King Richard III might have seen solar eclipse as an 'ill omen'

A solar eclipse that darkened Britain's skies 530 years ago might have been seen as an ill omen by King Richard III - and with good reason. The event coincided with the death of his wife, Anne Neville - and five months later the last Plantagenet king was also dead, famously killed at the Battle of Bosworth.

But although accounts of the battle attach significance to the eclipse, experts believe the portent of doom references may have been added in hindsight. Historian and former University of Leicester lecturer David Baldwin, who first suggested that King Richard's remains might lie beneath the beneath the Grey Friars car park in Leicester, where they were found in 2012, said:

"The Croyland Chronicler says only that there was a great eclipse of the sun on the day Queen Anne Neville died - he does not suggest that it boded ill for her husband. Polydore Vergil doesn't mention it at all. I suspect that it's a case of someone being wise after the event when Richard had actually been killed."