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In reply to the discussion: Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king [View all]muriel_volestrangler
(101,082 posts)If half of England could have been used, then it would have proved nothing - because half of the bodies in medieval England would have been a match. There was an unbroken female line from the man's mother (he lives in London, by the way) to Richard III's sister, so he would be the closest mitochrondrial DNA match possible.
You say "so many ended up so dead". As far as I can tell, Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick was the only descendant of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (the guy who started the war to make the Yorkist claim to the throne) that Henry VII executed. He also killed Richard III in battle at Bosworth, and John de la Pole in battle at Stoke Field in 1487 - when he supported Lambert Simnel (before that, Henry had trusted him, and appointed him president of the Council of the North). That's out of, I think, 19 descendants of the 3rd Duke of York who were alive and in England in 1485.
Warbeck is not a 'straw man'. He was at the centre of one of the 2 significant rebellions against Henry, and Warwick was not executed until he apparently joined with Warbeck, 14 years after Henry first took power.