King Richard III's DNA Uncovers Shocking Infidelity in the Royal Court (VIDEO)

It turns out that the skeleton that was discovered beneath a parking lot in Leicester is indeed that of King Richard III. More interesting, though, is that genetics reveal that infidelity marred his family tree, which has interesting implications for his line of succession.

Richard was a royal prince until the death of his brother, Edward IV, in 1483. While he was meant to act as a protector for his nephew, Edward V, Richard instead wrested power from the young king and assumed the throne. He then confined Edward V and his brother to the Tower of London; soon after that, both disappeared. Historians believe that it's possible that Richard murdered his nephews in order to rid himself of potential rivals.

Richard's reign didn't last all that long. Challenged by Henry Tudor, his reign lasted just 26 months and ended with his death on the battlefield at Bosworth in 1485. He was given a low-key burial in the church of Greyfriars in the center of Leicester, but the location of his grave was lost-until researchers unearthed it only recently.

The scientists collected DNA from living relatives of Richard II and analyzed several genetic markers, including the complete mitochondrial genomes inherited through the maternal line, and Y-chromosomal markers inherited through the paternal line. Yet while the maternal line matched, the paternal line didn't. This, in particular, hinted that somewhere along King Richard III's line, one of the women was unfaithful.

"The combination of evidence confirms the remains as those of Richard III. Especially important is the triangulation of the maternal line descendants," said Kevin Schurer, one of the researchers investigating the remains, in a news release. "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."

The researchers didn't only find out about the infidelity that occurred somewhere within the line. The also used genetic markers to determine the hair and eye color of Richard III. It turns out that he probably had blond hair and almost certainly blue eyes, which means that he looked most similar to his depiction in one of the earliest portraits of him that survived, that in the Society of Antiquaries in London.

"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," said Turi King, who led the research team. "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."

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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