King Richard III's genetic code is set to be sequenced, after the medieval monarch's body was found buried under a parking lot in Leicester, England.
Researchers at the University of Leicester announced the project on Tuesday. The goal, they said, is to catalog as complete a genome as possible from the king to learn more about his ancestry and health.
Turi King, a geneticist at the University of Leicester who will lead the project, said in a statement that it is an extremely rare occurrence that archaeologists are involved in the excavation of a known individual, let alone a king of England, Fox News reported.
Richard III was the last English king to die in battle. He perished in the Battle of Bosworth during the War of the Roses, a long-lasting civil war between noble families of England.
After his death in August 1485, Richard's body was taken to Leicester and buried in a hasty grave; the location of the grave was then lost.
In 2012, archaeologists embarked on a mission to find the king's skeleton, digging in a city council parking lot based on clues in historical documents.
In February 2013, the researchers announced that they'd hit the jackpot: A skeleton with a curved spine, found stuffed in a sloppy grave, did indeed belong to Richard III.
