Scientists confirmed Monday that a skeleton found under a carpark in the English city of Leicester was that of King Richard III, in a bizarre end to a 500-year-old historical mystery.

DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the king's sister, while the skeleton had the twisted spine and battle injuries consistent with contemporary accounts, said researchers from the University of Leicester.

The remains of the monarch -- depicted by William Shakespeare as a monstrous hunchback and often viewed as one of English history's greatest villains -- will now be solemnly reburied in the local cathedral.

The discovery has caused huge excitement among historians, as it provides firm evidence about a monarch whose life has been shrouded in controversy since his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

According to historical accounts, Richard's body was transported naked and bloody on the back of a pack horse to Leicester before being buried in an unmarked grave at Greyfriars, a Franciscan friary in the central English city.

The crown passed from the Plantagenet dynasty to the Tudor monarchs who painted Richard as a deformed villain who stopped at nothing in his quest for power, even murdering his two young nephews -- the so-called Princes in the Tower -- to secure the throne.

The hunt for his body began in earnest in 2012 when archaeologists working on historical accounts and geographical clues started to dig beneath the municipal carpark on the spot where Greyfriars was, and found the skeleton.

On Monday the research team said the skeleton confirmed that the monarch had severe scoliosis, or twisting of the spine. It may have been painful and caused his right shoulder to appear higher than his left, but there was no evidence of the withered arm depicted in Shakespeare's "Richard III".

Historians now hope to dispel some of the myths about Richard, publicising evidence to refute claims that he killed the two young princes and focusing on what he achieved in his brief two-year reign, including the establishment of a system of bail and legal aid.

Philippa Langley, a member of the Richard III Society who coordinated and helped fund the search, said she hoped a new image would emerge of the king and "the two-dimensional character devised by the Tudors will be no more".

"We have searched for Richard and we have found him. Now it's time to honour him," she said.