Bone up on history

THEY lie entombed and jumbled in six chests in Winch-ester Cathedral, a fascinating residue of the city's rich history.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the cathedral pass them with barely a glance.

But inside those mortuary chests lie the bones of 11, maybe 12, people - Anglo-Saxon kings and bishops reputed to include Egbert, Cnut, his wife Emma, their son Hardacnut and possibly William Rufus, the son of William the Conqueror.

Despite the historic importance of these people little is known about the remains.

But that may change. The Daily Echo can reveal that the cathedral authorities have taken the first tentative steps that could end with a unique research project involving archaeologists, historians, DNA specialists, experts on historic bones and art historians.

They have asked Dr John Crook, the cathedral consultant archaeologist, to draw up a research agenda and feasibility study.

It is a project that would combine science and the arts, part-detective story, part-cold analysis which will attract national attention.

The Dean and Chapter, the cathedral's ruling body, are sensitive about the issue. The Dean, the Very Rev Michael Till, is conscious that the bones, while being of immense historic interest, are also the remains of people who must be treated with respect.

The cathedral has been contacted by TV companies who wish to examine the bones, particularly the skull of Cnut, for programmes that ride the wave of popularity in history.

Dr Crook, who has long been interested in the bones, said: "I think any research that is going to be done into something so important has to involve a lot of preliminary thought. We get applications from TV people but this is too important to just have people dabbling.

"Some of those who have requested to film or examine the bones have often appeared to be in search of the sensational.

"Their requests have been based on ignorance or false premises, or they have required to look at just one item - the skull of Cnut being the most usual request.

"An approach has been made to the Chapter for a serious research exercise and the Chapter has referred the initial request back for amplification in the form of a research agenda and feasibility study.

"The Dean and Chapter indicated they would give consideration to permitting such research provided it was carried out in a thoughtful and responsible way and was likely to produce results that were genuinely illuminating."

Dr Crook said it was too early to print headlines 'Chapter to examine royal bones!'

The research would go ahead only after permission was received from the Chapter, the Cathedrals Fabric Commission, English Heritage and possibly even the Home Office, as it may be deemed an exhumation.

Dr Crook said: "This would be a very exciting project and I hope it can proceed. These are important things and we owe it to the individuals to find out more about them."

He said: "We won't ever be able to construct a complete skeleton. We won't know which bones go where.

"We should be able to say how many people there are, how big they were, what sex, their diet, their diseases and possibly a facial reconstruction. If we find more than one woman that will raise eyebrows. We may be able to use DNA to say if anyone was related, to establish the Cnut, Emma, Hardacnut link.

"We will have the DNA genetic sequence which will help future researchers even if we cannot make sense of them at the moment."

Dr Crook said the research would probably involve a university and would probably not start for at least a year or two at the earliest.

The possibility of a proper research programme is one that is exciting other historians.

Professor Barbara Yorke of King Alfred's College, an expert in early medieval history, said: "This is rather an exciting prospect, if they could work out the links between them.

"There is the question over whether the bones should be disturbed. They have been disturbed enough in their history, poor things."

Canon Keith Walker, cathedral archivist, said the cathedral had to be very cautious. "One doesn't necessarily rule out analysis of the bones but we would only do it with good grounds that it would yield important information.

"It is a fascinating detective story, absolutely. It may well be done one day to corroborate what is said by tradition."

Remains which have never been laid to rest

How those skeletons became mixed up touches upon Winchester's role as the former capital of England, a place of pilgrimage for thousands and battleground in the civil war and religious strife of the 17th century.

The unification of England in the ninth century elevated the city to political and religious power.

Naturally, for a place of such importance, kings, queens, princes, princesses and bishops were buried there, in the Anglo-Saxon church called Old Minster. That church was demolished in 1093 when the present Norman cathedral was built.

A subject of historical debate, the bones were transferred to the cathedral in about the late 11th or 12th centuries to be closer to the relics of St Swithun, whose grave attracted many pilgrims.

Dr Crook believes the then recent monarchs, Cnut, Emma and Hardacnut, may have been buried around the high altar while the others, early kings of Wessex and bishops, were perhaps put in the crypt.

In 1158 Bishop Henry of Blois exhumed the bones and reinterred them in lead coffers around the high altar.

Even at that time the skeletons had got jumbled up so that there were "kings with bishops and bishops with kings".

Some of the bones were moved again in the 14th century, then in 1525 they were rehoused again in ten mortuary chests and perched atop stone screens in the retro-choir.

This resting place was disturbed in 1642 when they became the victims of the English Civil War hatred.

Parliamentarian troops, some on horses, stormed into the cathedral, toppled the chests and scattered the bones in an act of sacrilege.

They were gathered up and replaced and have largely been gathering dust ever since.