We can assume that when Richard III was interred by the monks in the church of the Greyfriars , possibly with a few of Henry Tudor 's henchmen present to see that it was done , it would not have been the burial a king of England could have expected . The confirmation that the remains found in Leicester are those of King Richard means that , at last , this can be put right and he can be laid to rest with the solemnity and dignity that is appropriate for an anointed king . Even more significantly , the finding and reinterment of Richard III 's remains will , we hope , open up the debate about the king and his reputation . It would make such a difference if people would start to look into the history of this much maligned monarch without the old prejudices . Perhaps , then , they will see past the myth and innuendo that has blackened his name and find the truth . No one is going to suggest that he was a saint - I have said on many occasions that we are not the Richard III Adoration Society - but even a cursory reading of the known facts will show that the Tudor representation of Richard III , especially that in Shakespeare 's well known play , just does n't stand up . Read more : Richard III 's story `` stuff of legend '' Shakespeare wrote a great play but even he must have been aware that he was twisting the facts in order to make it more dramatic . After all , he called it a `` tragedy '' not a `` history . '' His Richard III is a villain and a superb villain at that , but Shakespeare was not writing history , no matter what the Duke of Marlborough might have thought . There are many instances where the portrayal just does not fit the historical record . For instance , in one of his three plays about Henry VI , Shakespeare has Richard of Gloucester , later Richard III , killing the Duke of Somerset at the first battle of St Albans . At the time of that fight , Richard Plantagenet was n't Duke of Gloucester and , more cogently , he was n't yet three years old ! The Richard III Society was founded as the Fellowship of the White Boar almost 90 years ago . It was re-founded in 1956 and changed its name three years later , as a result of which , it took on a more missionary approach to its aims of securing a reassessment of the material relating to the life and times of this king . This was not new , of course , as reassessment had begun in the 17th century after the death of the last Tudor monarch and it has continued ever since . Over the centuries , the approach to Richard III 's reputation has swung like a pendulum . If , as a result of the finding of Richard III and all the publicity it has engendered , people can be encouraged to read the facts for themselves , it will be a truly great event and all who have been involved in the project are to be congratulated . I have followed its progress from an early stage when Philippa Langley , a member of the Richard III Society whose idea it was , first came to me to ask if she thought it was viable and would the society be willing to back it . I have tried to encourage her at times when doors were being shut and when there were setbacks and together we appealed for money when there was a shortfall . It is a great testament to Philippa 's tenacity and bloody-mindedness that the project has been so successful . Read more : Richard III : The king and the car park ? Richard III was no saint but neither was he a criminal . All but one of the so-called crimes laid at his door can be refuted by the facts . The one that can not is the disappearance of his nephews , the `` Princes in the Tower '' and the answer to that question is simply that no-one knows what happened to them . All that follows is conjecture - they just disappeared . Richard had no need to kill them ; they had been declared bastards . Henry VII needed them out of the way , but he got so scared whenever a pretender appeared that it is likely that he knew they were alive at the time Richard died at Bosworth . Did they die in 1483 or 1485 or were they spirited out of the country to their aunt , the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy ? We will probably never know . To return to the question of what will the finding of Richard III 's remains mean ? Let us hope it means more clear thinking , a wider debate , greater seeking of the truth and above all , may it set the record straight for Good King Richard !
Remains of a man matching Richard III 's description were found in England last August . Scientists say DNA tests show `` beyond reasonable doubt '' that the bones are the monarch 's . Supporters of Richard III hope the finding of his remains will open up debate about the king . Dr. Phil Stone writes that the Tudor representation of Richard III `` just does n't stand up ''