By David Derbyshire | DailyMail.co.uk

The crumbling remains of Alfred the Great's granddaughter - a Saxon princess who married one of the most powerful men in Europe - have been unearthed more than 1,000 years after her death.
The almost intact bones of Queen Eadgyth - the early English form of Edith - were discovered wrapped in silk, inside a lead coffin in a German cathedral.
Eadgyth - one of the oldest members of the English royal family - was given in marriage to the influential Holy Roman Emperor Otto I and lived in Germany until her death in 946AD, aged 36.

Discovered: The remains of Alfred the Great's granddaughter, Eadgyth - a Saxon Queen and one of the oldest members of the English royal family have been unearthed in a tomb in Germany.

When the tomb was opened in 2008 a lead coffin 70cm long was found inside, bearing an inscription that read: 'The rescued remains of Queen Eadgyth are in this sarcophagus, after the second renovation of this monument in 1510.' The lead box contained the bones of a woman aged in her thirties, wrapped in white silk.

The lead coffin: The tomb in Magdesburg Cathedral, Germany, was first investigated in 2008 but academics had previously believed her bones had been moved. Recent research by Dr Estella Weiss-Krecji has shown royal remains were often taken long distances for burial, and sometimes boiled down to extract the bones, which were sewn into an ox hide for easy transportation. But mistakes could occur and bones could be disturbed.

The tomb in Magdesburg Cathedral is investigated: Professor Harald Meller, who led the 2008 project, said: 'We still are not certain that this is Eadgyth although all the scientific evidence points to this interpretation. In the Middle Ages bones were often moved around, and this makes definitive identification difficult'l

Eadgyth's brother King Athelstan, depicted presenting a book to Saint Cuthbert, the bishop of Lindisfarne. Right, Queen Eadgyth's husband, Otto the first, the Holy Roman Emperor.