Dejatch Alamayou.Photo:Alamy Stock Photo

Dejatch Alamayou, King Theodore’s Son, by Julia Margaret Cameron

Alamy Stock Photo

The update comes after his descendants asked the palace to make the move happen, theBBCreported on Monday.

“The Dean and Canons of Windsor are very sensitive to the need to honour the memory of Prince Alemayehu. However, they have been advised that it is very unlikely that it would be possible to exhume the remains without disturbing the resting place of a substantial number of others in the vicinity,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement shared with PEOPLE.

“Conscious of the responsibility to preserve the dignity of the departed it is therefore, with regret, not possible to agree to the request, but in recent years we have accommodated requests from Ethiopian delegations to visit St Georges and will continue to do so."

Dejatch Alamayou and Captain Speedy.The Royal Photographic Society Collection / Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Getty

“UNITED KINGDOM - MARCH 02: ‘Dejatch Alamayou and Basha Felika King Theodore’s Son and Captn Speedy’. Albumen print from wet collodion negative. Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) of Alamayou (1861-1879), the son of King Theodore of Abyssinia with Captain J C Speedy. Alamayou was an orphan and Captain Speedy became his guardian. Alamayou was brought to live in England after his parents died. Cameron’s photographic portraits are considered among the finest in the early history of photography. She set up a private studio at her Isle of Wight home at the age of 48, after her daughter gave her a camera, and she became expert at using the collodion wet-plate process.

The Royal Photographic Society Collection / Victoria and Albert Museum, London/Getty

Hulton Archive/Getty

Dejatch-Alamayou, (1862 - 1868), the son and heir of Theodore, King of Abyssinia, who shot himself in 1868. Original Publication: From ‘Photographic Views of the Abyssinian Campaign from Zouble to Magdala taken by the 10th Company RE’ (1867 - 1868).

According to the BBC, Queen Victoria took pity on the child when he came to the U.K. in June 1868. She arranged to support him financially and made Captain Tristram Speedy, who he traveled with from Africa, his guardian.

Prince Alemayehu was later educated in the U.K., including at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He died of pleurisy at age 18 in 1879 and was buried at St. George’s Chapel, the final resting place for generations of British royalty, at Queen Victoria’s request. Alemayehu is interred in the catacombs west of St. George’s Chapel, the churchstates.

St George’s Chapel.Samir Hussein - Pool/WireImage

A generral view of St George’s Chapel during the funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on April 17, 2021 in Windsor, England. Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark was born 10 June 1921, in Greece. He served in the British Royal Navy and fought in WWII. He married the then Princess Elizabeth on 20 November 1947 and was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich by King VI. He served as Prince Consort to Queen Elizabeth II until his death on April 9 2021, months short of his 100th birthday. His funeral takes place today at Windsor Castle with only 30 guests invited due to Coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

Samir Hussein - Pool/WireImage

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“Emotionally, most people who get to know Alemayehu’s story feel his remains should be returned. He made it so clear before he died that he wanted to go back,” Andrew Heavens, who explored the prince’s story inThe Prince and the Plunder,toldNBC News. The author added that the palace could better shed light on why the remains can’t be returned.

“We want his remains back as a family and as Ethiopians because that is not the country he was born in,” Fasil Minas, a royal descendant of Alemayehu, told BBC. “It was not right for him to be buried in the U.K.”

There have been calls for the body of Prince Alemayehu to be repatriated in the past. President Girma Wolde-Giorgis of Ethiopia sent a request toQueen Elizabethin 2007,Reutersreported, but no change came.

source: people.com