Skeleton in the car park - A victory for science

The confirmation yesterday that a skeleton found under a car park in Leicester is that of Richard III is an indication of how far the science of DNA and its power as an investigative tool has advanced.

Richard III was the last of the Plantagenet kings and he died after having his head split open at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, ending the Wars of the Roses and ushering in Henry VII as the first Tudor king. He, in turn, was succeed by his son Henry VIII, the serial groom whose domestic difficulties led to the foundation of the Church of England, to this day the established religion of England.

The confirmation of the identity of a skeleton so ignominiously buried is another indication of the value of DNA in establishing truth and, in an Irish context, another argument for a national DNA database.