At Winchester Cathedral, along the top of the screens to the presbytery are six caskets. Each one has been inscribed with lettering. The caskets upon the screen are believed to hold the remains of Englands most significant makers and shakers including the bones of eight kings, three bishops and a single woman.
That so many of England’s makers and shakers should lie gathered in this extraordinary concentration of bones is remarkable.
One casket contains the bones of King Canute and Queen Emma (of Normandy). Emma was a remarkable woman. Daughter of the Duke of Normandy. Her mother, Gunnor was Danish. She became Queen of England, a wife to two kings (Aethelred the Unready and King Cnut the Great) and mother of two English Kings (Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor). It was through her bloodline that William the Conqueror laid claim to the English Throne.
View the bone chests in glorious VR below
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