Charles III refuses to return Prince Alemayehu's remains to Ethiopia

Prince Alemayehu, photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron.The Royal Photographic Society Collection (Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Getty)

Britain has only just begun to repair the pain left behind by decades of colonialism and empire. Partly out of sheer resistance; Partly because repair, in many cases, has an added cost that institutions are reluctant to assume. Buckingham Palace has again expressly rejected the return of the remains of Prince Alemayehu of Ethiopia (then Abyssinia), snatched from his land in 1868 when he was seven years old and buried at 18 in St. George's Chapel of Windsor Castle, owned by the British royal family. His relatives, descendants of King Theodore II (negus negusti or Emperor of Abyssinia, in the Amharic language), and the Ethiopian government itself, incessantly demanded the return of Alemayehu, and hoped that the accession to the throne of Charles III of England could help their cause. The current king has repeatedly apologized for the crown's links to colonialism and the slave trade, and had recently taken the decision to allow the royal archives to be opened for further investigation of those links.

"It is very unlikely that these remains will be exhumed without disturbing the rest and peace of a large number of deceased who also remain buried there," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

The British expedition to Abyssinia

In 1868, under the command of Robert Napier, an officer in the army of the British Raj (the British colonial crown government over the Indian subcontinent), an expedition of 13,000 soldiers, 40 elephants and hundreds of mules headed towards Abyssinia on a punitive mission and a show of strength and power. "The British expedition to Abyssinia was not driven by a thirst for glory or a desire for conquest," Captain Henry wrote a year later. M. Hozier, Napier's assistant, in the tone of the Victorian colonial epic. "His success was enormous. England did not succeed in enlarging its territories, but it had its reward. The result was to raise the British military's estimate of Europe," Hozier said.

Emperor Theodore II, irritated by Queen Victoria's lack of response to the letter suggesting an alliance of the two empires, as well as the request for ammunition, weapons and military experts, ended up capturing and holding hostage several European missionaries and diplomats in the city of Magdala, including the British consul. "What happened next can be described as a rain of fire, and one of the greatest of looting and plunder carried out in the name of the British Empire," Ethiopian-American writer Maaza Mengiste recounted years ago.

Ethiopian Prince Alemayehu, pictured approximately 1868. Hulton Archive (Getty Images)

The story goes that Emperor Theodore committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth, amid the thousands killed by the British at the Battle of Magdala. This is shown by an illustration by Emile Bayard that was included in Cassell's History of England. Its end ended up turning the figure of the monarch into a hero for his people, and the legend has spread to this day. Napier did not have enough with the annihilation of the Abyssinian army. He also ordered the killing of the inhabitants of Magdala and the destruction of their homes. The British army sacked the city and took jewels, crowns, religious objects and manuscripts that ended up scattered in museums and libraries in Europe.

"A plaque in St. George's central nave contains the words written by Queen Victoria, 'I was a stranger and you welcomed me into you.' But Alamayehu's body rests in the brick crypt outside the chapel. He was not welcomed 'inside'

Lemn Sissay, Ethiopian-born British author and broadcaster

To bolster their safety on the return journey, the expedition captured Empress Tiruwork Wube, wife of Theodore, and her son, Prince Alemayehu, who was then seven years old. The Empress died during the return voyage to England, aboard the Feroze. Queen Victoria became fond of the little prince and his melancholy gesture – which never left him – when she met him on the Isle of Wight, where he used to rest. He agreed to leave the first child kidnapped by the empire and snatched from his land in the hands of Captain Tristam Speedy, the officer primarily responsible for Napier's military success. A strange man, always dressed in oriental clothes, accustomed even to sleeping in the same bed as the prince, he took him with him on a trip halfway around the world until Buckingham Palace decided that the little boy needed a formal education. He was sent to private Rugby School, and shortly afterwards to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. In both places he was bullied and was an unhappy child. When he turned 18 and lost the royal support, Speedy decided to leave it in the hands of Dr. Arthur Ransome, in the English town of Leeds. He died shortly after of pleurisy, convinced that someone had poisoned him and still longing for his native Ethiopia." Very saddened and shocked to have learned, through a telegram, of the death this morning of the good Alemayehu," Queen Victoria wrote in her diary. "It's so sad! Alone, in a strange country, without a single family member (...) His life was not a happy one. Full of difficulties of all kinds. So sensitive, always thinking that people were staring at him because of the color of his skin. We are all very sad," the monarch concluded.

He decided to bury him in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. But not in the royal crypt where the remains of Henry VIII or Elizabeth II rest, but in the catacombs adjacent to the chapel. "A bronze plaque in St. George's central nave contains the words written by Queen Victoria herself, 'I was a stranger and you welcomed me into you.' But Alamayehu's body rests in the brick crypt outside the chapel. He was not welcomed 'inside'," said Lemn Sissay, the British author and broadcaster of Ethiopian origin.

Buckingham Palace has wanted to show its respect for the special sensitivity and need to honor the remains of the prince, but insists that it is also responsible for "preserving the dignity of the rest of the deceased." On previous occasions, the British royal house has done what is necessary, they say, to attend to the Ethiopian delegations that have wanted to visit Windsor.

In March 2019, the United Kingdom handed over a lock of Emperor Theodore II's hair to an Ethiopian government delegation at the National Army Museum in London. However, the country that found the remains of Richard III in a public car park and had no reservations in raising the land to recover the remains is unable, to date, to explain why it does not allow the rescue and return to its country, through modern techniques to identify DNA, of the child who symbolizes the saddest and most heartless part of his colonial past.

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