis revealed by forensic examinations of his skeleton, a secret from the public as part of his "propaganda of power," as per researchers.

A month after Richard's remains were reinterred at Leicester Cathedral, Mary Ann Lund, of the School of English at the University of Leicester, has reflected on the notoriety the ruler's body received during the Tudor period, when his physical appearance was frequently used to cast aspersions on his character.

In later depictions, following the disrobing and exhibition of Richard III's body following the Battle of Bosworth, he was falsely portrayed with a withered arm and unequal limbs.

Lund added that stage history has reincarnated Richard as monster, villain and clown, but recent events have helped them to re-evaluate these physically defined depictions and strip back the cultural accretions that have surrounded his body.

Lund noted that the care he in all probability received for his scoliosis from his surgically trained physician was large in scale: traction and manual manipulation needed specially designed equipment, space and assistants. Yet, it may have been only a relatively small group of people in Richard's trusted circle who knew of his condition. The absence of contemporary testimony does not prove this, however.

Lund said that what is certain is that, after his death, the exposure of Richard's body went beyond the two days of its exhibition in Leicester. That moment after Bosworth inaugurated a longer and more brutalising process, in which an ever-more twisted physique was revealed to the public eye, his own body becoming deployed as a major tactic in the rhetorical strategy against him.

She continued that when Shakespeare's Richard boasts of his shape-changing potential, he registers too the bending course of history and myth making.

The study is published in Medical Humanities.