The New Murrey and Blue blog

cause of death

Did Elizabeth Wydville die of the plague….?

Sep 26, 2019

battles, buildings

Battle of Bosworth, bigamy, cause of death, Edward IV, Edward V, Elizabeth of York, Elizabeth Wydeville, Euan Roger, Henry VII, Henry VIII, illegitimacy, National Archives, plague, Venetian Ambassador

We all know that on 8th June, 1492, Elizabeth Woodville died in relative obscurity in Bermondsey Abbey, and it has been imagined that she died a natural death, perhaps brought on by her greatly reduced circumstances and exclusion from court. (Although perhaps she preferred to hide away because she’d simply had enough of court life…
Another case of monarchical remains and their DNA

Oct 23, 2014

archaeology, genealogy, Science

Akhenaten, cause of death, damnatio memoriae, DNA, interbreeding, Tutankhamun, virtual autopsy

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/21/world/king-tut-visual-autopsy/index.html This time it is Tutankhamun (no doorbell jokes, thankyou) nearly three millennia earlier. The “virtual autopsy” shows him to have had a clubfoot and he owned about a hundred walking sticks as a consequence, strangely held in the wrong hand. DNA evidence appears to show his parents (Akhenaten and the “Younger Lady) to be…