The Nature Communications paper described finding that the ancient DNA from the skeleton matched the mitochondrial sequence of Michael Ibsen at every position in the complete genome. The team had sequenced the ancient mitochondrial genome multiple times to guard against errors, and the results were consistent across these independent runs. The comparison with Wendy Duldig’s sequence showed the single-base difference at one position, which the researchers noted was consistent with the known rate of mitochondrial mutation and was expected rather than surprising given the greater number of generations separating her from the common ancestor.
The nuclear DNA analysis was more partial. The nuclear genome had degraded more substantially than the mitochondrial genome, but the team was able to recover and sequence segments relevant to appearance-associated genetic markers. The results — indicating blue eyes and likely childhood blond hair — were published with appropriate caveats about the probabilistic nature of appearance prediction from genetic markers. These are population-level statistical associations, not deterministic predictions. A particular combination of genetic variants associated with blue eyes does not guarantee that every individual carrying them had blue eyes; it means that among people carrying those variants, blue eyes are significantly more common than they would be in the general population.
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## The Greyfriars in Medieval Leicester
The Franciscan friary where Richard III was buried in 1485 had been a significant religious institution in Leicester for more than two centuries before his death. Understanding the friary’s history and layout helps explain how the burial came to be where it was and why the site’s later development obscured it so thoroughly.