Scientists attempt to identify the crew of Henry VIII's flagship in Skeletons of the Mary Rose: The New Evidence in a new
Scientists attempt to identify the crew of Henry VIII's flagship in Skeletons of the Mary Rose: The New Evidence in a new C4 one-off documentary
In 1545, Henry VIII’s warship, the Mary Rose, was sunk by the French navy in the Solent.
For hundreds of years it lay in its murky grave, but in 1982 it was brought up from the depths, revealing thousands of artefacts from Tudor England as well as human remains of some of the 500 crew.
But now new advances in science have allowed a team to re-investigate the men who were on board the ship to discover who they really were.
Using DNA analysis, it’s revealed that this royal battleship was not full of white Englishmen but a diverse crew of English, Mediterranean and African descent.
Was the whole of Tudor England much more multicultural than historians have ever thought?
TV Times rating: ***
