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King Richard III had intestinal worms, researchers reveal

King Richard III in his grave

King Richard III's skeleton in his grave in a council car park in Leicester.

University of Leicester

Scientists have discovered that Richard III was infected with intestinal worms, probably as a result of medieval hygiene standards.

The remains of Richard III, who ruled from 1483-1485, were found beneath a car park last year in the English city of Leicester.

Since then, forensic scientists have been analysing the extraordinary find to uncover further details about the monarch.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge say they have found "multiple" microscopic eggs of a parasite in the lower region of the spine where his intestines would have been.

"These results show that Richard was infected with roundworm in his intestines," they reported in The Lancet medical journal.


The roundworm, Ascaris lumbricoides, is a parasite common in parts of Africa and Latin America today.

Eggs swallowed by humans hatch in the intestine, burrow through the gut wall and migrate to the lungs through the blood system.

They are then coughed up and swallowed again, entering the stomach and intestine for a second time, where they mature into adult worms some as long as 35 centimetres, "swimming" against the flow of liquids and particles in the gut.

An adult female can produce around 200,000 eggs a day, which are then passed on in faeces, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.

Intestinal parasites were rife in England during the 15th Century.

They included whipworm, liver fluke, beef tapeworm, pork tapeworm and fish tapeworm, which are transmitted through uncooked, or poorly cooked, infected meat.

But none of these was found in Richard's grave.

"We would expect nobles of this period to have eaten meats such as beef, pork and fish regularly," investigation leader Piers Mitchell said.


Vilified in Shakespeare's play as a murderous hunchback, Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and buried without recorded ceremony in nearby Leicester.

His death ended the "War of the Roses" - the civil war between the families of Lancaster and York named after their respective heraldic symbols of the red and the white rose.


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