DNA of Richard III reveals evidence of infidelity in his family tree

LONDON: Analysis of the DNA of Richard III has thrown up a surprising finding - evidence of infidelity in his family tree.
Scientists who studied genetic material from the skeletal remains found in a Leicester car park found that the DNA passed down on the maternal side matches that of living relatives, but genetic information passed down on the male side does not.
Professor Kevin Schurer from the University of Leicester said that infidelity is the most likely explanation.
“If you put all the data together, the evidence is overwhelming that these are the remains of Richard III,” said Dr Turi King from Leicester University, who led the study.
The instance of female infidelity, or cuckolding, could have occurred anywhere in the numerous generations that separate Richard III from the 5th Duke of Beaufort (1744-1803), whose living descendants provided samples of male-line DNA to be compared against that of the Plantagenet king.
The findings said, “Analysis of all the available evidence confirms the identity of King Richard III to the point of 99.999% (at its most conservative). Analysis of the mitochondrial DNA shows a match between Richard III and modern female-line relatives, Michael Ibsen and Wendy Duldig.
The male line of descent is broken at one or more points in the line between Richard III and living male-line relatives descended from Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort. King Richard was almost certainly blue-eyed and probably had blond hair at least during his childhood”.
The researchers collected DNA from living relatives of Richard III and analysed several genetic markers, including the complete mitochondrial genomes, inherited through the maternal line, and Y-chromosomal markers, inherited through the paternal line, from both the skeletal remains and the living relatives.
While the Y-chromosomal markers differ, the mitochondrial genome shows a genetic match between the skeleton and the maternal line relatives. The former result is not unsurprising as the chances for a false-paternity event is fairly high after so many generations. This paper is also the first to carry out a statistical analysis of all the evidence together to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester is indeed the remains of King Richard III.
The researchers also used genetic markers to determine hair and eye colour of RIII and found that with probably blond hair and almost certainly blue eyes RIII looked most similar to his depiction in one of the earliest portraits of him that survived, that in the Society of Antiquaries in London.
The research team now plans to sequence the complete genome of RIII to learn more about the last English king to die in battle. The University of Leicester was the principal funder of the research. Dr King's post is part-funded by The Wellcome Trust and the Leverhulme Trust.
Dr King said, "Our paper covers all the genetic and genealogical analysis involved in the identification of the remains of Skeleton 1 from the Greyfriars site in Leicester and is the first to draw together all the strands of evidence to come to a conclusion about the identity of those remains. Even with our highly conservative analysis, the evidence is overwhelming that these are indeed the remains of King Richard III, thereby closing an over 500 year old missing person’s case.''
Professor Schürer added “The combination of evidence confirms the remains as those of Richard III. Especially important is the triangulation of the maternal line descendants. The break in the Y-chromosome line is not overly surprising given the incidence of non-paternity, but does pose interesting speculative questions over succession as a result.''
Simon Chaplin, director of culture & society at the Wellcome Trust added "It is exciting to have access to genetic data from any known historical individual, let alone a king of England lost for more than 500 years, so we are thrilled to be able to support this fascinating project through our Research Resources grant scheme. Adding this information to a wealth of existing material about Richard III further highlights the ways in which studying human remains can inform our understanding of the past, and we look forward to learning more about Richard for many years to come.''
Schurer said “The first thing we need to get out of the way is that we are not indicating that Her Majesty should not be on the throne. There are 19 links where the chain could have been broken so it is statistically more probable that it happened at a time where it didn’t matter. However there are parts of the chain which if broken could hypothetically affect royalty.''