Page 81 - All About History - Issue 12-14

HISTORY’S 10 GREATEST IMPOSTORS

THE GIRL WHO CLAIMED TO BE THE

DAUGHTER OF RUSSIA’S LAST TSAR

Anna Anderson THE THREE WORST
Polish, 1896-1984 IMPOSTORS
As a young woman, Anna Anderson tried to
end her own life in 1920 by jumping from a
bridge into the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. She JOICE HETH
was rescued but refused to divulge her name so, Attempted crime: Pretending to be the nurse of
having been sent to a mental hospital, she was the first US president, George Washington
given the name Miss Unknown. Two years later, Heth did not make the claims
she claimed that she was the Grand Duchess herself, rather it was American
Anastasia of Russia. showman and businessman
This was a surprising declaration. In July 1918, Phineas Taylor Barnum,
founder of the Barnum
Anastasia was presumed to have been shot dead and Bailey Circus. He
by Bolshevik revolutionaries along with other had bought Heth and
members of the exiled royal family and their staff. advertised her as the
In claiming to be the Tsar’s youngest daughter slave of Augustine
and telling the world that she had been rescued Washington, General
and taken to the safety of Romania, it meant she Washington’s father, claiming
she was the first person to
was heiress to the Romanov line. put clothes on him. What’s more,
Relatives of Anastasia dismissed the story in exhibiting her in 1835, he said she was 161 years
and called Anderson an impostor. It didn’t stop old. Barnum admitted the hoax but not until a
media speculation, though, and believers would postmortem established that, at the time of her
point to the pair’s similarities, such as the same death, in 1836, she was most likely no older than 80.
congenital foot deformity. Anderson was said to
have had scarring on her body, which was taken POPE JOAN
as evidence of the wounds inflicted upon her. Attempted crime: Concealing her gender
A private investigation in 1927 suggested Although modern religious scholars
Anderson was actually a Polish factory worker say the story is fictitious,
called Franziska Schanzkowska. Anderson’s Pope Joan was said to have
stance was unwavering, however, and she ruled for a couple of years
continued to protest that she was Anastasia between 853 CE and
right up until her death. It was only in the 855 CE, despite being a
1990s, when the bodies of the Tsar, his woman. Pretending to
be a man, the legend
empress and their five children were found, says she was travelling
that the myth was debunked. DNA taken on horseback to the
from the Russian royal family and from Lateran from St Peter’s in
Anderson proved there was no match the Vatican when she suddenly
between her and the Tsar. stopped and gave birth to a child,
understandably shocking all of those accompanying
her. There is no evidence that Pope Joan existed,
though, and the persistent legend was declared
THE LAST RUSSIAN TSAR untrue in 1601 by Pope Clement VIII. Nevertheless, it
Born on 18 May 1868 near St Petersburg, Nikolai spawned a 1972 film called Pope Joan.
Aleksandrovich Romanov succeeded his father, Tsar
Alexander III in 1894, marrying Princess Alexandra of DAVID HAMPTON
Hasse-Darmstadt in the same year. They went on to Attempted crime:
have four daughters and a son. As one of the weaker Masquerading as
Tsars, he struggled with the power he had been the son of Sidney Poitier
handed and made mistakes. His country ended up in Claiming to have been cast
a war with Japan in 1904 after expansionist plans saw aside by Oscar-winning
Russia move into Manchuria. Defeat sparked mass actor Sidney Poitier who
riots and strikes and opinion began to turn against he claimed was his father,
the Tsar. Hamilton managed to rub
Having established a parliament and a constitution in shoulders with some of
a bid to keep the peace, he partnered with France and America’s most influential
Britain in WWI but his nation suffered heavy losses. people, such as fashion
ē RATING ē With poverty hitting the Russian people hard and
Cunning: uprisings in St Petersburg (which had been renamed designer Calvin Klein. He used his
Audacity: Petrograd in 1914), Nicholas was effectively pushed alleged link to ask for money and help. One victim
was Osborn Elliot, dean at the Columbia School of
Media storm: into abdicating. He and his family were imprisoned Journalism, who found Hamilton in bed with a man
Success: and the Bolsheviks executed them, the group led he had smuggled into the dean’s home. With his lies
by one Vladimir Lenin who would go onto lead the quickly unravelling, Hamilton was ordered by a court © Look and Learn; Alamy; Corbis; Getty
country through one of its most tumultuous periods. to repay $4,500 (£2,700) to those he had duped.

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