10 Curious Facts About the Winchester Royal Bone Chests – Listverse
Europe's cathedrals are among the oldest buildings still in use. Many are over 1,000 years old and have collected important historical artifacts over the centuries. But over time, the truth about such things can easily be lost. Winchester Cathedral There is a famous example in the south of England. The centuries-old cathedral was built between 1079 and 1532 and has displayed six coffins – painted coffins – next to the altar for hundreds of years.
These have long been said to contain the bones of famous Anglo-Saxon kings, nobles and bishops, but another long-standing rumor says that the remains inside bear little relation to the inscriptions on the boxes. Before the 21st century, nothing was known with certainty about them. But in 2012, researchers began studying the contents of the chests. Here are ten fascinating things they discovered and the mysteries that remain to this day.
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10 Their story began almost 1000 years ago
The six coffins we see today date from about 400 years ago, to the English Civil War. But according to the names painted on the coffins, what's inside is much older. The names are of those who ruled England's early medieval ancestors, the Anglo-Saxons, before the Norman invasion in 1066. The chests list eight kings, two bishops and a queen, which sounds like a lot of people would only put six in there. Boxes.
In fact there were ten, but over the course of an eventful thousand-year history, four have been lost, along with, eerily, some of their contents. As for what's special about Winchester, which today is a relatively small city with a population of about 127,500, it used to be the capital. It was the seat of power of the first kings of England and before that also of the kings of Wessex. William the Conqueror would make London the capital a little later.[1]
9 Contains many more people than previously thought
The six coffins bear eleven names of those believed to be inside, but it is even busier than that. A long-standing belief was that the remains of 12 to 15 people were inside, but since the coffins were opened in 2012, scientific analysis has shown that they contained the partial skeletons of at least 23 people. To determine this, the scientists had to sort and analyze the more than 1,300 jumbled bone fragments in the coffins.
While they are still working to identify most of the skeletons, they were able to confirm through radiocarbon dating that all the bones are from late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman times. This corresponds to the names on the chests. The scientists even took a strange extra measure to be as accurate as possible; they adjusted the radiocarbon dating results to take into account the fish-rich diet of the Anglo-Saxon nobles. This is because fish contains older radiocarbon.[2]
8 Bones became mixed during the move to a new cathedral
How did the contents of the chests become so mixed up? It really starts centuries before Winchester Cathedral was ever built. The first ruler mentioned on the coffins, Cynegils, died over 400 years earlier, in 643. He was buried near the cathedral, but it would be changed several times in the centuries after his death. The first church was built there in the same century, but was eventually expanded to become the Old Minster – 'minster' was a cathedral.
In 901 the New Minster was built nearby. But both were demolished in the 11th century on the orders of William the Conqueror, and the cathedral that still stands today was built in their place.
With all the changes, it wouldn't be a surprise if graves were disturbed and data lost. By the 12th century, when the Bishop of Winchester, Henry of Blois, decided to move all the remains from the ancient sites into lead coffins in the cathedral, he would not know exactly who he was moving. A chronicler at the time wrote that “kings mingled with bishops, and bishops with kings.”[3]
7 The bones that were once used to break windows
Changes to the cathedral's location were not the only events that caused the contents of the bone coffins to become confused. In the 1520s, a bishop named Richard Fox removed the bones from the lead boxes and placed them in chests. They were kept in the cathedral with another set of individually buried royal remains, meaning there were ten coffins in total. Four of the surviving bone coffins are Fox originals, and two are replacements, meaning six have been lost. And what is known about what happened to them is quite shocking.
Parliamentary soldiers, colloquially known as 'Roundheads', raided the cathedral at the start of the English Civil War in 1642. They smashed the bone coffins open on the ground, picked up the scattered fragments and threw them through the cathedral's stained glass windows . After the attack, local residents collected what bones they could find and placed them back in the remaining coffins. But of course they couldn't know whose bones belonged to whom.[4]
6 The bones of a legendary queen
Queen Emma of Normandy is the only woman mentioned on the bone coffins, and analysis of the bones revealed that the coffins contained only one female skeleton. The skeleton belonged to an older woman, which corresponds to the data of Queen Emma, who in her life had time to marry two kings of England and give birth to two more. A powerful political figure, Emma first married Ethelred the Unready in 1002 as part of a plan to unite England and Normandy in defense against the Vikings.
