The Death, Funeral & Burial of King Henry VIII of England - Myth and History

foreign on the 28th of January 1547 in the Palace of Whitehall King Henry VII died he was 55 years of age he had trained for 36 years and in that time he had undergone a complete transformation of appearance and personality from being an intelligent athletic and well-respected Sovereign to being an irascible and rather unhinged despot his leg had been injured in a jousting accident in 1536 and he may also have been unconscious for a couple of hours following it and that caused a change from there on in he became increasingly immobile his wound in his leg developed into a superating saw it is no surprise given the constant pain he must have been in that he became Moody and politically erratic his death which we are told by contemporaries was peaceful and in which he was reconciled to God caused rather a lot of panic in the Royal household Henry's Heir Edward was only nine and well under age and a form of Regency or protectorate would have been necessary and there was predictably an ensuing battle for power people knew their history and were well aware that when English kings come to the throne as boys that doesn't bode well often the situation in times past had led to Civil War as it had done in the in that context it took three days for the Lord Chancellor to sell the privy Council that Henry had died before we get on with the main parts of the video I want to thank all of you for your kind support and your comments I'm trying to work through and answer all of the comments but please bear with me as I've received so many all of a sudden and my channel has grown so quickly that it's taking me some time if you like the content here you will also love my magazine the antiquery which has lots of articles on the more obscure aspects of British history October's Edition is just about to hit the Press purchasing and subscribing to it in either print or digital form really helps support my work on this channel so back to the death of Henry VII after his death is announced to the privy Council then the whole mechanism of arranging the funeral began the arrangements being put into the hands of the Heralds of the College of arms Henry's body was probably embalmed as was usual this would have been performed by the Royal household's wax Chandler The Candle Maker the process involved evisceration but primarily consisted of wrapping the corpse tightly in waxed cloth it would then have been coffined in a lead anthropoidal coffin that fitted more or less to Henry's form and then that was placed in a wooden case this coffin would not have been left uncovered it would have been hidden from view under a rich funeral Paul or hurstcloth made of cloth of gold embroidered with Henry's arms and his heraldic badges a couple of such hair cloths remain that were commissioned by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge at the time of the death of Henry's father in 1509 and they give us a fair indication of what Henry VII's cloth would have looked like this is the Oxford example which is made of Ridge cloth of gold with a red velvet cross upon it embroidered with the Royal Arms the Tudor Rose and the Beaufort Paul Collis Henry VIII coffin would have been covered in the hurstcloth until it was taken to be laid in the grave knowing the end was in sight Henry had written very detailed instructions in his will of December 1546 as to what would happen to his body next it had long been his plan to be buried in Saint George's Chapel Windsor close to the burial place of his grandfather King Edward IV and he asks to be buried in the choir midway between the choir stalls and the high altar of Saint George's Chapel Charles ritzley who was Windsor Herald at the time of the King's death and would have been intimately involved in the proceedings gives us a vivid account of the obsequence of the king in his Chronicle the preparation for the funeral of the king began on the 8th of February and every Parish in London was required to celebrate a solemn dewage for the king the dirich from which we derive the word dirge was the office of matin's morning prayer for the dead although it was celebrated most often as it was in this case by anticipation in the evening the following day the first mass of the morning the morrow Mass was to be a massive Requiem For The King and each Parish was to get out their Parish hearse and set candles around it I will come on to what a hearse is in the moment so why the delay of over a week between the announcement of the King's death and his obsequence well that's so that the whole of England could be informed and every Parish church across the land could have similar services for the dead King during all of this waiting time the king's body was lying in state in the audience chamber at his Palace of Whitehall where he died on the 14th of February the procession bearing the king's remains left Whitehall and headed to Windsor with sleep tells us that the king's coffin was solemnly and with great honor carried along in a chariot with this image on top of the coffin now if you've watched my video on the history of the lying in States you will already know what with slee is talking about when he refers to an image and I recommend you to watch that video for a fuller account of it it was usual in this period during the lying in state and the funeral processions of English sovereigns for a Timber and plaster Effigy Of The King to be placed on top of the coffin wearing all the Robes of their estate their parliamentary robes and their crown we know that King Henry VII Effigy was particularly fine and that he was wearing his very own parliamentary robes he had rings on his fingers and the Glorious State crown made for him or his father on his head though we don't have an illustration of what Henry's funeral procession looked like we do have an illustration of his daughter Elizabeth's funeral in 1603 and that gives us some evidence of the Splendor of the scene as this long cavalcade made its way along the narrow roads to Windsor the Queen's coffin is shown on a cart pulled by four horses at a clad in black coats emblazoned with the Royal Arms her funeral Effigy can be glimpsed on top of the coffin around her coffin or the gentleman pensioners what are now called the gentlemen it's arms wearing black hooded cloaks who escort the coffin as Paul bearers some of the um gentlemen pensioners are holding reverse halberds and some hold banners with various