It’s frightening to think that a person could just disappear, vanish without a trace. Yet history is littered with tales of people who were there one moment, and gone the next.
These are five of the most mysterious disappearances from history (100 BC – 1611 AD).
Spartacus
Most people have heard of the famous slave general, Spartacus. In the century before Christ, Spartacus lived as a Thracian gladiator and slave to the Roman Empire. He would escape his masters and lead a slave rebellion, but was killed during the Third Servile War in 71 BC. Yet the Romans, probably desperate to find and display the body of Spartacus as a warning to others, never found his body among the slave dead. Did he truly die, or did he elude the Romans one last time?
Henry Hudson
Explorer Henry Hudson is forever known as the namesake of the Hudson River and Hudson Bay. In the early 1600s, Henry was trying to discover the famed Northwest Passage, a route from Europe to Asia. During his second attempt, he wintered his ship, the Discovery, in James Bay. Henry insisted they press on, but his crew refused and eventually mutinied. The mutineers set Hudson, his son and a handful of others adrift in small boat. Reports say that Hudson and the other castaways tried to row their tiny boat after the Discovery, but the mutineers unfurled the sails and soon the tiny boat disappeared over the horizon, never to be heard from again.
Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real
Tragedy is a common theme on this list, and one brother vanishing while searching for the other certainly fits the bill. The story of Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real begins in 1500 when the brothers set off from Portugal in search of the Northwest Passage.
The pair reached the Labrador coast in Canada, where they brutally enslaved some of the native people they came in contact with. In 1501, Miguel headed back to Portugal, leaving Gaspar behind. It was after Miguel’s departure that all trace of Gaspar vanished.
A year later, Miguel launched an expedition of three ships to find his brother. Miguel’s ship was separated from the others during a storm and was never heard from again.
In 1912, an inscription was found in Massachusetts that read: “I, Miguel Cortereal, 1511. In this place, by the will of God, I became a chief of the Indians.” Yet this evidence has been disputed.
The 9th Legion
The Roman Spanish 9th Legion stands out in history as not just one or a handful of people who disappeared, but an entire legion. We know the legion existed for a couple hundred years during the Roman Empire. Following the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, the legion was stationed there.
Then, about 80 years later, all the records of the 9th Legion suddenly stop. Most scholars believe the legion was annihilated during some conflict, but where and by who’s hand is a mystery. It could have been against the Celtic tribes in Britain that the 9th met its end, leading to the construction of Hadrian’s Wall. Another possibility is during the Second Jewish Revolt where we know at least one Roman legion was wiped out. Or during the Parthian War where records tell of a Roman legion that was surrounded and destroyed.
Whatever the truth is, it’s curious that history holds no answers for the disappearance of so many souls.
The Princes in the Tower
Being a royal could be a dangerous thing in and around the Middle Ages. The legend of the Princes in the Tower tells of Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the only surviving sons of Edward IV.
In preparation for Edward V’s coronation as king, he and his brother were lodged in the Tower of London by their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Edward would never take the throne, however; as both he and brother vanished and their uncle took over as Richard III.
Most theories point to the boys being murdered during their imprisonment in the tower. Richard III seems the most likely culprit in his bid for power, but others, such as Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham or Henry VII have also been suspected. There have even been people who came forward in the years after the boys disappearances claiming to be the lost princes.
Yet an untimely death seems to have been the boys fate. In 1674, workmen unearthed the skeletal remains of two people near the Tower. It’s never been proven that these were the bones of the princes, but King Charles II seems to have believed enough to have the remains entombed in Westminster Abbey.