The Crown often looks at moments in history that surprise us - and season five was no different as - in a flashback - it showed us the deaths of the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, at the hands of Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1917 - and how King George V could have been instrumental in saving their lives.
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The show links the incident to Prince Philip. He becomes provides DNA to identify the Romanov bodies as a relative of Tsarina Alexandra - with his fascination for the project deepening his relationship with Penelope Knatchbull. At one point, we even spot him pencilling the name 'Princess Anastasia'. So what happened to the 17-year-old daughter of the Tsar? Find out more…
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In the show’s flashback, the Romanov family - Nicholas, Alexandra and their five children - were led into the basement under the guise of taking a photograph. However, they - and four members of their household - were brutally executed with guns and bayonets and buried in a mass grave. The gravesite was officially excavated in 1991, and the bodies were given a state burial - as shown in the series.
The family's buriel site was excavated in 1991
What happened to Princess Anastasia?
Rumours that Anastasia had managed to escape her family’s execution were prevalent in the 20th century after the remains of the Romanov family concluded that Nicholas, Alexandra and three of their daughters - Olga, Tatiana and either Anastasia or Maria were buried together, but one daughter and their son Alexei’s bodies were not accounted for.
Anastasia (or Maria) and Alexei's remains were found in 2007
While several women came forward to declare themselves as the lost princess following the revolution - with Anna Anderson famously convincing thousands that she was the grand duchess, however, this has since been disproven with DNA testing.
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In 2007, archaeologists discovered two burned skeletons matching the ages of Alexei and Anastasia alongside remnants of sulphuric acids, nails and bullets. DNA testing done by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory and Innsbruck Medical University confirmed the remains belonged to the Romanovs, and that the whole family was killed on the same day. However, there is some argument over which remains belong to Maria or Anastasia since, at 17 and 19, they were a very similar ages.
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