131. Dead Kings Road Trip, part one
Following the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, thousands of people will make a pilgrimage to Windsor to pay their last respects to a muchloved monarch. My own journey began a few years earlier, just after King Richard III turned up in a Leicester car park (see FT273:58-59, FT299:4-5, 342:56-57). I started to wonder where all the other English rulers had been buried and whether any more of them were missing – so I decided I’d try to find and visit them all. Some people like ticking off lists of pubs or railway stations, it turns out that I’m a dead kings ticker.
One of the first things I had to sort out is who counts as a ruler of England. Until the 10th century, different kingdoms jostled for position, with various leaders sometimes claiming seniority over the others. Even the mighty Alfred the Great only truly controlled the southern and western areas (with a tenuous hold on Cornwall). I think his grandson Athelstan has the best claim to be the first king of all England followingleft to enjoy it. His magnificent tomb is in Malmesbury Abbey (a town with lots to interest forteans), but the tomb is 15th century – and it’s empty. Any remains disappeared during the Reformation, so the first English king is also the first of our missing monarchs.
