LONDON, (Reuters) – Only months after archaeologists discovered the missing body of Richard III, researchers are about to test human remains to see if they are those of another king, Alfred the Great, a ninth-century monarch.
Officials have given the go-ahead to analyse bones found in an unmarked grave at a church in Winchester, southwest England, the capital of Alfred’s kingdom, to determine if they are those of one of the best-known figures from early English history. Alfred ruled the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, an area which covered much of southern England, from 871 until 899 and was famed for military victories against the Vikings who had invaded much of the north of the country.
The remains were exhumed in March but church permission, known as a faculty, has only now been given to local community group Hyde900, which has been researching Alfred’s final resting place, to carry out the tests.
