Ancestry DNA Testing on Remains of King Richard III

King Richard III, the Medieval King whose remains were miraculously found under a car park three years ago in 2012 is to be reburied in Leicester Cathedral next week. His descendant Michael Ibsen,a Canadian-born 55-year-old cabinet makerhas been making his ancestor, the King’s,coffin. Richard III was portrayed by Shakespeare, and some say incorrectly, as a bloodthirsty man who cried in battle “A horse! A Horse! My Kingdom for a horse!”He is even accused of sentencing the “Princes in the Tower” to death, one them being Edward V, the rightful heir to the throne at the time.

The King Richard III Society

The Richard III society has argued that he was much–maligned and innocent of these awful crimes. The society has been working since 1924 “to secure a more balanced assessment of the king and to support research into his life and times”, it says on their website. One of those who also questions the negative version of his life is the writer Philippa Langley who is a member of the society; she has spent seven years searching for the lost monarch’s grave. Most English monarchs have been buried in very grand sepulchers. Richard III however was purported to be buried in humble surroundings at Greyfriars Friary in Leicester. It was also thought he had been thrown in the river but the remains were eventually found, using ground-breaking radar equipment, under a municipal car park with the letter ‘R’ paintedabove him on the concrete by the society who believed him to be there. This amazingly proved to be correct when he was dug up in 2012 on live television. It only remained to use Ancestry DNA Testing to prove that the remains were indeed the King’s and who better to match with than the DNA of a living descendant.

Ancestry DNA Testing and Michael Ibsen, Canadian Descendant of Richard III

The Plantagenets also have a role to play in the search for Richard III and his whereabouts. As the king was the last of the Plantagenet family bloodline it had been of interest to find the descendants. Professor Kevin Schurer is the leading academic in search of these descendants. The curvature of the spine of the remains pointed at it being that of Richard III, he was known for his hunched back and also the battle wounds were also found to be in the right places and linked with what the historians knew of what he suffered and how he died. To make the strongest case researchers had to find hard DNA evidence and link his remains with a living relative. Dr John Ashdown-Hill of the Richard III society had discovered previously that Michael Ibsen, a 55-year-old Canadian, was a direct 17th great-grandnephew of the King and he provided his DNA sample to help the research. DNA researchers traced the mitochondrial line from the skeleton, which is the female Plantagenet bloodline. Richard III had no surviving children and so they had to go up into the family tree and down again tracing through to his mother and then his sister Anne of York, who became the Duchess of Exeterof whom they realised Michael to be a direct descendant.So using DNA testing through the Y Chromosome, the male bloodline, they managed to prove that in fact these remains were Richard III. Richard III has caught peoples’ imagination worldwide not only because he was such a controversial Monarch but the way in which cutting-edge radar equipment had to be used to actually find him underneath a car park and the discovery and subsequent positive DNA match with his Canadian descendant Michael Ibsen is nothing short of a modern day fairytale.Not only the Richard III society are very pleased that he will be given a proper burial in a Cathedral fit for a King. The reburial of his remains is set for 26th March 2015 at Leicester Cathedral. The Duchess of Wessex, wife of Prince Edward, the Queen’s youngest son,will be in attendance.

Y-STR Male Lineage DNA Testing and Ancestry DNA Testing

Males who need to know whether they share the same biological father or paternal line can opt for our Y-STR Male Lineage Test . This enabled scientists to connect Richard III with his descendant despite being dead for 500 years.To help you trace your biogeographical heritage please get in touch with us below. Contact International Biosciences now for more information about Ancestry DNA Testing on 1-800-969-5186 or email us at [email protected]