The Truth About: The Shugborough Inscription

Pushed as Evidence of Jesus’ Bloodline or the Holy Grail, This “Mystery” Is Likely Far More Mundane

Could it be that a still existing Knights Templar left a secret clue to the location of the Holy Grail on an obscure monument in an English country garden? No, quite simply, it couldn’t. While it might seem unusual to start with a conclusion, this tale is not one of Knights Templar or secret societies. Instead, it is one of how a small mystery can be blown into something that it was never intended to be. Indeed, there are many mysterious events in the world. Many involve cyphers. Many involve religion. The combination of the two, however, almost always sparks a series of events and claims that transcend pseudohistory to become downright dangerous. One such claim is the Shugborough Inscription.

It was sometime between 1748 and 1756 that the British MP Thomas Anson commissioned a new monument for Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire. The memorial, enclosed in a rustic arch, would feature a relief by the famed Flemish sculptor Peter Scheemakers, the main body of which is a representation of Et in Arcadia ego, a 1638 painting by Nicolas Poussin. The piece features some critical changes to the original image, including notably the inclusion of a third sarcophagus on top of the main depicted tomb. The words “I am also in Arcadia” adorn the work and between the letters D and M, there is a mysterious inscription that some believe to be code.

O U O S V A V V

In 1982, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln wrote the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail which hypothesised that Jesus, as depicted in the Christian bible, married Mary Magdalene and had one or more children. These children would become the French Merovingian dynasty and a secret society called the Priory of Sion champions their claims to the French throne. The book suggested that Poussin was a member of this society and Et in Arcadia ego had hidden meanings. It was, in short, near enough utter fiction.

The authors themselves acknowledged the absence of verifiable historical truth in their work, stating that “it is not sufficient to confine oneself exclusively to facts.” Indeed, Henry Lincoln was already noted for…