What Happened to Oliver Cromwell's Corpse? - his 'Royal' Funeral and not-so-Royal Exhumation.

foreign [Music] funeral in early modern England wasn't for a king or queen or anyone else of Royal Blood for that matter it was the funeral in 1658 of the Lord protector of the Commonwealth Oliver Cromwell in this video I'm going to talk about the Splendor of cromwell's funeral why he was buried as a quasi King and also the remarkable and rather grisly things that happened to his body after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 just before I get on with that reminder that this month's issue of the anti-cream magazine is now out I still have some copies available this month the magazine is all about Memento Mori depictions on monuments and in other contexts for people in their shrouds and as corpses and why such depictions were popular in the medieval and Tudor period if I've mastered the technology you should be able to see the link to the issue directly below the video when Oliver Cromwell was appointed law protector of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland in 1653 there was no sense at that point that he or anyone else had ideas of elevating his status beyond that of head of state of a republic that was all to change during the course of 1657 Parliament adopted a new constitution for the Commonwealth and after a vote in the House of Commons Parliament offered Cromwell the crown after lots of I mean an ring with meeting sarasia then canceled in the end he declined the title of King he remained His Highness the Lord protects her to the end of his life but to all intents and purposes this new Constitution made him a king he kept up a splendid court at the palace of Whitehall and exercised all the elements of the royal prerogative to Mark the change in his constitutional role for there was a change Cromwell agreed to and was given a splendid investigator as Lord protector on Friday the 26th of June 1657. seated in Westminster Hall in Saint Edward's chair the coronation chair of English kings which had been brought from Westminster Abbey for the purpose he was vested in a kingly robe of Royal purple velvet trimmed with ermine he was handed a richly bound Bible a sword of state was girded to his waist and he was bestowed with a golden scepter a rod of kingly authority this investor chair was a coronation in effect but it simply stopped short of an actual crowning rumors were spreading later in 1657 that Cromwell would eventually accept the crown he had even ordered a couple of purple Fair trimmed caps of estate from the Royal wardrobe and caps of estate or maintenance where symbols of Royal Authority however that was not to be he was already ailing by then and within 15 months of his investiture Oliver Cromer was dead he died of an ague a fever probably malaria on the 3rd of September 1658. as head of state he had to be given an appropriate funeral but there was of course no precedent for a funeral of a law protector and nothing at all had been planned so the health of the College of arms suggested that the funeral should be modeled on the funeral of the last king to be given a proper send-off King James the first whose funeral had taken place over 30 years earlier in 1625 when I say modeled on it cromwell's funeral obsequies were essentially a carbon copy of James is an almost every respect and the funeral was expensive I mean really expensive it cost 60 000 pounds we have a number of very detailed eyewitness accounts of the event the fullest account of cromwell's death and funeral order is from John prestwich a Puritan fellow of All Souls College in Oxford and is known to us from a copy made by the MP Thomas Burton in his diary there is also an anonymous broadside that gives details and then an account given in a tract called the portraiture of his Royal Highness Oliver late Lord protector all three accounts mostly agree on the details according to prestridge cromwell's body was treated like that of a king and prepared for a lying in state it was eviscerated wrapped in six layers of wax cloth encased in a lead shell and then coffined the coffin packed with sweet herbs a guilt copper deposit some plate engraved with this heraldic achievement and his title in full was placed upon his breast within the coffin a plate that we will see later still survives there is some disagreements about what happened next prestwich says that they had to bury cromwell's body quickly because it swelled and bursted and from it came such filth that raised a deadly and nice and stink they're keeping the body unburied for a protracted lying State didn't seem sensible well we've heard that sort of thing before remember Henry VII and the dogs licking up his blood the corruption of a body in an untimely manner was reflective of people's perception of the political Corruption of the individual so this aspect of prestwich is probably propaganda the truth seems to be that cromwell's body was not buried immediately like James the first he lay in state in Somerset house in the strand for seven weeks and that laying in state was Then followed by a further period of standing in state before the state funeral was held on the 23rd of November both prestwich and the author of The broadside give a great description of the scene four rooms at Somerset house were arranged for the lying in state a typical Suite of Royal apartments and you had to pass through three the presents privy and withdrawing Chambers to get to the room in which the protector's coffin lay each room was hung entirely in black and the black hangings were covered in heraldry escutcheon's Shields of his highness's arms crowned with the Imperial Crown at the head of each room on a raised Deus or high place was a cloth of estate a black fabric canopy which was over a chair of the state a throne and over this was a large Majesty escuchan a large heraldic achievement of cromwell's arms fairly painted in guilt upon taffeti on silk finally after these three rooms you entered the chamber where cromwell's coffin lay and this was hung again with black silk velvet the ceiling also being hung in black silk now as well as the description of this room there's also an engraving of the scene in the published board side cromwell's coffin was incorporated