Canadians' DNA helps ID King Richard III's bones

It was announced at 10am this morning that the skeleton found under a Leicester car park in September is indeed that of Richard III, who was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire against the future Henry VII in 1485.



The skeleton also had a curvature of the spine, which suggests that it wasn't merely Tudor propaganda from the likes of Shakespeare which said that he was a hunchback.





Richard III is to be reinterred at Leicester Cathedral, England's fourth-smallest Anglican cathedral, in 2014. The cathedral already has a memorial stone to the king.

Preparations are underway for a major Christian reinterment ceremony. David Monteith, Leicester Cathedral Canon Chancellor, said that because it would have been "unheard of" for the King not to have received a formal burial at the time, he could not be buried again so it would be a service of remembrance.



So, for probably centuries to come, those wanting to see the remains of Richard III will just have to go to Leicester Cathedral.

At 9pm on Channel 4, the documentary "Richard III: The King in the Car Park" is to be aired. The show will reveal - for those who don't know - whether or not the skeleton is that of Richard III in scenes filmed just hours before the show is aired.

Thanks for repeating the story to us.

What a ignominious way to end...being buried in Leicester.

The face of Richard III was unveiled last night on the Channel 4 documentary "Richard III: The King in the Car Park."

His face was reconstructed from the skull found beneath a social services car park that was yesterday confirmed as that of the last Plantagenet king.


Revealed: This is the face of King Richard III, reconstructed from 3D scans of his skull after the positive identification of his skeleton found beneath a social services car part in Leicester last year. Archaeologists discovered Richard III's skeleton in September on the spot where a church once stood.

The facial reconstruction was today released following the confirmation that the skeleton unearthed in Leicester was that of the king killed in battle more than 500 years ago.

The image is based on a CT scan taken by experts at the University of Leicester, who discovered the king's skeleton with the help of the Richard III Society during an archaeological dig last September. Richard was buried in Greyfriars Church in Leicester with his hands bound together after his death in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Ten years later, Henry VII, the victor of the battle, paid for a tomb 'of many-coloured marble' to be built, the location of which, until Richard's skeleton was found in September, was a mystery. The tomb is presumed to have been demolished along with the Church following its dissolution after 1536. Today a social services car park occupies the spot.

The facial reconstruction was officially unveiled today, but it was broadcast last night in a Channel 4 documentary on the find.

It reveals the controversial king had a more pleasant, younger and fuller appearance than period portraits reveal - a face far removed from the image of the cold-blooded villain of Shakespeare's play.

The 'calm and apparently thoughtful' face is in contrast to the many portrayals of Richard III, showing contorted facial and bodily features some say were created for political reasons following his death.

However, with its slightly arched nose and prominent chin, the essential features of the slain king are largely similar to those shown in portraits of Richard, of whom no contemporary portraits exist.

Richard III was killed in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, deposed at the age of just 32 after just two years on the throne by the forces of Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII.

His body was discovered in a shallow grave just 2ft beneath the concrete car park following a search instigated by Philippa Langley, a member of the Richard III Society.

'It doesn't look like the face of a tyrant. I'm sorry but it doesn't,' she told the documentary on the search last night. 'He's very handsome. It's like you could just talk to him, have a conversation with him right now.'


Posthumous portrait: With its arched nose and prominent chin, the features are similar to those shown in this picture of Richard painted in 1520, 35 years after his death

Historian and author John Ashdown-Hill, an expert on Richard III's reign, told the BBC that the reconstruction largely matched the prominent features in posthumous representations of the king.

'All the surviving portraits of him - even the very later ones with humped backs and things which were obviously later additions - facially are quite similar [to each other] so it has always been assumed that they were based on a contemporary portrait painted in his lifetime or possibly several portraits painted in his lifetime,' he said.

The reconstruction comes after University of Leicester academics yesterday revealed the the king's remains bore the marks of ten injuries inflicted shortly before his death.

More gruesome, however, was evidence of �humiliation� injuries, including a cut to the ribcage and a pelvic wound likely caused by an upward thrust of a weapon through his buttock whilst his corpse was being paraded on horseback after the battle.

However, what appeared to be a barbed iron arrow head lodged between two vertebrae is believed to be a Roman nail.


Richard III was found under a letter R




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That's if the king is actually buried in Leicester.

That's because York is saying that it should be the place where he is interred. There are those who say he should be interred at York Minster because Richard was, for all intents and purposes, a Yorkshireman and a Northerner. He grew up at Middleham Castle in the Yorkshire Dales and visited York several times during his short, usurped reign. He also funded the fourth floor of Monk Bar, the city's 14th Century gateway, and a small museum dedicated to him can be found within its walls. Some historians believe Richard even planned to be buried at York Minster, which his where his Northern coronation took place.

Leicester is the strong favourite, though, due to an agreement that, should the University of Leicester exhume Richard's remains, they will be re-interred in Leicester.


Middleham Castle in the Yorkshire Dales, where Richard grew up


Monk Bar, York

Hopefully the man gets to finally rest in peace.

I was just in York this summer. Lovely town.

Ugly way to go. Life back then was nasty, brutish and short.

This is archeology at its best!

Not much has improved.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Sla ... 250521.php