An account of what appeared on opening the coffin of King Charles the First, in the vault of King Henry the Eighth in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, on the first of April, MDCCXIII / by Sir Henry Halford.

  • Halford, Henry, 1766-1844.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of what appeared on opening the coffin of King Charles the First, in the vault of King Henry the Eighth in St. George's Chapel at Windsor, on the first of April, MDCCXIII / by Sir Henry Halford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    24/66
    . . a — #, f f)i?Gc/:cry of fid tody of'King Charles the First.—■ A Morning Paper says,' “ Tlie day before the inter- ment of the Duchess of Brunswick, in the new vault in St. George’s Chape!, Windsor, a discovery teas made by the workmen 6f two ancient coffins, one ot lead, the other of stone; The Prince Regent being doivn at Windsor on Thursday eVening, he was, of course, consulted about the mode of explor- ing these Royal remains, which he directed to he immediately done in his presence. Sir H. Halford attended his Royal Highness to the vault, when the leaden coffin being unsoldered, a body appeared, » covered over with a ivaxed cloth ; on carefully strip- ping the head and face, the countenance of the Un- fortunate Charles the first immediately appeared, , in features apparently perfect as when he lived. Sir H. Halford now endeavoured to raise the body from the coffin, in attempting which the head fell from it, and discovered the irregular fissure made bv the axe, winch amteared to have been united bv a cement. Vi hat added considerably to the interest of this ex- traordinary spectacle was, that as the head separated Burnt the neck, a fluid drop, of the appearance of blood, fell upon the hand of Sir H. Halford, which he accounts for, by supposing it lo have been the tftssoliilion ot some congealed blood, on its being exposed to the warmth of the air. The body of King Charles was always known to have been interred at Windsor, but so privately, that the spot could never he ascertained till now. J'he stone coffin was next opened, which, from its inscription, was found to contain the remains ot Henry the -Eighth, which consisted of nothing more than the skull and prin- cipal limb hones, which appeared in a perfect state. /fsui 6 —6>- 2 2k) Till? P aits'TER OF THE St. James’s ChRO- Di:'L£ SIR, and London Evening Post. The discovery of tlm body of King Charles I. seems to confirm, in a remarkable manner, the ac- count of his interment, as given by Mr. Herbert (one of the unfortunate Monarch’s Gentlemen of the Bed-chamber, and who was his only attendant from 1 he time of Ins confinement in Hurst Castle, till his execution) as,preserved by Anthony Wood, in bn .ar/ieiue Vxon >■ \ s, vol. it. p. 70+. It was the earnest desire.of Mr. Heibert, to Wood, that if ever lie had an opportunity of intro lacing the Haute ot Charles into his voluminous work, he would not omit to insert his account of the last days of that King, because it contained much curious in. fotniation, known only to himsejf; and our honest antiquary, faithful to bin trust, embodied the ac- count with the life of Herbert himself, who being an Oxonian, of course found a place in ihe Athene. Herbert & known likewise as the author of a vvoik, entitled, “ Threnodia Carolina.” containing an account of the iast two years of King Charles’s life, which was written in consequence of the in- tention of Parliament, after the restoration, of ap- pointing. 70>000/. for the luneral of Ch-oles, and a monument to Ins memory. Sir William Dngdaie, then Gai ter King at Arms, sent to Heibert, who Was living at York, to know if the King had ever, in ]>is iieaiing, spoken as to where his body should be interred. Herbert’s reply contained so many j curious particulars regarding that Monarch, that at Dugdale's request they were thrown into a connect- ed form, and published under the title already men- tioned. But lii> p >sthumous infof.1na.1ion, vecoideu j by Wood, is perhaps the most interesting j and the , following extract from it may be peculiarly accept- j able at the present moment, as tending to locate j the exact spot of Charles’s intermelit. , - “ Mr. Herbert was in waiting to receive the body after the execution, and he and Bishop Juxon, charged themselves with its .interment, as the last sad office they could pay to their departed King. / They applied to the Parliament for leave to bury it j in King Henry the Seventh s Chapel, in Westmin- ster Abbey, hut that was refused, because it would attract many spectators, which “ as the times then j <c were, was judged unsafe and inconvenient. They j then resolved to inter it in St. Geotges Cnupcl, Windsor Castle, having obtained from the Com- mittee of Parliament permission so to do. Several kings bad been interred there, as Henry \ I. Ed- ward IV. Henry VIII., &c. The corpse was ac- cordingly carried there on the 71B February, in a hearse^ attended by about a dozen gentlemen, wbo had ,, been about the-person of the Ki ig at Cares brook Castle and other places. After some deliberation, Herbert pitched upon the vault where Edward IV. bad been interred : hut while the workmen were employed in removing the stones, some noblemen came thither, namely, the Duke of Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Earl of Lindsey, and with thmn Dr. Juxfin, Bishop of London,, who had li- cense from the Parliament to attend the Kings body to the grave. One of those lords. Heating gentlv on the pavement with his staff, perceived a hollow sound, and. thereupon ordering the' »rone$ and earth to be removed, they discovered a descent j into a vault, where two coffins weee laid near ojie another, the one very large, of an antique form, the other very, little. These they supposed to he the bodies of King Henry VIII. and Quaen Jane Sey- mour, his third wife, as indeed they were. The velvet palls that covered their cuffing, seemed fresh, though they had lain there above a hundred years. “ The Lards agreeing that the King's body should be in the said.vault interred, being e.bynt the middle of the choir, over against the eleventh stall upon the Sovereigns side,* they gave order to have the Fling's name anti year he died cut in lead; and the girdle, or circumscription of capital letters of lead put about the King's coffin bad only these words, M.ing Charles, ]6aS. (Does the coffin bear any traces of this me- morial ?) « “ The King’s body was then brought from his bed-chamber down into St. George’s-hall, whence, after a little stay, it was with a slow and solemn j»ace (much sorrow’ in most faces being then discern- ible) carried by gentlemen of quality in mourning. The body being by the bearers set down near the place of burial, the Bishop of London stood ready with the service hook in his hands to have perform-' ed this last duty to the King his master, but it would not he suffered by Col. Whitchot, the go- vernor of the Castle, by reason of the Diiectory, to which, said he, he and others were to be conforma- ble. Thus went Charles to his grave, iu the 48th year of his age, and 22d year and 1 Oth month of his reign.” Hume has made no mention about Charles’s in- terment. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, W. ; * This minuteness in describing the exact spnt, mav deter- mine the fast, whether the body recently discovered be Chailes’s. .