A SKELETON that lay undisturbed for 500 years and was found last year buried under a council car park in north England is that of reviled king Richard III, the last English king to die in battle.

In what is being hailed as the biggest British archaeological find of the century, scientists yesterday confirmed DNA analyses showed the remains found in Leicester Council social services car park were that of the king who died in battle in 1485.

Five months of exhaustive research including DNA analysis and carbon dating as well as research of centuries old historical records confirmed conclusively the body was that of the king.

They even know the weapon that was used to kill him and concluded that his hands were tied when he was buried awkwardly in the pit below what was then a friary; no coffin or shroud or even clothes.

Investigators from the University of Leicester revealed that the remains bore the marks of ten injuries inflicted shortly before his death.

More gruesome, however, was evidence of "humiliation" injuries, including several head wounds - part of the skull was sliced away - a cut to the ribcage and a pelvic wound likely caused by an upward thrust of a weapon, through the buttock.

Now, as debate rages over what to now do with the 500-year-old king, it could literally unearth more buried skeletons with calls to now open up a sarcophagus at Westminster Abbey that supposedly contain the dead remains of his two child prince nephews.

With Richard's DNA sequence information, there is some interest to now test the bones of a set of children found in the Tower of London in 1674 which are said to have belonged to Richard’s two nephews whom he was supposed to have murdered to seize the crown.

Throughout history, Richard was painted as a murderous hunchback – thanks largely to Shakespeare’s portrayal of the king apparently at the behest of the Tudor kings who had earlier defeated Richard in the War of the Roses and wanted to discredit his memory – who killed his brother then his brother’s two sons.

The bones in the Tower were later moved into a white marble sarcophagus in Westminster Abbey with the inscription: “These brothers being confined in the Tower of London and there stifled with pillows were privately and meanly buried by the order of their perfidious uncle Richard the Usurper”.

Various king Richard supporter societies claim the king did not kill his nephews and there was no proof the bones in Westminster Abbey were even those of the princes which history recorded were last seen in the Tower in 1483. DNA tests, now with Richard’s sequence proved, could show that and clear his name in history at least from this murder.

Westminster Abbey and the Palace have so far resisted calls to have the boy bones forensically examined.

How they identified Richard's bones

The DNA was matched to Canadian-born carpenter Michael Ibsen, who six months ago was unaware he was a direct descendent of the king's eldest sister.

"It's difficult to digest," he said.

Researchers had spent months tracing the bloodlines to find Mr Ibsen who had since moved to north London. It was a mouth swab he provided, and that of another anonymous relative, that was then matched to DNA extraction from the skeleton found almost all intact except for his missing feet.

There had been a great deal of circumstantial evidence that it was the king, including a curvature of the spine which Shakespeare had described as a hunchback and the injuries he sustained in battle.

But the scientific confirmation was made at the University of Leicester before more than 100 journalists from around the world who had assembled to hear the expert evidence and images of the battle-scarred skull and body of the 15th century ruler.

University of Leicester deputy registrar Richard Taylor said the finding and five-month scientific investigation and confirmation was "truly astonishing" and a thrilling find for the world.

They confirmed the body had no coffin or shroud and there were eight wounds on the skull and two on the body, most occurring at time of death in battle.

Death was determined to have been with a blow to the base of the skull, consistent with a blow from a halberd consisting of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. Injuries also to jaw and cheek after death were determined to have been "humiliation injuries" inflicted after death. Other wounds showed he had been stabbed in the back and the buttock, again after death possibly as his body was being paraded.

Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley said science had shown "beyond reasonable doubt" the body was that of the king.

King Richard died in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, a defining moment in the civil War of the Roses between the House of York and House of Lancaster.

The battle was chronicled by Shakespeare, including the famous line Richard was supposed to have yelled after he fell from his mount in the middle of the battleground: "a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse" before he was killed.

The king was returned to Leicester tied to the pommel of his horse but then secretly buried in a small friary, to keep away from those who wanted to possibly destroy the body many suspected had murdered his brother and his two prince nephews to seize the throne. The friary was later leveled by the Tudor kings and lost in time.

A feud in England has now developed as to where King Richard should be buried. Possibilities include burying him at Westminster Abbey or Windsor Castle with the other kings; taking him back to York for burial; burying him at Leicester Cathedral, where he has been in its shadow for centuries; or a burial and grand ceremony at the Catholic Westminster Cathedral in London, because he was a Catholic.



View King Richard III found in a larger map

Originally published as King's bones opens up more mysteries