Using DNA passed down from a 17th-generation descendant of Richard III's sister, researchers have been able to confirm that the bones found under a Leicester parking lot are the former king.
The DNA they were looking for was found in Joy Ibsen of Canada, died several years ago and her son, Michael, who now works in London, provided a sample. Good thing too. The DNA they needed is only handed down through the female line and her only daughter has no children so the line was about to stop.
So now we know where the most hated king in British history was buried. He died, as the stories went, an ignominious death during the battle of Bosworth in 1485, after two years on the throne as the last Plantaganet monarch. It was Tudors in charge after that. Richard III was buried beneath the church of Greyfriars in the center of Leicester but the Greyfriars church was demolished when all Catholics were persecuted during the Reformation in the 16th Century and over the following centuries its exact location was forgotten.
There was some debate about where Richard III should be re-interred but the researchers say the bones will be placed in Leicester Cathedral.
