Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England with a short reign of only two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. Richard III was defeated in battle by Henry Tudor, marking the end of the Middle Ages in England, and the beginning of Tudor rule, which lasted until Queen Elizabeth I died childless in 1603.

Richard III's remains were buried without pomp. The original tomb is believed to have been destroyed during the Reformation, and his remains were lost for more than five centuries. In 2012, scientists extracted genetic material from the remains discovered at a parking lot on the former site of Greyfriars Abbey, where Richard's battered body was subsequently buried after his death in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. The curvature in its spine on the uncovered male skeleton matched the description of the hunchbacked king. The condition would have caused one of the man's shoulders to be higher than the other, just as a contemporary of Richard described. King Richard III's reinterment was conducted at Leicester Cathedral in March 2015.