LONDON (AP) Not only was Richard III one of England's most despised monarchs, but it now turns out the hunchback king was probably infected with parasitic worms that grew up to a foot in length.
Researchers who dug up Richard III's skeleton underneath a parking lot in Leicester last year now report they discovered numerous roundworm eggs in the soil around his pelvis, where his intestines would have been. They compared that to soil samples taken close to Richard's skull and surrounding his grave. There were no eggs near the skull and only traces of eggs in the soil near the grave.
In a study published online Wednesday in the journal Lancet, experts say that suggests the eggs near the skeleton's pelvis were from an infection during the king's life, even though it's unlikely the worms did him any serious damage. In children, roundworm can lead to stunted growth and a reduced IQ but for a well-fed English king, the parasites were just a minor annoyance.
"Richard probably had more than enough food that he could share with his worms," said Piers Mitchell, a professor of biological anthropology at Cambridge University, one of the researchers. Mitchell said it was the first time any English monarch had been shown to have been infected with worms.
Still, the deposed king would have suffered some symptoms of worm infection, which typically occurs after someone eats the eggs in contaminated food. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae travel to the lungs and throat, where they get ingested back down into the small intestines.