Ironically, after Ethelred died in 1016, she married the next Norwegian king of England, Cnut, who also ruled Denmark and Norway. She gave birth to the future kings Edward the Confessor and Harthacanut, and she had an odd relationship with Edward. When she was king, he accused her of having an affair with a bishop. To prove her innocence, he granted her a 'trial by ordeal': she would have to walk barefoot over nine burning plowshares in Winchester Cathedral. After saying her prayers, she walked over the hot iron unscathed and restored her reputation, along with that of the bishop.[5]
5 Storing the remains of a murdered king?
Although his father was buried in France, the remains of William II, son of William the Conqueror, are said to be in the bone coffins at Winchester. The second Norman king died on August 2, 1100 in what would officially be a hunting accident in the New Forest, not far from the city. He was shot by an arrow fired by Sir Walter Walter Tirel, who then fled to France. .
Many believe that Tirel murdered the king on the orders of William's brother Henry, who was next in line for the throne, as William had no heirs. It is not certain that this was the case; hunting was a dangerous sport and accidents were common. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most infamous monarchical deaths in English history, and it is also shrouded in morbid mystery.
That morning, William had a terrible nightmare in which he saw the air filled with his blood. In another retelling, he sees the devil, who said he was looking forward to seeing him. To this day, his ghost is said to haunt the New Forest, doomed to forever walk the path along which his corpse was brought to Winchester.[6]
4 Could there also be a king inside?
The bone coffin bears the name King Canute next to his wife and son. This highly effective ruler united England, Norway and Denmark under his rule and formed the North Sea Empire. As powerful as he was, Cnut is often remembered for a famous failure.
The story goes that the king's chair was carried to the seashore, where he sat on it and said to the sea, 'You are subject to me, since the land on which I sit is mine, and no one has risen against my rule resists. with impunity. I command you therefore not to go into my country, nor to presume to wet your master's garments or limbs.' When this clearly did not work, he proclaimed the worthlessness of the power of kings compared to God.
This story, along with Canute's name, has made its way into the English language, where it is used to describe arrogant people who think they have the power to prevent the inevitable from happening. However, some historians say this is a misinterpretation. Canute was not arrogant, but demonstrated the point that God's power was greater than that of any earthly king.[7]
3 Bones of two children
The bone coffins held more surprises for researchers than the discovery that there were at least 23 skeletons instead of the expected 12-15. A big surprise was that two of the skeletons were of children. It was believed that they were boys who died between the ages of 10 and 15. The fact that they ended up in the boxes means that they were 'almost certainly' royal, according to experts. Yet they are stunned by the duo's identity.
Many people suggested that they could be the sons of King Edward IV, who is believed to have been murdered in a plot by Richard III, their uncle who was left to care for them after their father died. However, these events took place in 1483, while the skeletons in the coffins died sometime between 1050 and 1150.[8]
2 Stored next to a huge medieval Bible
The mortuary coffins date from a time when belief in Christianity was increasing in Britain. Cynegils was the first Christian king of Wessex. Canute believed that piety was important in his role as king, and Edward the Confessor became a saint. The coffins are also not the only artifacts from this era preserved in the cathedral. In 2019 they were put on display next to a beautiful 12th century Bible.
After its own five-year conservation project, visitors were finally able to see the almost 1,000-year-old, 32-kilo book. Remarkably, it was written by just one writer, who after four years is still not finished. He wrote on the skin of 250 calves, and later six artists decorated the book with gold leaf and other colorful lighting.[9]
1 Connections to the current royal family
The coffins are said to contain individuals from before and shortly after William the Conqueror's Norman invasion of England. His invasion was the point at which England began counting its rulers, which then raises the question of whether the current royal family is related to those in the chests. Surprisingly, the answer is yes, considering the many wars over the centuries between then and now.
Queen Emma of Normandy was a great-aunt of William the Conqueror (through her he laid claim to the English throne), and he is a 23rd great-grandfather of King Charles III. Winchester Cathedral also has other royal connections. It was the location for the wedding of 'Bloody' Mary Tudor in 1554, and a chair from the ceremony still stands. Scenes from the TV series The crown were also filmed there, and it has ties to literary royalty; Jane Austen was buried there in 1817.[10]