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(Image Source: NBC News)
BY DAN KENNEDY
ANCHOR KATIE BRENNAN
A team of researchers at the University of Leicester in England confirmed Monday the
skeletal remains found beneath a parking lot belong to King Richard III.
“He ruled back in the 1400s and he is believed to have been the last British monarch to die
in combat. His remains had never been found and this morning they’re announcing they
have been found. They found a skull in the ground there.”
Archaeologists first exhumed the remains from the makeshift grave in September. And that’s
when the DNA testing began.
According to NBC, researchers compared DNA from the remains with the DNA of two descendants
of the king. One of them is the 17th great-grand-nephew of Richard. The project’s leading geneticist
explained her findings in Monday’s news conference.
“There is a DNA match between the maternal DNA of the descendents of the family of Richard
the III and the skeletal remains we found at the Greyfriars dig.”
“These forensics are extraordinary. It didn’t only involve DNA. They were able to tell by
the wounds on his body almost what weapons were used against him.”
Richard was 32 years old when he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth.
The New York Times reports the king has historically had critics who’ve called his 26 months
of rule some of England’s ‘grimmest periods.’ William Shakespeare even told the king’s
story in “Richard III,” depicting the 32-year-old ruler as an ‘evil, scheming
hunchback.’
The BBC says the bones will be buried in Leicester Cathedral, just yards away from where they
were found.