into what was called a better State his coffin was covered in a white linen sheet and then a black pool or hers cloth was placed over the top and on this was placed a funeral effigy this was made of wood with a wax face created by The Medalist Thomas Simon from a death mask the Effigy was seemingly dressed in the robes Cromwell had been invested with in June of 1657. his purple robe trimmed with ermine and with his golden scepter in his hand he also had a Golden Globe an orb in the other on his head was one of the Caps of Maintenance of silk velvet and fur that he had recently ordered and beside the coffin was a complete set of fine State armor around the coffin were four pillars covered in velvet these were topped with heraldic beasts and there were eight tall silver candlesticks with candles burning in them night and day the room was hung with armorial banners of the protector's arms and of the Commonwealth painted brightly and with gold paint on silk taffeta all for the couple of thousands such heraldic banners prepared for cromwell's funeral Extravaganza four have miraculously survived and one is now in the National Army museum having recently come up for auction brightly painted on black silk The Arms Of The Protector himself are here impaled with those of his wife Elizabeth Boucher now the head of cromwell's body was a throne chair that was raised on a death and upon it was placed a closed or Imperial Crown placed so it was easy for people to see now this begs the question was this a real crown of gold or was it simply a heraldic funery accoutrement of the sort that was common in this period made of gilded base metal and supplied by the Heralds well we simply don't know I suspect the latter as there's no evidence at all that Cromwell had a proper crown made for himself during his life or that any of the earlier war crimes of England survived the interregnum and cromwell's body lay like this in Regal Splendor for he lay like a king for seven weeks before the standing in state commenced lasting for another two weeks and the standing in state which was a novel innovation of this funeral seems to have been Bolder symbolically again we have an engraving of it in that little track to the portraiture cromwell's Effigy is shown standing under a canopy of the state dressed in his investiture robes with his scepter in one hand the sword at his waist a kingly orb in the other and the Imperial Crown upon his head in death the reality of his status as de facto King was here is symbolically realized only when the standing in state began on the 10th of November and once the burial Vault had been constructed to receive it was Oliver Cromwell buried it was decided to bury him in the burial place of Kings Westminster Abbey and a vault was constructed for the purpose in the chapel of King Henry VII in the most prominent of positions just to the east of the tomb of Henry VII and next to the Vault containing his remains and those of King James the first cromwell's body was removed quietly from Somerset house and the burial took place without ceremony on the 10th of November the burial was conducted in this manner as a nod to the Puritan establishment since 1645 it had been the law the burials of the Dead had to take place without any service and pomp whatsoever and despite the Regal trappings of the rest of the obstacles the burial itself was according to the law two weeks later the standing in state was concluded and then Cromwell had a sham from funeral the funeral procession set off from Somerset house to Westminster Abbey with a false coffin on a funeral Carriage covered in a black pole with a funeral effigy on top we don't know if the crown was still on the head of the Effigy but the scepter orb and Royal robes remained perhaps a crown might have been a little bit too much for the general public to stomach when it arrived at Westminster Abbey as per previous Royal tradition the false coffin and the Effigy were placed in a grand hearse now as I said in my video about the funeral of Henry VIII a hearse is not a funeral vehicle but is a great structure that's placed over the coffin for the funeral this is the hair surf King James the first it's a great domed canopy and the hearths of Oliver Cromwell have been almost identical to this topped with cromwell's heraldic achievements the hearse of Cromwell seems to have been placed directly over his grave in Henry the seventh Chapel now the departure from all of this was that once the funeral Effigy had arrived at Westminster and Leica the funeral of James the first that was of course no burial service to follow the burial had taken place already the Effigy Of Cromwell was simply placed in his house for people to see and remained there for some time exposed to public View so it must have been a bit of an odd ceremony really a grand series of Ceremonies over over many weeks but with no satisfactory culmination to them all the Hall of Fame must have been bizarre in a London that had through Puritan influence been devoid for many years of such display and ceremonial one of the rights that Cromwell had been given in May of 1657 was the right to nominate his successor as little protector and he nominated rather predictably his eldest son Richard Richard tumbled down dick as he's been known to history prove absolutely useless and his government failed within a year Parliament who are already Keen for the Return of the King didn't take a lot of persuading to restore the monarchy and in May of 1660 King Charles II returned to the throne when the restoration occurs Cromwell whose body was buried with such Regal pomp receives what we might think of as an anti-funeral or a funeral in reverse his body is given the treatment of a traitor ahead of the king's coronation in April of 1661 it was decided to clear from The Abbey the Mortal remains of all the leaders of the Commonwealth rather deliciously the 30th of January 1661 the 12th anniversary of the execution of King Charles the first is the dates Chosen and the authorities exhume Oliver Cromwell along with his associates Robert Blake John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton from their burial places in the abbey the funeral Effigy and as many heraldic banners of cromwell's arms that could be