Introduction

Abstract

Nash explains how he lighted on the niche area of Exhumation. The last real book on the subject was in 1934, eighty odd years ago.

Nash gives an overview of the four major exhumations since 1922, namely those of Tut-an-khamoun, The Princes in the Tower, the Romanovs, and Richard III.

Nash reflects on the extraordinary nature of Exhumation and his original inspiration being a story from the New Forest, Hampshire: the fate and exhumation of William Rufus, the Red King.

Exhumations may be summed up in four words: identification, confirmation, surprise, and shock. Nash examines the “Gothic” cult of exhumation in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, revealing the dark side of an endlessly fascinating, macabre, and, often, controversial subject.