A church court today refused permission to exhume a body from a medieval church to find out if they were the remains of King Harold.A group of amateur historians wanted to see the tomb at the Holy Trinity Church in Bosham, West Sussex, opened, so they could settle once and for all the age-old question of where the Saxon king was buried.Harold was reputedly killed with an arrow in the eye at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and laid to rest in Waltham Abbey in Essex.However the historians, led by retired paper merchant John Pollock, wanted to see if DNA tests on the headless, legless body interred in a finely crafted coffin at Bosham could prove otherwise.But today the Chancellor of Chichester Diocese the Worshipful Mark Hill refused the request in a lengthy written judgment after a Consistory Court hearing at Bosham on November 24.

The court heard that three people who had claimed to be direct descendants of Harold all had different DNA and any tests on the bones in the grave would be pointless without an accurate comparison.

The court also heard that this was the first time a petition had been presented to exhume a body so that a sample might be removed.

In the written decision Mr Hill said there were “complex scientific, historic and archaeological issues” but he agreed the permanent burial of the body should be seen as entrusting the person to God for resurrection, and exhumation should only take place for a “good reason” or on “special and exceptional grounds”.


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