Author Topic: 'Queen's bones' found in Winchester Cathedral royal chests  (Read 1323 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Online Elderberry

  • TBR Contributor
  • *****
  • Posts: 24,278
BBC News 16 May 2019


The six chests have been found to hold the remains of at least 23 individuals

Bones held in mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral could include those of an early English queen, researchers have found.

The contents of six chests have been analysed and radiocarbon-dated.

University of Bristol biological anthropologists found they contained the remains of at least 23 individuals - several more than originally thought.

One is believed to be that of Queen Emma who was married to kings of England, Ethelred and Cnut.

Although the chests, originally placed near the high altar, had inscriptions stating who was supposed to be within them, it was known the names bore no relation to the actual contents.

The contents had become mixed when the cathedral was ransacked and the bones were scattered by Roundhead soldiers during the English Civil War in 1642.

They were repacked by locals so it was not known whose remains were replaced, or if they were the same bones.

Queen Emma

    Born in the 980s, the daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy

    Married two kings - Æthelred the Unready (reigned 1002-1016) and Cnut the Great (reigned 1017-1035)

    Had children including two kings - King Harthacnut (reigned 1040-1042) and Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042-1066)

    A key political figure in her own right, she gave the dukes of Normandy a hereditary claim to the English throne, leading to the Norman Conquest in 1066

    Described in a Latin inscription on a mortuary chest as the "mother and wife of the kings of the English"

More: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-48281733