Richard III could have done with more hygiene
First, he became the only English king since Harold II to be slain in a battle fought on his own turf; then his dead body was stripped naked and kept on public display for two days before being given a crude burial; a century later, Shakespeare picked on him to be presented to future generations as a dastardly, Machiavellian hunchback; another couple of hundred years later, a parking lot was built over his ‘lost' grave — and now the inglorious Richard III has suffered another indignity: He had roundworms. Scientists studying his remains, which were discovered at the Grey Friars Church excavation site in leicester in September last year, found them to contain the eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides, a simple roundworm. Clearly, the monarch who ruled for just two years, commanded little respect even from lowly parasites that cared nothing about the fact that he was a blue-blooded royal, and gleefully devoured his guts, much like they did of ordinary mortals. Researchers believe that roundworms would have been fairly common in the Middle Ages when personal and public hygiene were not top priorities of the English population. Even today, such intestinal parasites are found in the developing countries of Africa and latin America, but they are relatively rare in the Western world. Richard III's royal lifestyle ought to have protected him from the roving parasites which travel through fecal matter and infect new bodies through food. But that was not to be. His imperial spread was contaminated by poo. This could have been because he himself had no sense of personal hygiene, but it is more likely that his palace kitchen in those years was filthier than the roadside dhaba of today. Either way, a king who couldn’t ensure clean food even for himself probably had no business ruling over a country and its people.
But to be fair to the much-maligned monarch, we don't really know for sure what bugs and parasites other royals, or for that matter members of the aristocracy, carried around. This is because, unlike Richard III, all other monarchs and most royal family members were given state burials. Therefore, their remains have never been studied. Poor Richard III's bones made it to the laboratory at Cambridge University only because his body was unceremoniously disposed of. Yet, it is not entirely unimaginable that other kings could have also been similarly infected. For instance, we know that the crusading armies of Richard the lionheart were hollowed out by roundworms of the kind that were found in Richard III. We also know that such worms made their way into the innards of the Egyptian royalty — roundworms have been found in at least one mummy dating back to 1600 BC. So, who knows how many kings didn't wash their hands well after going to the toiletIJ It seems like, with this final insult that has been hurled at him, Richard III has decided to hit back at history by opening a can of worms.