found were burnt Cromwell was unceremoniously removed from his elaborate Royal coffin during this process the guilt copper coffin plate was torn off and stolen only to re-emerge a few years ago at an auction house it is now in the museum of London Blake was buried in San Marcos Westminster but the remains of Bradshaw Ireton and Cromwell were all taken on the back of a cart to tybin where Modern Marble Arch stands which was the common place of public execution in London and were there hung up in their coffins in Chains From the scaffold known as tyburn tree at the end of the day Cromwell was decapitated his body dumped in a common pit and his head was removed to Westminster where it was displayed on a spike outside Westminster Hall the very place where he had been invested as protector in 1657. the head of Cromwell was to remain there exposed to the elements until at least 1685 a warning to anyone who might overthrow a future rightful King in the course of time the head of Oliver Cromwell would go on a bit of an adventure now the details are a little confused and a little shady The Story Goes that on a windy night sometime in the late 1680s the head of Cromwell is blown off its festing place above Westminster Hall and falls at the feet of one of the guards a man called Barnes knowing whose head it was bonds took it home under his cloak and then hid it up a chimney in his quarters on his death bed a few years later he tells his wife and daughter where it was hidden and what it was and after he died his daughter sold the head by 1710 it was in the hands of a man called Claudius Dupuis a French Swiss Calico printer and collector and was part of his private Museum when Dupree dies intestate in 1738 the head ends up back in the possession of the Barnes family in the 1760s and 70s it was owned by the husband of Barnes granddaughter a failed actor called Samuel Russell who used to exhibit it now and again when he was short of cash eventually he sells it to a man called James Cox who's a London Goldsmith a really interesting man an inventor who made automaton but also ran a museum of Curiosities just off old Bond Street it was Cox who was responsible for the creation of the famous Silver Swan that's now in the berries Museum Cox eventually ends up bankrupt and all his effects are sold to the Hughes brothers who buy the head for 230 pounds and they exhibit it in their Museum of Curiosities just off old Bond Street one of their children sold it in 1815 to a gentleman called Josiah Wilkinson and it remains in the Wilkinson family until the 1960s The Wilkinsons keep the head very carefully in an old box lined with red silk and this in turn they keep inside a strong box this fabulous photograph from the early years of the 20th century shows the head being held by Dr Horace Wilkinson of Kettering as you can see from this rather grisly photo the head is still impaled upon the wooden spike it was placed on in 1661. Dr Wilkinson had been left ahead by his rather eccentric father Cannon Horace Wilkinson who apparently kept the head at the foot of his bed and used to get it out as a conversation piece when he had guests one guest reported that it was shown to him after breakfast better than before breakfast I suppose um well Dr Wilkinson didn't really know what to do with the cromwell's head and he was getting tired of people bothering him wanting to see it so in 1960 he decided to give the head to Sydney Sussex College in Cambridge commonal College and they then buried it in the college chapel well this is a convoluted story but is it true are there any indications apart from the story that this head owned by the Wilkinson family and buried in 1960 is indeed the head of Oliver Cromwell there is plenty of evidence to suggest it is and most of those who have seriously examined the head over the last centuries have concluded that it is Commonwealth's head Carl Pearson and GM Morant published a book entitled The portraiture of Oliver Cromwell with special reference to the Wilkinson head they concluded that it was genuine that the headers of a man aged around 60 from what was 59 when he died that the hair and beard were of an auburn color that matched cromwell's that there was a wart one of the famous warts above one of his eyes in a position Cromwell is known to have had one They concluded that the decapitation of the head took place after death not before that was a very unusual situation that there was evidence that the body had undergone some embalming processes that were consistent with practice in the 17th century and that the body had undergone a postmortem an autopsy now we know that Chrome well was given an autopsy in 1658 by his surgeon Dr George bate and that bait had examined cromwell's brain for he records that the vessels in his brain were overcharged he puts it now the top of the skull of the supposed Cromwell head of the Wilkinson head has been removed post-mortem and it has been reattached using hemp twine suggesting that this work took place before the late 18th century Pearson and Moran's conclusion was this that if this was a forgery they said the forger would have had to know all the details of 17th century embalming he would have had to choose a corpse aged 60 with a mustache and a small beard and a wart over his eye it is a moral certainty drawn from circumstantial evidence they said that the Wilkinson head is the genuine head of Oliver Cromwell protector of the Commonwealth well on that grisly note I think I will end there thanks very much for watching if you like what you see on my Channel Please Subscribe and share you can help support the channel at PayPal and at the website buy me a coffee details are below in the description box and links are on the home page

Channel: Allan Barton - The Antiquary

Views: 254,534

Keywords: oliver cromwell, lord protector, commonwealth of england, english civil war, protectorate, westminster abbey, royal funeral, royal tomb, exhumation, oliver cromwell head, horror, funeral procession, early modern england, funerary history, funerary monument, hearse, restoration, charles II, charles I, royal vault, embalming, head on spike, traitors death, traitor

Id: 0GBUumxFOb4

Length: 23min 16sec (1396 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 12 2022