by ANDREA FRENCH Section Editor
Researchers and archaeologists in Leicester, England are scrambling to obtain the legal rights to King Richard III’s skeleton, and trying to determine where the final resting place will be for this former King of England.
Even before the remains were found and proved to be the king’s, the University of Leicester was granted permission from the British Ministry of Justice to put the body wherever they chose. The University has decided and began to plan the reburial of King Richard III in the Leicester Cathedral.
Relatives of the King are coming out and saying that they want the remains buried in York rather than in Leicester where the reburial is planned. They claim that the monarch had family connections in York.
Early in 2012, the last mortal remains of England’s King Richard III were found underneath a parking lot in Leicester, England.
King Richard III was one of the most famous villains in Shakespeare’s play “Richard III.” In this play, Shakespeare made the King out to be a vicious monster who murdered his family and began a bloody civil war.
In real life, King Richard III actually died on the battlefield in 1485. His death ended England’s War of Roses, which was a war between the houses of York and Lancaster. Because of tradition, the King was supposed to be buried in Leicester’s Greyfriars Church. However, his remains were lost throughout the years, as well as any remains of Greyfairs Church.
Last year for the first time in history, archaeologists were able to determine the exact location of where his body might be buried. They determined that it would be right underneath a parking lot. They dug up around where they thought his body would be and found all kinds of evidence, including his entire skeleton.
Archaeologists are 99 percent positive that they have found the King’s skeleton because of the corresponding battle wounds with the tales recorded in history. However, they are going to analyze the skeleton’s Y chromosome to do a more complicated reconstruction of the DNA signature.
“I think it is absolutely crazy that they were able to find his body underneath a parking lot after all these years. But I also think that it is very cool how we were able to identify that the body was in fact King Richard III because of all the specialized tests we have today. I remember reading King Richard III by Shakespeare, so this is so awesome,” says an anonymous source.
Half of the battle with this skeleton is the legal battle. It took over four months to obtain the permit to dig up the Leciester parking lot to search for the skeleton.
“I think that his body should be put on display after it is all analyzed. The fall of King Richard III was a historic moment in time for the country of England, and the people today should be able to read about him and see what is left of this man who once led their country,” says sophomore Alex Infosino.
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