Per the NIH, about one billion people worldwide are infected with them and there are usually no symptoms, although there can also be some seriously gross ones. (Don’t click on the link if you don’t want to know!)
Further, detailed autopsy results are in:
“The deathblows likely came from a sword or a bill or halberd, which were bladed weapons on poles often used on the battlefield. At the base of Richard III’s skull, researchers found two wounds, one 2.4 by 2.2 inches (60 by 55 mm) and one 1.21 by 0.67 inches (32 by 17 mm). This wound was in line with another, about 4 inches (105 mm) away on the internal wall of the skull, as well as in line with damage to the top vertebrae. In other words, it appears that the blade entered the head, sliced through the brain and hit the opposite side of the skull.”
The man should have been on a horse.
I wonder what he would’ve offered for a horse, right about then…?
That is probably like the John Paul Jones quote, “I have not begun to fight!”
Supposedly, he truly said, “Now I’ve got the son of a bitch!”
I don’t know how the English cursed in the the fifteenth century, but I imagine that “Mother fucker!” was spoken.
Another update from last spring: the High court has refused to set aside the burial permit issued authorizing re-burial in Leicester, so it looks like Richard’s remains are going to stay on Leicester, not be moved to York.
Have a look in the Richard III Ward: Monty Python - Hospital For Over Acting - YouTube
PBS’ Secrets of the Dead has a new program on Richard, called “Resurrecting Richard III.” Watch for it coming soon, and see a preview now online.
Slight hijack: In high school, I remember reading a fictional book about a bedridden detective who got into the Richard III story and started trying to solve the mystery of his villainy. Anyone have any idea what it might have been called? Had an itch for it recently.
Josephine Tey, The Daughter of Time.
Another preview is linked there, interesting to see how someone with scoliosis could still do all the things that many reported that Richard III could do.
A hollow toilet paper tube? I hear they can be used to prove or disprove almost any kind of violent assault.
Well, when dealing with red-hot pokers, I’d think you’d want to use something other than toilet paper tubes … 
Well, that’s an intuitive approach.
That’s The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Great book.
ETA: Never mind, Northern Piper got there first - I got overexcited seeing a mention of one of my favourite mystery books…
Well, thanks to both of you! Off to Amazon.
'Tis but a scratch.
What’s the story of how he happened to be where he was found? Was that the site of the battlefield? Was there a church or a cemetery there in the past where he was formally buried? But if that was the case, why was the site lost to history?
Perhaps his guys buried him secretly rather than have the other side parade about with his head on a pike.
He was killed at Bosworth Field, which is about 20 km (13 miles) from the city of Leicester. Presumably his body was carried to Leicester after the battle. He was buried in the Church of the Grey Friars, which was just south of the present-day Leicester Cathedral, where this memorial tablet can be found. (Leicester Cathedral was just a parish church back in 1485, and was changed into a cathedral with the re-establishment of the Diocese of Leicester in 1926.)
The buildings of the Grey Friars were demolished about 1538 when King Henry VIII was dissolving monasteries all over England. At that time New Street must have been built through the former monastery, which would account for its name – it would have been “new” in the mid-16th century – and the precise site of King Richard’s tomb would have become unknown, becoming part of a car park sometime early in the 20th century.