They paved Camelot, and put up a parking lot...

How much do you think it'll cost us to convince that 17th-generation descendant to claim the throne? I'll chip in to buy him and his army some guns.

@2 I keep telling subjects of the United Kingdom how much more exciting the monarchy would be if there was a little challenge every now and then to the Germans that rule it now

@3 well, if England leaves the EU, Scotland may stay with the EU, and bring back Home Rule.

Doubt they'll have any Kings though, bloody nuisance, get in the way of parking lots.

The Elizabethan propaganda machine painted Richard III to be a monster, while there is a compelling argument to be made that he was actually a helluva guy. Make sure the playwrights are on your side before you kick it!

@5, Shakespeare did a great job smearing Richard III. But does this mean we have to have a Royal Funeral now? Will we all stay up late at night to watch it?

BTW..Richard was a child killer. LONG LIVE THE TUDORS!!! Well until 1602, then you know...whatev.

I am a little unclear about how they did the DNA testing, and if it is the way I think it is, then this identification of Richard III is a bit premature. My understanding is that they used the mitochondrial DNA of his sister's descendants. The problem with that is mitochondrial DNA (passed only through the mother) does not mutate the way that Y chromosome DNA (passed only through the father) does. Which means that you can only use mitochondrial DNA to disprove a relationship not to prove it.

"Roll out the bones and raise up your pitcher"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAX6wOZ37…

There is evidence he was sodomized by a sword. Yikes. After death, one would hope.

what's next? the two princes in the Tower found under a Tesco in Stoke Podges?

There are no (legitimate) Plantagenet descendents of Richard, or of any of his brothers. Also, no one knows who had the "princes in the tower" killed. It is quite plausible that Richard kept them for safe keeping, not wanting to commit regicide, and that Henry VII had them offed as soon as he arrived in London.

England at that time would have seen much worse if the boy king had been allowed to ascend to the throne. It would have been like handing the entire Viet Nam operation over to Private Joker.

And after thirty years of a bloody, treacherous, horrible civil war, it's not surprising that his body bore the brunt of that pent up anger. Henry became king pretty much because there was no one else alive who could. Except the teenager in the tower, who was quickly silenced.

Could be worse. What Mengistu did to Haile Selassie has to be the cold standard of postmortem humiliation inflicted upon a monarch.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/01/world/…

Mengistu had his predecessor interred at the bottom of his personal latrine, so that he might relieve himself upon Selassie's corpse every morning. Now, that is the very definition of spite.

Dick Three got off pretty easy. A little postmortem violence ala Il Duce and a shallow grave is at least minimally respectful.

I love this story, the history, the parking lot, all of it!

@seatackled #2 - Richard III was the last male claimant of the Plantagenet line; his only legitimate child died at the age of 10. Henry VII, who had no legitimate claim and took the throne by force of arms, married Elizabeth of York, Richard's niece, and saw to it that all remaining Plantagenet and York claimants died a timely death. Thus Henry's children were the legitimate descendants of Richard's line.

Show some respect, people. It's pronounced "car park".

Josephine Tey's "The Daughter of Time" is a very fast and entertaining read, as a twentieth century detective starts researching Richard III.

@16 Well, that ain't fair. Does English law make you legitimate if you start off as a usurper and kill off everyone else who has a better claim? I'll still put a few bucks in to helping the 17th-generation descendent and his army buy some guns and pull an Edmund to the current queen's Gloucester.

@19 My favorite is Monaco. If you've got treachery, money and/or force you too can be a legitimate monarch!