London –
In 1879, a prince from Ethiopia died while studying in England. Until now, the prince’s body is reluctant to be returned to his country.
Buckingham Palace in England has rejected a request to return the body of an Ethiopian prince named Prince Alemayehu who was buried at Windsor Castle in the 19th century.
The prince came to England when he was seven years old. He became an orphan after his mother died on the way.
Queen Victoria then took an interest in him and provided for his education until finally his burial when he died at the age of 18. But his family wants the prince’s body to be sent back to Ethiopia.
“We want his body back as a family and as an Ethiopian because that is not the country of his birth. It is not right for him to be buried in England,” one of royal descendant Fasil Minas told the BBC.
But in a statement sent to the BBC, a spokesman for Buckingham Palace said the transfer of his body could affect others buried in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
“It would be absolutely impossible to exhume the remains without disturbing the resting places of a large number of other people in the vicinity,” the palace said.
The statement added that the authorities at the chapel were sensitive to the need to honor Prince Alemayehu’s memory. But they also have a responsibility to uphold the dignity of the deceased.
It is said that in the past parts of the royal household have accommodated requests from delegates Ethiopia to visit the chapel.
In 1862, in a bid to strengthen his empire, the princely father Emperor Tewodros II sought an alliance with England, but his letters received no response from Queen Victoria.
In the absence of a response, the emperor held several Europeans, among them the British consul, as hostages. This prompted a massive military expedition, involving some 13,000 British and Indian troops, to rescue them.
In April 1868, they laid siege to the mountain fortress of Tewodros at Maqdala in northern Ethiopia, and within hours had overwhelmed the defenses.
The emperor decided he would rather kill himself than become a prisoner of the British, an act which turned him into a heroic figure among his people.
After the battle, the British looted thousands of cultural and religious artefacts. This includes gold crowns, manuscripts, necklaces and gowns.
Historians say dozens of elephants and hundreds of mules were needed to transport the treasure, which is currently scattered in European museums and libraries, as well as in private collections. The British also took Prince Alemayehu and his mother, Empress Tiruwork Wube.
According to Andrew Heavens in his book “The Prince and the Plunder”, which chronicles Alemayehu’s life, the British probably thought this measure would keep the prince and his mother safe, preventing them from being captured and possibly killed by Tewodros’ enemies, who were near Maqdala.
Upon his arrival in England in June 1868, the prince’s hardships and his status as an orphan won the sympathy of Queen Victoria. The two met at the queen’s holiday home on the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England.
She agreed to support him financially and placed him in the guardianship of Captain Tristram Charles Sawyer Speedy, the man accompanying the prince from Ethiopia. They first lived together on the Isle of Wight and then Captain Speedy took him to other parts of the world, including India.
But it was decided that the prince should receive a formal education. He was sent to the English public school Rugby but he was not happy there. He then transferred to the Royal Military College in Sandhurst where he was subjected to bullying.
The prince had a desire to return home, the correspondence quoted by Heavens said, but that idea was quickly dropped.
“I sympathize with him as if I knew him. He was transferred from Ethiopia, from Africa, from the land of the black people and remains there as if he had no home,” Ethiopian royal descendant Abebech Kasa told the BBC.
The Prince Died at the Age of 18, Allegedly Poisoned
Alemayehu eventually taught in a private house in Leeds. But he fell ill, possibly with pneumonia, and at one point refused treatment thinking he had been poisoned.
After a decade in exile, the prince died in 1879 at the age of 18.
His illness has been the subject of articles in the national press and Queen Victoria wrote in her diary of her sorrow at his death.
“Deeply saddened and shocked to hear the telegram, that the good Alemayehu has passed away this morning. Very sad! Alone, in a foreign country, without a single person or relative, his,” he said.
“Her life was unhappy, full of all kinds of hardships, and very sensitive, thinking that people were staring at her because of the color of her skin… Everyone was very sorry,” she explained.
He then arranged for her burial at Windsor Castle.
The Prince Was Asked to Return to Ethiopia Since 2007
Demands for the prince’s remains to be returned to Ethiopia are not new. In 2007, the country’s President Girma Wolde-Giorgis sent a formal request to Queen Elizabeth II for the body to be sent back, but the attempt proved unsuccessful.
“We want him back. We don’t want him to stay in a foreign country,” Abebech said. “He had a miserable life. When I think about him, I cry. If they agree to return his body, I will treat it as if he came home alive,” he said.
He hoped to receive a positive response from the newly crowned King Charles III.
“Restitution is used as a way to bring about reconciliation, to acknowledge what went wrong in the past,” said Professor Alula Pankhurst, specialist on UK-England relations.Ethiopia.
He believes the return of bodies will be a way for England to rethink its past. It is a reflection and peace with the empire’s past.
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(wsw/wsw)
2023-05-29 14:05:00
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