Is King Richard III R1b*?

[Arch Y.]

Anybody know if the University of Leicester has tested the former king's Y-DNA?

Arch

[gtc]

Anybody know if the University of Leicester has tested the former king's Y-DNA?

Arch

Dr Turi King stated that she is currently at the early stages of trying to recover testable Y DNA from Richard's remains. Although she didn't give a probability figure, there's the possibility that she will not succeed. Let's hope that she does.

[gtc]

Here's an update on the Y question. Salient bit bolded in blue:

February 11, 2013
Tracing a Royal Y Chromosome
By NICHOLAS WADE New York Times

Researchers last week developed DNA evidence to help identify the remains of
a skeleton found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, as those of
Richard III, the last English king to die in battle, in 1485. But the
researchers’ work is only half-done. They have made a strong but not
conclusive link through the female line, and are now turning to the male
side for corroboration.

Turi King, a geneticist at the University of Leicester, found a match in the
mitochondrial DNA extracted from the parking lot skeleton and that of two
living descendants of Anne of York, Richard III’s sister. About 1 percent of
the English population carries this type. Mitochondrial DNA is bequeathed
exclusively through the female line.

Chris Tyler-Smith, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near
Cambridge, said the mitochondrial DNA type identified by Dr. King was “rare
enough to be interesting, but not rare enough to be conclusive.”

The Leicester team plans to investigate the paternal DNA of the remains.
Kevin Schürer, a historian at the university, has already found four living
descendants of John of Gaunt, the son of Edward III, who was Richard III’s
great-great-grandfather. Dr. King has found that their Y chromosome, which
is carried only by men, match, establishing that they are all true
descendants of John of Gaunt.

The Y chromosome DNA from the skeleton is very degraded, but Dr. King said
she had found that she could amplify it and hopes to get enough to make a
match with the living descendants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/science/more-dna-tests-to-confirm-skeleton-is-richard-iiis.html?_r=0

[rms2]

Cool! It would have been nice if they had mentioned to what y haplogroup the four living descendants of John of Gaunt belong.

[gtc]

Cool! It would have been nice if they had mentioned to what y haplogroup the four living descendants of John of Gaunt belong.

Yes, Dr King is keeping her counsel about that for the time being. However, I expect we'll get to find out when she publishes her findings. I hope that is the case regardless of her success with Richard's DNA, because the Beauforts are very well documented and it all adds to the bank of haplogroup information.

[rms2]

I think she'll get some y-dna. I just wonder to what y haplogroup it will belong.

I just finished a pleasant re-reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow, in which Richard III features prominently, although he is not the main character. What a great story.