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spanner in audley dna theory

Posted By: peter dzik
Date: Wednesday, 4 June 2008, at 7:04 a.m.

This follows on unusual new information connected to my posting of 3rd Oct.2007. That reflected a position some hold that the Eardley name is a corruption of the Lord Audley name, coming from younger memmbers of that line.The 1995 DNA from 3 related skeletons in front of the high altar of Hulton abbey, whose patrons and founders were the Audleys, gave the idea of testing current Eardleys to check matches. The carbon dated age of the butchered male body seemed to fit Lord William Audley's death in battle in 1282.
But archaeologist Dr Mary Lewis posits that it could be the utterly ruthless and greedy Sir Hugh Despencer the Younger, adviser to King Edward II ,pirate, and rumoured homosexual lover to the king. Owner of Rushton Spencer near Leek, related to a certain Lady Diana, AND brother in law to Lord Audley, key military leader of the Kingdom, and military governor of much of France. Dr Lewis's argument is that the skeleton's dismemberment fitted the treasonous death by hanging until near death, disembowelling while alive, then quartering of the body - head to be on Tower Bridge in London. In 1326 a coup d'etat removed King Edward I, replacing him with his teenage son, and executing Despencer (aged 40) at Hereford. His few remains at Tewkesbury Abbey exactly match the missing parts in the Hulton skeleton (old Burslem parish). It may be that his sister Lady Audley had the influence to bring his body to Hulton, and bury it in front of the altar. That explains the DNA link to the two female skeletons next to him if they are Lady Audley and her daughter.
Sorry to Robert Jack.
P.S. The full details of Despencer's life and much more brutal death are in
Wikipedia. The Daily Telegraph also published part of this story on 18 FEB 2008.