UK The Earl of Shrewsbury is missing - along with 14 aristocratic acquaintances

A historical mystery has been uncovered at Sheffield Cathedral after 15 aristocratic bodies disappeared from the crypt.

In the Tudor era, the Earl of Shrewsbury built a special chapel to house the bodies of his descendants - but 500 years later, nearly all of them have gone missing.

The body-snatching whodunnit was only revealed last week, when archaeologists opened up the sealed crypt and found 15 fewer bodies than they had expected.
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The most obvious solution to the puzzle might seem to be grave-snatching, but the fact that the heavy lead coffins are missing as well as the corpses themselves would seem to suggest that this was not the case.

Archaeologists are exploring the possibility that the crypt harbours a secret wall concealing the true location of the bodies.
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Cathedral officials are now collaborating with historians from the University of Sheffield in an effort to crack the mystery and hunt down the bodies.
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AlwaysShocked said:

re: The marriage of a 13 yr. old.

They did this way back when in order to assure that a child was married to whichever other royal son or daughter the parents wanted. Often these arranged marriages were more political than anything else, with the parents trading lands and establishing treaties based on such marriages.

In many cases an actual ceremony took place, with adult "proxies" standing in for the children involved.

Another thing I found fascinating about those times: Ever go to an art museum and in the portraits area encounter what are known as "miniatures"? These were small portraits of aristocrats, often mounted in an oval frame.

In royal families the parents would determine which daughters of other royals might be suitable for their son. Then each girl's parents would send a miniature portrait of their daughter so the young man could examine them. From these, he decided which girl or girls he might be interested in. Then his parents would invite the girl and her family to come and visit - for weeks. Often by the end of these visits an engagement would be announced.

But I guess if the portrait painter wasn't very accurate, it could end up that no engagement took place!

And, FWIW in doing my family genealogy, I found not one, but two 14 yr. old brides. And they were NOT Mormons!

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AlwaysShocked said:

re: The marriage of a 13 yr. old.

They did this way back when in order to assure that a child was married to whichever other royal son or daughter the parents wanted. Often these arranged marriages were more political than anything else, with the parents trading lands and establishing treaties based on such marriages.

In many cases an actual ceremony took place, with adult "proxies" standing in for the children involved.

Another thing I found fascinating about those times: Ever go to an art museum and in the portraits area encounter what are known as "miniatures"? These were small portraits of aristocrats, often mounted in an oval frame.

In royal families the parents would determine which daughters of other royals might be suitable for their son. Then each girl's parents would send a miniature portrait of their daughter so the young man could examine them. From these, he decided which girl or girls he might be interested in. Then his parents would invite the girl and her family to come and visit - for weeks. Often by the end of these visits an engagement would be announced.

But I guess if the portrait painter wasn't very accurate, it could end up that no engagement took place!

And, FWIW in doing my family genealogy, I found not one, but two 14 yr. old brides. And they were NOT Mormons!

Click to expand...

MLO said:

Your post made me think of Henry VIII. He sent an artist to paint a portrait of Anne of Cleves and married her based of the portrait. Then when she arrived he was rather disappointed and the marriage was later annulled.

Shame he couldn't just friend her on facebook to check her out.

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