Posted on 11/30/2010 3:45:13 PM PST by Coleus
A Portuguese historian believes he has solved the age-old mystery surrounding the nationality of Christopher Columbus.
According to Manuel Rosa, a lecturer at Duke University, North Carolina, the explorer was in fact the son of Polish King Władysław III.
It has always been thought that King Władysław III fell in battle against the forces of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Varna in 1444. According to Mr Rosa, however, the king managed to survive the battle unscathed and fled to the Portuguese island of Madeira where he lived out the rest of his life as a hermit and married a Portuguese noblewoman.
It was there that the exiled king bore a son – or so Mr Rosa's theory goes – who would later be credited with the discovery of America. In Mr Rosa's opinion, a conspiracy was in place to protect the identity of Columbus' royal father.
“The courts of Europe knew who he was and kept his secret for their own reasons,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Rosa says that he has uncovered a plethora of evidence lending support to his theory. First, the explorer's last will, which read “being I born in Genoa,” was apparently forged after Columbus' death. Secondly, the explorer's coat of arms is similar to that of the Polish king. And thirdly, he had "reddish-haired, fair skinned and blue eyed – all features commonly found in Poland.”
The historian is hoping to clear up the mystery by collecting DNA samples from Poland's dead kings and comparing them with the DNA of Columbus' son who lies in rest in Seville Cathedral.
“I have made a request to the Cathedral in Kraków to examine remains from the tomb of Władysław II, who could turn out to be the grandfather of Columbus. It would prove the truth of my theory,” said Mr Rosa.
It is a commonly held belief among historians that Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, to Genoese parents. Some have said, however, that he was actually born in Spain.
"By the Sea.. By the Sea by the Booty filled Sea!"
Kabbalistic Signet Indicates Columbus was an Exiled Portugese Jew named Salvador Fernando Zarco.
Earlier his brother had worked for Rene d'Anjou, and he, Columbus, sailed on Rene's boats involved in a variety of business ventures, and even war.
Rene had some interesting relatives ~ besides an ancestry filled with French Kings, he was a blood relative (through many sides) of the Kings of England, the Kings of Spain, the Kings of Poland, the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, etc.
Rene was a good guy to have as your boss. Columbus no doubt found his recommendation the way to open the doors to the French and Spanish courts.
Columbus was born in an age where it was common for nobility to send their children "to the countryside" to reach adulthood ~ they would then return to the Chateaux and fortresses where the ruling class lived well able to survive some really serious communicable diseases.
Of note no one in the then world's most powerful city, Venice, had any children in town.
I suspect Columbus' immediate forbears, his mother and father, had perished and he was fostered by a grandparent or, most likely by a surviving uncle.
Casual adoption was exceedingly common in the ages immediately following the Black Death of the 1300s and folks didn't think twice about it.
What? no pictures of Shazza?
The problem arose when the noble classes were reconstituted and numerous French and British nobles took jobs there. Plus, thanks to several well-known British monarchs that red hair has been spread into "The Family".
The original Slavic population probably has a lower incidence of redheads.
she’ll do in a pinch...*sigh*
What a pear they were.
If I wind up at the funny farm when people see me sitting by myself laughing, it'll be your fault.
Big, tough Paladin “Have Gun Will Travel” will be pissed at that picture ;^)
I guess ya’ll got some of that foreign blood. ;)No red hair anywhere in my family, but a lot of Polish decent. My grandmother came from Poland.
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