arms of the queen and the nobility and ahead of the Chariot or the Heralds who carry what are called the funeral achievements these were an important part of funeral ritual in the late medieval and early modern period these achievements the sword the tabard on the helm were hung up over the grave after the burial very few now survive although those have entered the black prince of Wales still remain in Canterbury Cathedral this Splendid procession took two days to reach Windsor with an overnight stop in the Church of the former brigittin Abbey at Scion which ironically Henry had of course dissolved and was lying empty and unused rhythsley tells us in his Chronicle that of Zion the body of the king rested overnight in what he describes as a hearse now I know this particular term is going to cause endless confusion as these days a hearse is a vehicle in which a body is moved it wasn't a vehicle then a hearse was a temporary structure that was placed over a body during the funeral ceremonies to give honor to it the hearse of Zion with sleep tells us was a structure that was nine stories high and was covered in hundreds of wax candles when the coffin got to Windsor it was placed in yet another hearse this time even grander than the last and 13 stories high now we have one really useful piece of evidence that illustrates what these temporary structures these hearses looked like it is from a manuscript called the Islip roll that records the funeral ceremonies of John Islip who is the Abbot of Westminster at the beginning of the 16th century in the end end of the 15th one of the illustrations and this is a reproduction is it's easier to see than the faded original shows the her selected for islip's funeral directly in front of the high altar of Westminster Abbey Church islip's coffin is at the bottom and the hurt is this extraordinary canopy over the coffin that supports layer upon layer of brackets for wax candles now I think that by rhythsley's Reckoning this is probably a six-store rehearse as though as six layers of candle branches on it Henry's hair said Zion would probably have been very similar indeed to this but the one at Windsor would have been considerably larger such houses were erected for all levels of society and parishes usually had one and a communal funeral Paul or herskloth so that the poor as well as the rich could have a dignified funeral too the Richer the individual the more elaborate they were of course now we know that these grand candle-filled hearses cause some practical problems within Church buildings for mourners all that heat and smoke from those candles would have created a stifling and unbearable environment at the funeral of John paston an awful gentleman in 1466 the atmosphere became so unbearable in bromhome Priory church that a couple of the windows of the clear story had to be taken out to let out the fumes now what makes people seem to remember about Henry's funeral procession is an episode that is said to have taken place while his body was resting at Zion it is said that his coffin burst open and that his bodily fluids Spilled Out onto the floor and that dogs were seen licking up his blood it is a story that is almost certainly fictitious and is first recorded in Bishop burnet's history of the Reformation published at the end of the 17th century he gives no source for the story and then it was popularized and further embroidered by Agnes Strickland in her lives of the queens of England published in the 1840s I can't see how a body that was embalmed and wrapped up in Sea cloth and lead and placed in a wooden case could have decomposed to such a degree in Winter for this instant to have occurred nor can I see how dogs would have been allowed anywhere near his coffin in Zion abbey church which would have been guarded overnight by the gentleman pensioners although probably fictitious the story is related to a real historical event one that took place a decade earlier in Easter 1532 just as Henry was trying to deal with his great matter and dispose of his first wife Catherine of Aragon and favorite van Berlin a Franciscan fire called William Pito was invited to preach before the king Pito decided to use this opportunity to teach Henry of the era of his ways casting off one wife or another and predicted that like Ahab in the Old Testament king of Judah who had married Jezebel dogs would lick up his blood at his death the King was absolutely furious at being compared to Ahab and amberlin to Jezebel and he summoned Peter before him and Peter quite flatly told Henry that he would lose his kingdom because of his subject's opposition to the divorce Pito left the country in a hurry and never returned to England during the remainder of Henry's Reign this Legend probably has its basis then in this event and maybe eviction first suggested by Catholic detractors of Henry wanting to see that prophecy of pito's fulfilled so when The Possession reached Windsor the body of the king rested in the second hearths and the funeral obsequies were repeated with a placebo endurage Vespas and matins for the dead followed by an early morning massive Requiem and then Henry VII was deposited in a brick burial Vault he had already prepared at the time of the death of Queen Jane Seymour he was buried next to his beloved wife the mother of his Heir and as we will see it is still where he lies it was Henry's intention to have a very large Monument directed over his burial place and he had begun preparation so that well before his death the monument was not complete at his demand eyes and he may provision his will for its completion as it happens it was never completed Henry didn't pay for the whole of the monument himself the monument had in fact been begun in 1524 by Cardinal Thomas Woolsey who intended to be bowed and what is now the Albert Memorial Chapel at the East End of Saint George's which had been granted to him as a burial place by the king woolsey's intention was to create for himself a monument that was bigger than that of King Henry VII and Westminster and he brought over to England in Italian sculptor called Benedito de bovizano when Woolsey Fell From Grace and then died in 1530 the monument was still unfinished and Henry VII then took elements from it intending to incorporate them into a monument for himself walls's Monument consisted of a sarcophagus of black marble Touchstone with a guilt bonds Effigy of himself on top surrounded by 4 pillars topped with angels holding candlesticks it would have