The living descendants of King Richard III have demanded that his remains are reburied in York.
The monarch’s 500-year-old skeleton was identified this month. It was uncovered in an archaeological dig at a council car park in Leicester last year.
The remains are due to be re-interred at Leicester Cathedral next year despite campaigns to bring them to York.
Nine of Richard III’s descendants said they believed the king, the last monarch of the House of York, would have wanted to be buried in the northern city.
They said in a statement: “We, the under-named, do hereby most respectfully demand that the remains of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet King of England and our mutual ancestor, be returned to the city of York for formal, ceremonial reburial.
“We believe that such an interment was the desire of King Richard in life and we have written this statement so that his wishes may be fully recognised and upheld.”
City leaders in York have vowed to write to the Queen and Ministry of Justice to ask for the remains returned to his “spiritual home”.
A petition calling for King Richard to be re-interred at York has been signed by 23,000 people.
But the ministry said it was Leicester University’s decision as it was granted permission to exhume the monarch’s body.