The two-comparator approach was more robust than a single comparator would have been. If only Michael Ibsen had been identified and tested, the result would have been suggestive but potentially explicable as a coincidence or a genealogical error in the documented chain. The near-match with Wendy Duldig — a single-base difference expected over 21 generations, through a different documentary pathway — reinforced the conclusion that the genealogical reconstruction was accurate and that the mitochondrial DNA match was genuine.
Schürer’s work also extended beyond the specific identification project to broader research on English genealogical records and what they can establish. The techniques he applied to the Richard III project are relevant to other questions in historical demography and genealogy, and the project contributed to the development of methods for integrating genealogical documentary research with genetic data.
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## Leicester Cathedral and the Long Aftermath
The decision to reinter Richard III at Leicester Cathedral rather than at York Minster or Westminster Abbey was not universally welcomed, but it has proven practically stable. The cathedral has become the permanent custodian of remains that spent their first 527 years of interment in an unmarked grave beneath successive layers of urban development, and it has taken that responsibility seriously.
The tomb designed for Richard III’s reinterment is a substantial memorial that occupies a prominent position in the cathedral’s nave. The Swaledale fossil stone and Kilkenny marble plinth composition was chosen through a design process intended to reflect both the king’s identity and the materials and craftsmanship traditions associated with the regions of England connected to his life. The tomb does not attempt historical mimicry — it is clearly a contemporary design — but it aims for a dignity appropriate to a royal burial.