looked a little like the monument to Dr Young the master of the roles in the rolls Chapel in London a monument that is by Tori giano only wolves's Monument would have been freestanding and on a larger scale Henry intended to use Woolsey sarcophagus as his own adding his own Effigy to it he then intended to add to the four pillars Woolsey had made six more and between them placed 10 large bronze candlesticks sadly this ambitious project wasn't complete at Henry's death and there was absolutely no will to complete it during the successive Reigns so the various parts of this incomplete scheme languished in the Albert Memorial Chapel some bits such as the large candlesticks and Angels were sold during the Commonwealth in the middle of the 17th century the massive bronze candlesticks are now to be found in front of the high altar at sunbevo's Cathedral ingent in Belgium the four bronze angels that were commissioned by Woolsey were recently rediscovered at an auction after serving for many years as the gate posts of a stately home in northamptonshire they are now in the Victorian Albert Museum the black marble sarcophagus that both Woolsey and Henry intended as their own were still in Windsor in the early 19th century in 1805 it was offered by King George III as a memorial to Lord Nelson and it can now be seen in Saint Paul's Cathedral where the Effigies might have been there is now a VI counts common it Henry never did things by half and had his Monument be finished it would have been the grandest and perhaps the finest Renaissance monument in all of England it would have dominated completely the interior of Saint George's Chapel blocking the view of the high altar from the West Henry also made lavish provision in his will for his soul and despite the religious changes he had ushered in they demonstrate Henry's very Orthodox and conservative Catholic faith he willed that a canopy'd also be erected at the West End of his team and he gave 600 pounds worth of land and tenements to the dean and chapter Windsor to be used to provide two priests to say mass at that altar daily what Henry is establishing here is what is called a Perpetual Chantry the late medieval Catholic Viewpoint it may still be the Catholic Viewpoint was that multiple celebrations of the mass on behalf of the deceased had a spiritual benefit and helped release the soul from the paints of purgatory the Richer you are the more provision you could afford of this sort it should be said that the more powerful you were the more likely you were to have committed a serious sin and have a longer stint in purgatory so more anxious one would be to create such a provision images of the last judgment from medieval Europe often show King's Bishops and popes being dragged off to Hell sadly like the monument the sole Provisions were never fulfilled in 1548 a year into the reign of his son Edward VI the crown put a stop to these practices and as part of a stricter phase of the Protestant Reformation dissolved all the chantries in England so Henry's plans for a grand Chantry in front of his Grand Monument came to nothing so Henry VII with Jane Seymour rested in the vault at Windsor in the middle of the choir with no Memorial whatsoever for the next 300 years this illustration of the interior of the chapel by Wenceslas holla from 1663 shows the choir and there is no indication on the floor at all as to where Henry and Jane are buried the location must have been known at this time as 15 years before this engraving was made the floor was lifted and Charles the first was buried in Henry's Vault the remains of Henry Charles and Jane were discovered Again by chance when the Royal Vault of George III was being constructed and the area below the Newcastle enlarged in 1814. the prince Regents later King George IV went down to see the Vault and lying within were the three coffins those of Henry and Jane were roughly anthropoidal lead shells the wooden cases having entirely decayed the lead shell of Henry had decayed two as is not uncommon with lead shells and the skeleton of the king with some of the hairs of his beard attached to the skull could still be seen The Vault was closed again and has not been fully opened since so what is all this display about the pomper the funeral procession the elaborate candle covered hearses and the grand funery monuments is it all entirely self-aggrandizement and pride well perhaps to some degree yes but it it's much more complex than that let's try to look at it from a medieval and early modern perspective for a moment rather than from that to the 21st century having a simple funeral these days is considered a virtuous and self-effacing thing that is due to the effects primarily of the Protestant Reformation and puritanism on Western culture having a simple funeral in the 16th century if you had the means to do better would not have been seen in a positive light if Henry had had a simple funeral the populace would have considered that he was degrading the office and position of the Sovereign The Sovereign embodied the nation and there was an expectation as the embodiment of England that the king lived in style and went out in style Kings such as Henry VI who like to live a simple life and wear simple clothing and didn't make an effort to display The Prestige of their Royal House were not a success if a king was buried simply that would diminish the monarchy and let the country down in the eyes of other nations Henry puts it very well in his own will bear in mind what he says might have an element of faux humility in it but he states that we that's the Royal we would be content to have our body buried in any place accustomed for Christian folks but he says because we would be loathe in the reputation of the people to do injury to the dignity to which we have been unworthily called we will that our body be buried at Windsor thanks very much for watching if you like what you see on this channel Please Subscribe and 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Channel: Allan Barton - The Antiquary

Views: 307,214

Keywords: Henry VIII, funeral of king, Windsor castle, royal funerals, Janes Seymour, Cardinal Wolsey, royal vault, royal coffin, King coffin, St Georges chapel windsor, burial vault, Tudor history, tudor monarch, English kings, death of henry VIII, Henry VIII palaces, Henry VIII tyrant, despot, English historu, British history

Id: YD3yTBm5-l4

Length: 22min 50sec (1370 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 01 2022