Buckingham Palace has rejected a request to return the remains of a teenage Ethiopian prince who was buried at Windsor Castle 144 years ago.
Prince Alemayehu was the only legitimate son of Ethiopian Emperor Tewodros II.
He was brought to the UK at 7 after his father died by suicide in 1868, following his defeat by British troops at the battle of Magdala in Ethiopia.
Alemayehu arrived in England an orphan after his mother died on the journey.
Queen Victoria took an interest in the young prince, often writing about him in her diary, and arranged for his education.
He died of a lung condition at just 18, in 1879, when the Queen also arranged his burial at St George's Chapel in Windsor.
His family have been campaigning for his remains to be sent back to his homeland.
They told the BBC that it "was not right" that he was buried in the UK.
"We want his remains back as a family and as Ethiopians because that is not the country he was born in," royal descendant Fasil Minas told the British broadcaster.
Buckingham Palace told the BBC, in a statement, that removing his remains could affect others buried in the catacombs of St George's Chapel.
"It is very unlikely that it would be possible to exhume the remains without disturbing the resting place of a substantial number of others in the vicinity," the palace said.
The palace spokesperson also said that while authorities at the chapel were sensitive to the need to honour Alemayehu's memory, they also had "the responsibility to preserve the dignity of the departed".
They added that in the past, the royal household had "accommodated requests from Ethiopian delegations to visit" the chapel.
This is not the first time Ethiopia has tried to repatriate the bones of the orphaned prince.
In 2007, the government in Addis Ababa wrote to Queen Elizabeth II, asking her to send home Alemayehu's remains.
Mulugeta Aserate, second cousin of Ethiopia's last emperor Haile Selassie, who helped organise the appeal, said it was time the wrongs of the last millennium were put right.
"The prince was a prisoner of war," he told Reuters in 2007.
"His return would ease the minds of lots of Ethiopians who believe his rightful resting place should be here with his father."
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson at the time declined to discuss the request.
"We never comment on private correspondence to the queen and any response that may have been given," they said.
ABC/Reuters
