Tomb of the Saxon Queen: Discovered, Alfred's granddaughter

[redqueen]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1244527/Princess-Eadgyth-Discovered-remains-Alfred-Greats-granddaughter.html

The crumbling remains of Alfred the Great's granddaughter - a Saxon princess who married one of the most powerful men in Europe - have been unearthed more than 1,000 years after her death.

The almost intact bones of Queen Eadgyth - the early English form of Edith - were discovered wrapped in silk, inside a lead coffin in a German cathedral.

Eadgyth - one of the oldest members of the English royal family - was given in marriage to the influential Holy Roman Emperor Otto I and lived in Germany until her death in 946AD, aged 36.

Yesterday, British archaeologists involved in the find hailed it as 'one of the most exciting historical discoveries in recent years'.


When the tomb was opened in 2008 a lead coffin 70cm long was found inside, bearing an inscription that read: 'The rescued remains of Queen Eadgyth are in this sarcophagus, after the second renovation of this monument in 1510.' The lead box contained the bones of a woman aged in her thirties, wrapped in white silk

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1244527/Princess-Eadgyth-Discovered-remains-Alfred-Greats-granddaughter.html#ixzz0dMPaUpG8

[knitter4democracy]

1. So, now they have to verify that's really her.

They're rescued remains, so how can they tell they're really hers?

[redqueen]

2. Probably by testing the bones ...

for traces of those elements which are more common in the areas where she grew up than they are in Germany.

[druidity33]

3. DNA testing?

If there are actual relations still living, they can probably match DNA strains...

:shrug:

[BadgerKid]

4. Queen Elizabeth II is a relative

according to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great

[roguevalley]

5. it will certainly tell yes or no if she is a relative. they claim a lot. I

would love to know. this is extremely fascinating. thank you, OP. I wear a gold ring I bought at the British Museum thirty years ago that is a copy of a ring Alfred wore.

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. She's an ancestral aunt of mine, strange to relate. God bless her.

[eShirl]

7. Mine too, Cousin Joe.

Her dad did some good stuff, I hear.

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. Did you mean, Big Ed, Shirl or grandpappy, Alf, ? They and Chas I believe are

ancestors of most of us - well, Chas, anyway - though the link to the toffs/sociopaths is the key to finding the thread that will lead back through the centuries, isn't it?

Actually, Charlemagne was a very good and enlightened ruler. Scarcely credible, really. I believe his troops had to carry 18 months provisions with them, and not live off plunder form the locals - which was the norm. Probably for a long time after. It's kind of touching to read that, as an adult, apparently, he was so tickled to be taught to read (by Alcuin, the English scholar and teacher), that he kept a pen and paper under his pillow. You may know such stuff, Cousin Shirl.

[eShirl]

9. Yes you're right, Cousin Joe; I did mean Alfred.

Ultimately, we humans are one big, semi-dysunctional family, aren't we? All cousins, all descendants of queens and kings. Knowledge of my specific genealogy does, however, from time to time help spark my interest in myriad directions: history, geography, archeology, linguistics, on and on...