Graphic: Richard III's injuries and how he died Studies of the skeleton found 10 battle-related injuries and also his reported curved spine, while also debunking the long held assertion made by William Shakespeare and others that he had a withered arm. A large slice out of the back of the skull caused by a medieval pole weapon is said to be the fatal blow, which would have knocked him unconscious immediately and caused death only minutes later. Richard Buckley, a co-director of archaeologists at Leicester University, said they had been lucky to find the skeleton intact as building works and the excavation itself could have destroyed it.