Perhaps we should have a brief look at the battle of Bosworth and how Richard the III was killed.
Please correct me if this is incorrect or outdated.
This was the last battle of the Wars of the Roses.
By now, 1485, Henry Tudor had gathered an army in France and landed in England and both armies was marching towards each other.
Richard III ought to have won, he had the largest army and he had more experience as a commander than Henry Tudor.
However, for various reasons Richard III had alienated large segments of the noble houses in England, who either defected to Henry Tudor or reluctantly joined Richard III.
22. August 1485. The armies met as Bosworth, a perfect ground for an medieval army, Richard III even commanded the highground, the odds were on his side.
His army was divided into divisions, one commanded by Northumberland and one division comming up under the command of Sir William Stanley.
Initially Henry Tudor's army was under pressure, but Northumberland's division remained passive (and actually later left the battle without taking part). Stanley's division was still on the march.
That meant that Richard III's much reduced army came under pressure. At that point Henry Tudor moved closer to the actual battle - within charging distance. Richard III who at this point was still positioned on a hill, led a do or die charge towards Henry Tudor personally. The momentum of the charge meant that Richard III got so close that he personally killed Henry Tudor's standard bearer, William Brandon. Henry Tudor refused to retreat and by now his escort had reorganised and a furious melee started.
This is also about the time that Stanley's division arrived and instead of attacking Henry Tudor, they sided with him. The situation was now unwinnable for Richard III, with Northumberland in his back, retreating from the battlefield, and the combined forces of Henry Tudor and Stanley to his front and flank.
By this time Richard III was cut off from most of his escort and unhorsed. This is the scene of "A horse. My kingdom for a horse". Here he was set upon, most likely by men from Stanley's division. His standard bearer, one of the less than a handful of retainers who were still with him, was killed and the king overwhelmed and most likely hacked to death. He did go down fighting the chroniclers tell.
The actual fighting differed very considerably from the Hundred Year War, that preceeded the Wars of the Roses.
During the Hundred Year War nothing happened most of the time. Litterally.
The war mainly consisted of raids, small scale skirmishes and sieges here end there. And every few years there was a battle. The major battles took place about once every generation. - That was typical of the all the professionally conducted meideval wars, albeit stretched out on a much longer time scale.
The fighting apart from raiding and patrol skirmishes was dominated by archers and crossbowmen, and close combat was reduced, simply because it was problematic to close in with the enemy.
That changed with the Wars of the Roses. This was warfare every young knight dreamed of. None of the sides were particular interested in raiding as no one had any interest in devastating the land. They did after all need to pay for their armies!
The campaigns were also shorter and didn't include that much skirmishing, for the simple reason that armies, and these were professional armies, were insanely expensive! So a campaign usually culminated in a battle leading to a temporary polictical result, which people had to live with, until the next conflict started.
At Bosworth the campaign and political situation was final and the Tudor dynasty started.
This was also the highmark of the full medieval armour suits. Being very expensive, they were also extremely sophisticated weighing 25-35 kilos, which meant that a fit man could move, run and jump without difficulty.
By this time shields were rarely used. If they were used at all, they were used by cavalry during a charge, usually to be discarded after an attack - or at tournaments but that's a very different story.
The sword was still the high status weapon but on the battle field it had by now been reduced to a back-up weapon. Mounted knights used mainly mazes and warhammers and to a lesser degree axes, once their lance had been discarded. All weapons designed to smash through armour or to break bones and harm tissue under the armour.
The professional footsoldiers were surprisingly well armoured but also very mobile and their favorite weapons were staff weapons, bills, pole axes and the emerging halberds. They were efficient murderous looking weapon and any knight, no matter how well armoured he was, was in serious trouble if set upon by a group of infantry. That's what happened to Richard III.
Richard III had scoliosis to some degree, obviously not enough to handicap him on the battlefield and as he was well armoured and the tactic didn't require fighting in dense formations it wouldn't have meant that much - unless you are unhorsed and outnumbered.
An initial cavalry charge would normally be with the visor of the helmet down, mainly as a protection against arrows, but it reduces visibillity and breathing very considerably. So once the first contact had taken place and the melee had started most flung open their visors.
Close combat was short. Even the most fit man couldn't fight for more than five-ten, at the very most fifteen minutes in such a melee before being completely exchausted. By then a division either retreated to catch their breath, just like their opponents, or broke. And that meant that the exchausted men were killed off with ease or taken prisoner.
A lost battle usually ended in a rout, where fleeing men were cut down by persuing cavalry suffering massive casualties.
An examination of a mass grave of victims of the battle at Towton in 1461, showed that all, every single one, of the around 100 skeletons found had at least one wound to the head, apart from the (usually) other wounds on their bodies. That led to the conclusion that most had been killed during a rout, where they had thrown away their helmets or that they had been finished of by a final stab or a blow to the head - consitent with what you might expect a professional soldier of that time to do.
Even up to the Napoleonic wars it was perfectly normal to rob and strip the fallen and dying on a battlefield. So just a couple of days after the battle the field would have been littered with halfnaked mangled corpses. And as the battle took place in August decomposing would have started to set in and that combined with carrion birds would have meant that already by now indentification would have been very difficult.
So even if Richard III's body was treated with disrespect and just tossed in a grave, it might also be for the simple fact that he was just another unidentified body among many.
Well, if you made it this far, you are probably a medieval-geek like me.
