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…