Medieval Church Found As Researchers Seek Richard III's Lost Grave

Archaeologists announced Wednesday that they had found a medieval church where they believe King Richard III of England was buried in 1485.

The archaeologists, led by Richard Buckley, were searching for Greyfriars Church in Leicester, according to Fox News. Greyfriars is thought to be the resting place of Richard III, who was killed in the 1485 Battle of Bosworth, which ended the decades of civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster known as the Wars of the Roses.

"The discoveries so far leave us in no doubt that we are on the site of Leicester's Franciscan Friary, meaning we have crossed the first significant hurdle of the investigation," Buckley said.

Richard was taken to Leicester and buried at Greyfriars after his death at Bosworth. About a century after the king's death, William Shakespeare wrote "Richard III" about him, depicting him as a villlain who murdered his way to power.

Wednesday's news comes in the wake of a Live Science report at the end of August that researchers were digging beneath a parking lot in an effort to find the king's remains. Then, the team announced last week that their excavations led them to glazed floor tile fragments and what appeared to be a tiled roof.

"Today, what we are saying is that we have found the Greyfriars and have uncovered tantalizing clues as to the location of the church," Buckley said in a statement, according to Live Science. "It has gone about as well as we could hope for."

"The size of the walls, the orientation of the building, its position and the presence of medieval inlaid floor tiles and architectural fragments make this almost certainly the church of the Greyfriars," Buckley said, according to Science Daily.

The archaeological dig and its findings are being filmed for a British documentary set to air later this year. Buckley and his fellow researchers -- dubbed the "Tomb Team" by the British media -- now plan to search for the medieval church's choir and high altar.

The choir has been recorded as Richard III's actual grave. The location of the medieval church has been unknown for 450 years because of the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. After Henry broke with the Catholic church in the mid-1500s, he tried to wipe out many of the holy places in England, Wales, and Ireland. He disbanded everything from convents and friaries to major, important monasteries like the one Richard III was entombed in.