Buckingham Palace refuses to return remains of Ethiopian prince who is buried in Windsor Castle grounds
Buckingham Palace has refused to return the body of an Ethiopian prince who was buried at Windsor Castle in the 19th century.
According to Mail Online, a descendant of Prince Alemayehu, an orphan who was adored and supported financially by Queen Victoria and died at the age of 18, has demanded that his remains be returned to Ethiopia.
However, Buckingham Palace has maintained that removing the body would affect others buried in the catacombs of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
The Palace said that chapel authorities empathised with the need to honour Prince Alemayehu’s memory, but added they also had ‘the responsibility to preserve the dignity of the departed’.
Prince Alemayehu was brought to England after his father, Emperor Tewodros II killed himself as British forces stormed his mountain-top palace in northern Ethiopia in 1868.
The orphaned seven-year-old was adored by Queen Victoria and educated at Sandhurst military academy. But he tragically died at the age of 18 from pneumonia in 1879 and was buried in catacombs next to Windsor’s St George’s Chapel.
In 2019, the Queen refused to allow the repatriation of his bones, but in the wake of a new book about his life, campaigners have renewed calls to return them.