Scholars plan to reveal on February 4, 2013, whether the remains found under a parking lot in the English Midlands town of Leicester are those of controversial king Richard III. This might lead to reviewing his ruling term.
Photo Credit: Mirror
This had been a substantial discovery for modern British archaeologists and researchers from the University of Leicester. Their spokesman said that this finding could have unlocked a 500-year-old mystery. The skeleton was exhumed from a parking lot, as opposed to the belief that it was under a 19th century bank across the street. According to historians it was the same place where the king was buried after losing the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. It has an arrow in its back and other war injuries, consistent with reports of the late king’s final moments.
The remains have undergone DNA testing and a series of other checks, which have also been compared to his descendant Michael Ibsen, whose mother was a 16th generation niece to the King. The king had a hunched back and the skeleton too has a curved spine.
Scholars, till 18th century, debated whether King Richard III was a victim of a defamation campaign. His supporters said he could have been a strict ruler, but he took ground breaking measures to help the poor, protect suspected felons and ease the ban on books. His detractors however had other opinions about him. His death had put to an end to the War of the Roses and the Plantagenet rule; this led to the blossoming of the Tudor and Elizabethan eras and an end to the Middle Ages.
King Richard might be reburied alongside other monarchs in a place of honor in London’s Westminster Abbey.
