[MR] St. Bees Man

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

The unusual story of the St. Bees Man was called to my attention by Lady
Sophia Greifenclau. It turned out to be a very interesting tale.

So to set the stage, St. Bees is a village on the Irish Sea in Cumbria,
Great Britain. The name is a Viking corruption of Saint Bega, a 9th century
Irish princess who supposedly fled here to avoid an enforced marriage. Not
surprisingly, there was thought to have been a pre-Norman church at St.
Bees. When the Normans arrived in 1092, a Benedictine priory was
established. The pre-Norman building was later replaced by a more
substantial gothic church, much of which survives today.

In 1981, an archaeological dig began in the ruinous former chancel section
of the Benedictine building to locate remains of the original church. The
researchers came upon a large stone vault which contained two burials, the
skeleton of a woman and and the remains of a wooden coffin with a
lead-encased body. Upon opening the lead casing, the researchers found the
body of a man in a remarkable state of preservation. Hair, skin, liquid
blood and most internal organs were intact, thanks to a condition known as
*adipocere *where a lack of air and moisture result in the tissues being
preserved against decay. The unknown corpse was dubbed "the St. Bees Man".
The unfortunate chap was determined to have died due to a massive trauma
that crushed his upper torso and drove rib bones into one of his lungs.
After forensic examination was completed, he was reverently reburied at the
church.

But who was he?

The crypt within the chancel and the method of burial pointed to a person
of rank and status. Attention was focused on several knights or other
nobles from the area. Eventually through surviving records and
correspondence, plus a heraldic device carved in stone, the identity of St.
Bees Man and the female skeleton were established to the reasonable
satisfaction of the researchers, though it took 2010 to interpret all the
clues.

The unfortunate man was determined to be a 14th century knight named
Anthony de Lucy. After stirring up trouble by independent raiding into
Scotland, de Lucy was sent off on a crusade to atone for his sins and get
him out of the area for a while. In 1367 de Lucy was fighting alongside the
Teutonic Knights during their conquest of pagan Lithuania. Surviving
correspondence from another English knight mentions that de Lucy was killed
during an attack on the Lithuanian castle of Kaunas. His body was wrapped
in a shroud, encased in lead, and somehow returned to St. Bees for burial.

The female skeleton was actually the key to the mystery. She was identified
as de Lucy's surviving sister Maud. She married Henry Percy, and insisted
that the de Lucy arms be quartered with those of Percy. A stone carving in
the church showing the joined devices, plus isotopic analysis of the
skeleton, finally identified Maud de Lucy. From there it was possible to
link her to her brother's burial.

If you would like more details about the St. Bees Man, go to
https://stbees.org.uk/home/village/st-bees-man/ . [Warning, the picture of
the body is pretty grim, maybe not for children.]

Yours Aye,


Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.