Eighty four years ago tonight, the Romanov family and their remaining servants and doctor were shot in the half-basement room of the so-called House of Special Purpose in Ekaterinburg. The bodies were burned at the bottom of a shallow mine pit and reburied nearby. The fact that two of the Tsar's family's remains were missing gave rise to legend, speculation and fabrication. Anastasia and her brother Alexei have been impersonated by dozens of people since that fateful night. Now their bodies have been found, in the Koptiaki Woods not far from the rest of the family, which is precisely what Jacob Yurovsky, the leader of the execution squad had said all along.
In other news ...
Anne of Cleves died today in 1557. You remember her, she was the ugliest of the wives of Henry VIII whom he called his Flanders Mare. She passed peacefully away at the Retired Royal Horses' Home at Tooting.
