The once-missing monarch Richard III, best known as the last Plantagenet king who murdered his nephews in London Tower in order to gain the throne, is in death involved in nastiness that was as ugly as his later life: a bitter fight over where his bones (minus his feet, lost at some point) will be interred.

The War of the Roses redux? We'll see. The original war was within the Lancaster family, it just happened that a Tudor won because the Lancasters put themselves on the road to extinction and Richard III assured it by having the other heirs killed and then getting a spear through the skull.

Now that his remains have been found, the argument becomes where to bury him; Leicester would like him to remain there. But a group claiming to be descendants say they were never consulted and that he would have wanted to be buried in York.  These Yorkists say he had no connection to Leicester, it's just where his supporters were able to drop the body to keep it from being defiled. 


Credit: University of Leicester. Link: CNN

Not so,  the city's mayor, Peter Soulsby, told CNN. "There's considerable historical evidence that Richard spent quite a lot of time at his castle here in Leicester. It was from Leicester that he chose to ride out to what would prove to be his last battle, and it was to Leicester that he was returned, and where he was buried on the orders of the new king, Henry.

"And frankly, to be buried by royal command in a city is pretty powerful evidence that this is where he ought to remain."

And where were all these relatives for the last 500 plus years? Leicester has a lot of things named after Richard III and they are the ones who persisted until they found him. 

Richard III's last battle: 'War of Roses' 2? By Bryony Jones CNN