The English king Richard III's remains reveal new details on how the former royal lost his life on the battlefield. Scientists examining Richard's body, found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, now think they know how he was killed.

The 15th-century ruler is now known as he was portrayed in Shakespearan works as a hunchbacked villain from the "Princes in the Tower." However, he only reigned for two short years and died at 32-years-old and his literary character is something of historical contention.

The Bosworth Field, where Richard III was killed during the Wars of the Roses, marks the transition point that ended the Middle Ages in England. After his death, he was given to monks to be buried in a crude grave at an unknown location.

When his body was later discovered by archaeologists under a parking lot in 2012, studies began to show more about his life and death. The results were published in The Lancet, where it was revealed that the king suffered 11 injuries near his time of death, three of which could have been fatal.

Richard III, who lived from 1483-85, had two skull and one pelvic injury that researchers believe could have killed him.

"Richard's injuries represent a sustained attack or an attack by several assailants with weapons from the later medieval period," Professor Sarah Hainsworth, one of the authors of the study, said. "The wounds to the skull suggest that he was not wearing a helmet, and the absence of defensive wounds on his arms and hands indicate that he was otherwise still armored at the time of his death."

"I think the most surprising injury is the one to the pelvis...We believe that this corresponds to contemporary accounts of Richard III being slung over the back of the horse to be taken back to Leicester after the Battle of Bosworth, as this would give someone the correct body position to inflict this injury," Hainsworth added.

The wounds were analyzed by whole-body CT scans and micro-CT imaging of his bones, but overlapping injuries made it difficult to tell which blows came first.