Lost & Found: Famous bodies found in odd places

Ramesses I of Egypt

This has got to be my favorite story of famous bodies found in odd places. Ruler of Egypt between 1292 – 1290 BCE, he enjoyed a very brief reign. Ramesses I had no time to build or accomplish anything. He only ascended to the throne due to being a royal advisor to the previous Pharaoh, Horemheb, who had no children. And was pretty much forgotten from history as Ramesses II, his grandson achieved an incredible amount and reigned for 66 years.

But what about his body? Where was it found you ask? I kid you not, it was found hanging up in the Niagara Museum and Daredevil Hall of Fame in Niagara Falls, Canada. It had been hanging there for over 130 years after being stolen in 1860 and sold to Dr James Douglas. The body was eventually returned to Egypt in 2003 and is currently on display at the Luxor Museum.

Richard the 3rd – King of England

Richard should have never been King. His brother, Edward IV died in 1483 CE and his son Edward V, a 12 year old was next in line. Richard was to serve as Lord Protector of the Realm until Edwards coronation. in the meantime however, the marriage of Edward IV and his wife was declared bigamous (marrying while still married to another person) and made invalid. Which meant Edward V was suddenly an illegitimate child and Richard was declared the rightful heir. Edward V and his younger brother, another Richard, were imprisoned in the Tower of London. And promptly murdered.

Richard the 3rd’s reign was never the less short lived. Like Ramesses I he only managed a couple of years 1483 – 1485 when he died in the Battle of Bosworth fighting against Henry VII (father of Henry the 8th, the one with all the wives). He would be the last English King to die in battle.

His corpse was taken to the town of Leicester and buried without ceremony. Sometime during the English Reformation, his remains were thought to have been thrown in the river Soar. So it came as a surprise in 2012 when during an archaeological excavation, his remains were found in a car park!

He was reburied in Leicester Cathedral in 2015.

Alfred the Great – First King of the Anglo-Saxons

The only King to ever have the moniker “Great”. He ruled from 871 CE when his older brother was killed in battle until his death in 899 CE. At first he was the King of the West Saxons only. This area was known as Wessex and encompassed much of the English South. By 886 CE he had managed to unite several kingdoms against the Danish threat from the north and served as the first King of the Anglo-Saxons.

He is credited with creating the first Navy to take on the Vikings raiding the British coastline. He also introduced conscription into the army and taxes based on land holdings. He valued literacy and placed great importance on books being translated from Latin into English to make them more accessible to a wider populace.

He died on October the 26th 899 CE at just 50 years old. The causes of death was attributed to an accumulation of illnesses he had throughout life.

His remains were thought to have been lost to the mists of time. That was until his pelvis bone showed up in a cardboard box in the Winchester Museum store. It was mixed in with a bunch of animal bones and other human fragments. These had been excavated from Winchester Abbey in 1999 and then simply over looked. Radio carbon dating places the age of the bones between 895 CE and 1017 CE.

louis XIV – The Sun King

After a ridiculously long reign of 72 years, Louis XIV died of gangrene in 1715. He was 77 years old. As was tradition in France at the time, his remains were divided into 3 separate pieces. Heart, Body and Entrails.

This practise fell out of fashion not long after but it appears to have been tied to strong religious and political beliefs.

The heart was embalmed and sent to Rue-Saint-Antoine in Paris. From where it was stolen during the French Revolution. It eventually found its way to Lord Harcourt, the Archbishop of York. While visiting in 1848, William Buckland was said to have eaten the mummified heart. As you do.

His body, sent to the Basilique royale de Saint-Denis, was also destroyed during the French Revolution. Which leaves only his entrails. These had been placed in an unmarked barrel and sent to Notre Dame Cathedral. Misplaced for over 200 years it was eventually rediscovered, still there, at the bottom of the staircase to the sanctuary where it had been placed all those years before.

Frederick the Great

Frederick II, known as Frederick the Great, was King of Prussia between 1740 until his death in 1786. He was known as a great military leader and a supporter of the arts and philosophers (but only the ones he liked). Napoleon himself visited the grave of Frederick after defeating the Prussian Army, stating to those with him “Hats off gentlemen, if he were still alive, we would not be here”.

He remained a glorified former ruler of the German people well into the Second World War. So much so that Hitler linked his Nazi Party directly back to Frederick, drawing on the good will the German people had for the old King.

Against his wishes, Frederick was buried next to his father in the Potsdam Garrison Church. In 1943 with the Allies bombing raids coming ever closer, Hitler ordered Fredericks body to be dug up and placed into a salt mine for safe keeping. Which is where the Allies discovered it after the end of the war. His body would be bounced around between locations until 1991, when he would finally be interred at Sanssouci, a historical building that Frederick himself had commissioned as his summer palace. It was here that Frederick had wished to be buried in the first place. Only took 205 years for him to get there. You can visit it yourself if you’d like to.