List of People Who Disappeared Mysteriously - Before 1800

Before 1800

• c. 1339/1337 BC - Nefertiti vanished during the 14th year of her husband Akhenaten's reign. No records of her exist after this time. Various theories have been put forward as to how and why she disappeared, ranging from death due to plague, to assuming a new identity, ruling with, and eventually succeeding, Akhenaten on the throne. Fragments of an ushabti have been found that bear the name of Nefertiti, but her mummy has never been found.
• c. 1323 BC - Ankhesenamun great royal wife of Tutankhamun, is one of several people to disappear immediately after Tutankhamun's death, leading to speculation that they were murdered. Following Tutankhamun's death, she is believed to have sent a desperate letter to the Hittites asking for a son of the Hittite king to marry her and become king, as she refuses to marry the proposed suitor (whom she refers to as a "servant.") The prince, Zannanza is sent, but is killed on the border of Egypt. She is last heard of having married the next king Ay, the former Vizier, whom many believe to be implicated with the deaths of Tutankhamun, Zannanza and possibly Ankhesenamun. A mummy that is identified as being hers has been found.
• 71 BC – Although he was presumed killed in battle, the body of the rebel slave Spartacus was never found and his fate remains unknown.
• 53 BC – Ambiorix was, together with Catuvolcus, prince of the Eburones, leader of a Belgic tribe of north-eastern Gaul (Gallia Belgica), where modern Belgium is located. According to the writer Florus (iii.10.8), Ambiorix and his men managed to cross the Rhine and disappear without a trace.
• AD 117 – Legio IX Hispana (Ninth Spanish Legion) was a legion alleged to have disappeared in Britain during the Roman conquest of Britain. Many references to the legion have been made in subsequent works of fiction.
• 378 - Roman Emperor Valens is defeated by the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople (modern Edirne, Turkey). The body of Valens was never found.
• 834 (circa) – Muhammad ibn Qasim (al-Alawi) led a rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate but was defeated and detained. He was able to flee but was never heard from again.
• 1021 – Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (36), sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam, rode his donkey to the Muqattam hills outside Cairo for one of his regular nocturnal meditation outings and failed to return. A search found only the donkey and his bloodstained garments.
• 1071 - Hereward This formerly exiled Anglo-Danish minor noble rebel led a huge revolt in the marshy region of Ely in England against the rule of William the Conqueror. Eventually betrayed by fearful local monks who led the Norman troops through secret trackways, many rebels were mutilated or executed, but Hereward escaped, never to be heard of again.
• 1203 – Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, designated heir of the throne of England. He was supported by French nobility who did not want John of England as overlord. On 31 July 1202, Arthur was surprised and captured by John's barons and imprisoned at Falaise in Normandy. The following year Arthur was transferred to Rouen, and then vanished mysteriously in April 1203.
• 1291 (circa) – Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi, Genoese sailors and explorers lost while attempting the first oceanic journey from Europe to Asia.
• 1412 – Owain Glyndŵr, the last native Welsh person to hold the title Prince of Wales, instigated the Welsh Revolt against the rule of Henry IV of England in 1400. Although initially successful, the uprising was eventually put down, but Glyndŵr disappeared and was never captured, betrayed, or tempted by royal pardons.
• 1483 – Edward V of England (12) and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York (9), sons of King Edward IV of England, were placed in the Tower of London (which at that time served as a fortress and a royal palace, as well as a prison) by their uncle Richard III of England. Neither was ever seen in public again and their fate remains unknown.
• 1499 – John Cabot, Italian explorer, disappeared along with his five ships during an expedition to find a western route from Europe to Asia.
• 1501 – Gaspar Corte-Real, Portuguese explorer, disappeared on an expedition to discover the Northwest Passage from Europe to Asia. Two of his ships returned to Lisbon, but the third, with Gaspar on board, was lost and never heard from again.
• 1502 – Miguel Corte-Real, Portuguese explorer, disappeared while searching for his brother Gaspar. Like his brother, he took three ships, and as with his brother, the ship with Miguel on board was lost and never heard from again.
• 1526 – Francisco de Hoces, Spanish sailor, was commander of the San Lesmes, one of the seven ships of the Loaísa Expedition under García Jofre de Loaísa. It has been speculated that San Lesmes, last seen in the Pacific in late May, may have reached Easter Island or any of the Polynesian archipelagos, or even New Zealand.
• 1546 – Francisco de Orellana, Spanish explorer and conquistador disappeared while exploring the Amazon in November. His fate remains a mystery.
• 1590 – The Roanoke colonists disappeared, becoming known as The Lost Colony, in 18 August 1590, when their settlement was found abandoned.
• 1611 – Henry Hudson was an English explorer and seafarer. He discovered New York Harbor for the Dutch East India Company. In 1611, mutineers set him, his son and six others adrift in a small boat in what is now Hudson Bay. They were never seen again.
• 1652 - Maurice von der Pfalz (31), brother of Rupert of the Rhine. During the English Civil War Rupert's fleet was destroyed in a terrible storm south of Puerto Rico. All ships except 2 were lost, among them Prince Maurice's ship Defiance. Neither he nor the ship were ever found.
• 1696 – Henry Every was an English pirate who vanished after perpetrating one of the most profitable pirate raids in history; despite a worldwide manhunt and an enormous bounty on his head, Every was never heard from again.
• 1779 – Thomas Lynch, Jr. (30), signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence, boarded a ship bound for the West Indies with his wife and was never seen again.
• 1788 – Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, daughter of a wealthy plantation owner on the French island of Martinique. After being sent to a convent school in France, she was returning home in July or August 1788 when the ship she was on vanished at sea. It is thought that the ship was attacked and taken by Barbary pirates. It has been suggested that she was enslaved and eventually sent to Istanbul as a gift to the Ottoman sultan by the Bey of Algiers. It is unconfirmed if she was the same person as Naksh-i-Dil Haseki, consort of the sultan.