The Bone Chests Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons [Audiobook]

Free Download The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons (Audiobook)
English | ISBN: 9780008447359 | 2023 | 10 hours and 1 minute | M4B@64 kbps | 286 MB
Author: Cat Jarman
Narrator: Cat Jarman
From bioarchaeologist and bestselling author, a gripping new history of the making of England as a nation, told through six bone chests, stored for over a thousand years in Winchester Cathedral. In 1642, William Waller and his Parliamentarian army came to Winchester with destruction on their minds. They forced entry to the magnificent cathedral that had stood on the site for over 600 years and began to smash things. In the cathedral’s holiest place, ten beautiful mortuary chests rested as they’d done since the 7th century.

In search for treasure, the soldiers ripped open the lids and when all they found were bones they flung them at the great West Window, destroying the 14th-century stained glass with its sacred images of the Virgin Mary and St Peter. The desecration was total – blood, glass, bayonets, bones all scattered underfoot. The chests housed the mortal remains of West Saxon kings, saints and bishops; of Queen Emma of Normandy, William Rufus, Harthacnut, Edmund Ironside and Edward the Confessor. As the soldiers left, local people picked through the damage, gathering the glass and hiding the bone chests for safekeeping.