By Ben Cos
The English soccer team hopes to replicate his success on the soccer field.
The English may have received a boost from the past for their upcoming World Cup clash against Norway. A historian believes he’s located the long-lost remains of Alfred the Great, the legendary English King who vanquished the Vikings.
The royal bones have been traced to a parking lot in Winchester, Hampshire, close to where the iconic monarch was once buried, the Telegraph reported.
“I am 100 percent confident the car park site is where the bones were, and I’m confident they are there now,” researcher Graham Phillips, 72, told the Sun.
The Birmingham native believes they’re specifically situated around 60 feet from a slab marking the site of his interment.
The exact spot will be revealed in an episode of the television series Weird Britain, which airs on Blaze TV at 9 p.m. on July 8.
If the remains are confirmed to be Alfred’s, this would mark the culmination of Phillips’ 13-year-old hunt for one of the UK’s most important figures.
Born in 849 in Berkshire, Alfred the Great is best remembered for defending Wessex against the Norse scourge and laying the groundwork for England’s unification, the Telegraph reported.
After years of struggling against the invaders from the North, he notably routed a force led by Guthrum, the Viking leader, at the Battle of Edington in 878, eventually motivating the Danes to give up their Pagan ways and accept Christianity.
To ward off future attacks, the Saxon leader established a series of well-defended settlements across Southern England, as well as a navy to help protect the coastline from Viking sea raiders.
Unfortunately, following Alfred’s death in 899, his remains were repeatedly moved, making them a nightmare to locate.
The deceased king was initially buried at Winchester Cathedral, where he remained until 1110, when the bones were moved to Hyde Abbey and laid to rest next to his wife and son.
Unfortunately, this abbey was destroyed and left in ruins after Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.
The trail seemingly went cold until 1866, when, during the construction of a workhouse, an English antiquarian dug what he believed to be Alfred’s remains. He reburied them in Bartholomew Church.
But when archaeologists exhumed the bones and carbon-dated them, they discovered that they were from 200 years after the king’s death.
“Whoever’s bones they were, they weren’t Alfred’s,” said Phillips, who made it his mission to find their actual final resting place.
A lightbulb went off while he was perusing the archives of Cambridge University last summer. He came across an article from 1800 that revealed that a prison was built next to the former Hyde Abbey in 1788, and the former gravesites of Alfred and his family had been converted into the prison warden’s garden.
“I’m convinced the original bones were moved at that time,” said Phillips. Meanwhile, the aforementioned article discussed “how the bones were moved by prisoners” and even included a map detailing their relocation.
The researcher hopes that archaeologists can survey the site using non-destructive ground-penetrating radar before excavation to avoid damaging the royal remains.
Along with its historical significance, Phillips believes that the find could prove a “good omen” for when England faces off against Norway on Saturday, July 11 in Miami.
“We may have finally found Alfred’s remains, so is this a sign we can win the World Cup,” he said.
This article was originally published in New York Post on July 8, 2026.
