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In just a matter of days , Richard III will get a long - overdue royal burial in Leicester , England . The last time the big businessman ’s body was laid to repose , more than 500 geezerhood ago , a " origin lunation " might have shone over his bare , heavily offend corpse , an astronomical pretence suggests .
Richard ’s two - twelvemonth reign finish when he buy the farm on Aug. 22 , 1485 , during the Battle of Bosworth Field , the critical fight in the Wars of the Roses , an English civil state of war . After the fight , Henry Tudor was established as the new English monarch , and Richard was n’t on the button given a ceremonious funeral .
This is what the night sky would have looked like for someone standing in Leicester, England, at 9:50 p.m. on Aug. 25, 1485, with with a partial lunar eclipse.
Rather , historical reference indicate thatRichard ’s gravely injure bodywas strip naked and carried by horseback to Leicester to be put on a humiliating show for several day under the arches of the Church of the Annunciation . [ picture gallery : The Search for Richard III in pic ]
The exact positioning of Richard ’s grave was lost for century . When archaeologists obtain it in 2012 , they discovered Richard ’s skeletal frame buried in a hastily dug grave accent under the floor of the ruin of a monastery known as Grey Friars in Leicester . He had no casket and no shroud , and his hands may have been tied in front of him .
Looking for more insight on important moments ink Richard ’s life ( and last ) , Colin Brooks , a member of the Leicester Astronomical Society and the chief photographer at the University of Leicester ( the institution that has spearhead the search for Richard ’s grave ) , rick to historic data fromNASAon the situation of the synodic month , planets and stars . Brooks ascertain there was a partiallunar eclipsethree days after Richard was killed , on Aug. 25 , 1485 .
" A lunar occultation can be quite red depending on the amount of dust that s in the atmosphere , " Brooks told Live Science . Sometimes this phenomenon is dub a " blood synodic month . "
Brooks said he did n’t find any diachronic germ that mentioned a roue moonshine over Richard ’s body , but he opine a fond lunar eclipse would n’t have been as noticeable or ominous as asolar eclipse — like the one that darken English sky on the day that Richard ’s wife , Anne Neville , pass away .
Scientists spent more than two years studying Richard ’s bones whilecontroversy and effectual battlesbrewed over how and where to reinter the remains . Beginning on Sunday ( March 22 ) , there will be aweek of eventsand observance leading up to Richard ’s terminal reburying in Leicester Cathedral .
