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A painting of England's King Richard III by an unknown artist is displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in central London on January 25, 2013. Scientists confirmed Monday that a skeleton found under a carpark in the English city of Leicester was that of King Richard III, in a bizarre end to a 500-year-old historical mystery. DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the king's sister, while the skeleton had the twisted spine and battle injuries consistent with contemporary accounts, said researchers from the University of Leicester. The remains of the monarch -- depicted by William Shakespeare as a monstrous hunchback and often viewed as one of English history's greatest villains -- will now be solemnly reburied in the local cathedral. The discovery has caused huge excitement among historians, as it provides firm evidence about a monarch whose life has been shrouded in controversy since his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. According to historical accounts, Richard's body was transported naked and bloody on the back of a pack horse to Leicester before being buried in an unmarked grave at Greyfriars, a Franciscan friary in the central English city. The crown passed from the Plantagenet dynasty to the Tudor monarchs who painted Richard as a deformed villain who stopped at nothing in his quest for power, even murdering his two young nephews -- the so-called Princes in the Tower -- to secure the throne. | 
