4th April 2015
An attempt by the University of Leicester to narrow down the location of the false-paternity event in Richard III's family tree has been unsuccessful – they have instead found another one.
The Leicester team was approached by Patrice de Warren, who can trace his male-line ancestry to Geoffrey Count of Anjou, an ancestor of Edward III. If his Y chromosome matched Richard III's, the break (or breaks) in the family tree would be shown to occur between Edward III and the 5th Duke of Beaufort, the common ancestor of the previously tested male-line relatives. If it instead matched those tested relatives, the break would be between Edward III and Richard III, a particularly fascinating gap of only four generations. Unfortunately Patrice de Warren matches neither his very distant living relatives nor the bones of Richard III, pointing to at least one more instance of false paternity. The search continues!
Family tree from the University of Leicester.