LONDON, March 5 (UPI) -- A DNA test of a 500-year-old strand of hair may reveal whether two sons of British King Richard IV did indeed die in the Tower of London.
While skeletons thought to be Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury were found in the tower in 1674, an Essex University doctoral student is set to determine their authenticity by testing hair from one of the princes' niece, The Daily Mail said.
By using some of Mary Tudor's hair that was found in a locket, John Ashdown-Hill plans on matching its mitochondrial DNA to that of the skeletons.
Historians said King Richard III imprisoned the princes, his nephews, in the Tower in 1483 and both boys were never seen again.
Yet Ashdown-Hill said his test all currently hinges on whether the St. Edmunsbury Borough Council will give him permission to obtain the hair from the fragile antique.
"There is just one problem; at the moment the locket which has held this lock of hair since at least the 1840s, refuses to open," he told the Daily Mail. "Hopefully conservation staff from the Colchester Museums Service will be able to unseal it for me."
