Richard III and his right to rule...

Richard III (1452-1485), Monarch of England he died on the Battle of Bosworth field - written into the history books until a couple of years ago when a mystery skeleton was discovered in a car park in Leicester (UK) in 2012. The previous year DNA tests made him the oldest man to be identified by genetic analysis. Scientists are pretty sure that this is him they've dug up, although last year a paper was published in the journal "Nature Communications". The research says that a false paternity occured somewhere between the 14th an 19th Century - which raises a whole load of questions - is the Windsor monarchy illegitamate? 

He died on in the Battle of Bosworth, he was the last English monarchy to die in battle - but since he was dug up from the car park, he remains buried at the Greyfriars medival church. Since 2012, scientists at the University of Leciester have managed to unlock some incredible secrets. When the remains were first discovered, they immediately were able to identify that the person had a curved spine (scolioisis), they also used radioactive carbon dating to identify the skeleton was from the 15th Century. They then identified the skeleton was male and bore scars which fit with a death in battle. At this point - the signs pointed to Richard III but no one could be 100% certain until they had concrete, genetic evidence. 

Although there was a problem. Richard III didn't leave any descendents, which makes tracing a person with any kind of genetic link virtually impossible. So, scientists had to painstakingly trace his family tree back four generations to Edward III in the 12th Century, then back down to people living today but the scientists found someone, Michael Ibsen, a London cabinet maker. They compared the skeleton's maternal DNA with Michael's and it was an exact match. They even shared one of the rarest types of mitochondrial DNA which is given the very long name of "haplotype J1C2C", only carried by about 1% of the population. They also tested a descendent of Anne of York - again a match, not as close match, but close enough. 

As the issue of paternity goes, the scientists working on Richard III's skeleton say there MUST have been a "false paternity" at some point after the reign of Edward III, so at some point in 19 generations. Even multiple scientific surveys suggest that one in 50 children are not the children of their believed to be fathers. Of course the papers where quick to jump on the face Queen Elizabeth II may not be entitled to the throne, but whatever you believe this has unlocked huge secrets behind the human genome.