The story of the king under the mountain german

However SchГјrerвЂ™s research traced an unbroken line from RichardвЂ™s sister Anne of York to two descendants, researcher Michael Ibsen and researcher Wendy Duldig, born in Canada and Australia, 14th cousins twice removed but both living and working in London. Richard left no direct descendants: his son Edward died before him, and a possible illegitimate son and daughter died childless. The most significant would be if John of Gaunt were not the son of Edward III вЂ“ which enemies suggested in his lifetime вЂ“ which would affect the ancestry of the Tudors, Stuarts and Windsors, though SchГјrer suspects the break came later. There are, however, at least two breaks in the line. Nor will he be knocking on the door of Buckingham Palace looking for DNA samples.

Working out where the line from Edward III to the present Beaufort family was broken could only be done by exhuming a lot of bodies, SchГјrer explained вЂ“ it took him 36 sheets of A4 paper taped together to demonstrate the family trees вЂ“ and is not going to happen. The Hanoverians were descended through marriage from the Stuarts through Sophia, granddaughter of James I and mother of George I. Mary Queen of Scots, mother of James I of England, was the cousin of Elizabeth I who executed her for treason, and both were descended from the first Tudor king, Henry VII. However the Tudors did back up their claim to the throne through descent from John of Gaunt, son of Edward III and father of Henry IV вЂ“ and ancestor of the Tudor dynasty through his legitimised Beaufort children after he married his mistress Katherine Swynford.ДЄlthough the Queen is descended from the Hanoverian kings, imported 300 years ago when the Stuart line failed with the death of the childless Queen Anne in 1714 and the Act of Settlement ensured that only Protestants could take the throne, the blood lines are entangled. вЂњThis is not a criminal investigation,вЂќ he said, pointing out that the Tudors took the crown because they killed Richard at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, not because they could prove the blood royal flowed through their veins. Kevin SchГјrer, a genealogist and head of research at Leicester University, whose work with King on the ancestor is published this week in Nature Communications, said the results on the Y chromosomes, handed only from father to son, did not change history.

There is no known contemporary portrait, but Turi King, the Leicester University geneticist who conducted the DNA research, said one in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries in London, made about 25 years after his death in 1485, showing grey-blue eyes and brown hair, probably comes closest to a true likeness. The analysis of his DNA gives a 96% probability for blue eyes and a 77% likelihood that he was blond at least in childhood. The other main finding overturns the most famous images of Richard, including the portrait head reconstructed from his skull that shows him with dark eyes and shoulder length dark hair. Since RichardвЂ™s identity was proved by his mitochondrial DNA, handed down in an unbroken chain through the female line from his sister to two living relatives, the conclusion is stark: there is a break in the claimed line of Beaufort descent, what the scientists described as вЂњa false paternity eventвЂќ, which may also affect the ancestry of their distant cousins, the Windsors.

The story of the king under the mountain german