Last fall, we told you how it was believed that askeleton found under a parking lot was of the notorious Tudor king, Richard III. Now, it has been officially confirmed that the skeleton does indeed belong to the king!
A geneticist named Turi King and a genealogist named Kevin Schurer took on the laborious task of seeking out Richard III’s descendants. They found two who agreed to volunteer their DNA so that it could be matched with the the skeleton to confirm weather or not the skeleton was indeed Richard III’s. The result, of course, were conclusive and the long lost skeleton of the tyrannical Tudor king has finally been found!
Now that the the skeleton has been found, historians have begun asking questions about Richard III’s personality and life. It was unknown what he actually looked, acted and sounded like and the only source we had to base any ideas on was Shakespeare’s historical drama RICHARD III.
With the skeleton finally located, the Richard III Society revealed a 3D replica of Richard III’s head and shoulders, which gives us a clear idea of what the king probably looked like. On top of that, using the only two known examples of Richard III’s own writing, a historical linguist concluded that Richard III started out a little rough around the edges and by the time he was King has polished him his handwriting and educated himself a bit more.
Though we can never be sure if Richard III was as dramatic or well-spoken as Shakespeare made him out to be, all this information deriving from the confirmation of his remains is an incredible advance in knowledge and we suspect that we will only continue to learn more.