In its special Christmas issue, The Economist has a report on an archeological excavation in the Town of Towton, in England. This is where, on March 29th, 1461, the House of York defeated the House of Lancaster in the climactic battle in the War of the Roses, delivering the English crown to the Plantagenets. The article (unsigned, like all pieces in the magazine, preventing me from giving props to the author), talks about how the excavation has yielded a rich trove of information about the soldiers, the nature of the conflict, and the progress of the battle. The gentleman pictured at left–the late Towton 25, as he is now known–fought for the Lancasters, and apparently quite fiercely–before he was done in.
Here is how the piece begins: “The soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough—somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died—to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out. Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal. The next one almost certainly was. From behind him someone 
swung a blade towards his skull, carving a down-to-up trajectory through the air. The blow opened a huge horizontal gash into the back of his head—picture a slit you could post an envelope through. Fractures raced down to the base of his skull and around the sides of his head. Fragments of bone were forced in to Towton 25’s brain, felling him. His enemies were not done yet. Another small blow to the right and back of the head may have been enough to turn him over onto his back. Finally another blade arced towards him. This one bisected his face, opening a crevice that ran from his left eye to his right jaw. It cut deep: the edge of the blade reached to the back of his throat.” [NB: The scientists believe he was hit by a poleax.)