From: The Star Online
LEICESTER, United Kingdom: A skeleton found under a car park in the
English city of Leicester was on Monday confirmed as that of King
Richard III, widely depicted as one of history's most notorious
villains.
Researchers from the University of Leicester matched
DNA from the 500-year-old skeleton with a descendant of the King's
sister, while the injuries to the body were consistent with the person
being killed in battle.
"It is the academic conclusion of the
University of Leicester that, beyond reasonable doubt, the individual
exhumed at Greyfriars in September 2012, is indeed Richard III, the last
Plantagenet King of England," lead archaeologist Richard Buckley said
to applause at a press conference at the university.
He said the
King's remains would now be re-interred at Leicester Cathedral, in
keeping with archaeological practice to bury remains on the nearest
consecrated ground.
The find has caused huge excitement among
historians, as it finally provides firm evidence about a monarch whose
life has been shrouded in controversy ever since his death at the Battle
of Bosworth in 1485.
Richard's body was paraded naked and bloody
from the battlefield back to Leicester, in central England, on the back
of a horse before being buried in an unmarked grave at Greyfriars, a
friary in the city.
The crown passed to Henry VII and the Tudor
monarchs, who, with the help of William Shakespeare and other
playwrights, painted Richard as a brutal, hunchbacked villain who
stopped at nothing in his quest for power. MORE
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