[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Bits and Pieces - whatever became of them? [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]It is quite amazing how many parts of the body belonging to famous people in history somehow become separated from the body itself and turn up again, many years or even centuries later. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Let me give you some examples...
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Queen Anne Boleyn (1507 - 1536)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]After Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1536 on the orders of her husband, King Henry VIII, her heart was stolen and secretly hidden in a church near Thetford, Suffolk. Her heart was re-discovered in 1836 and re-buried under the church organ where it remains still.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Thomas More (1478 - 1535)[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Thomas was beheaded in 1535. He had enraged Henry VIII by refusing to acknowledge that the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn was legal. More's head was taken from the scaffold and parboiled, stuck on a pole and exhibited on London Bridge (as was common. Until the early 1800s, heads of criminals, usually traitors, were displayed on tall spikes at the entrance to London Bridge, which was demolished in the 1830s). His devoted daughter, Margaret Roper, bribed the bridge-keeper to knock it down and she smuggled it home. She preserved the head in spices but was betrayed by spies and imprisoned, but was soon released. Margaret died in 1544 and Sir Thomas' head was buried with her. In 1824 her vault was opened and More's head was put on public view in St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury for many years.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]The Duke of Suffolk[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Henry Grey, the Duke of Suffolk was the father of Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 - 1554) who became known as the Nine Day Queen. He was beheaded in 1554 and his mummified head can still be seen in a glass-topped box in the vestry of St. Botolph Aldgate in London.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658 )[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of the English Republic died in 1658, was embalmed and buried in Westminster Abbey after a lavish funeral. After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, his body was (on the orders of King Charles II who wanted those responsible for the execution of his father to be executed, even if they were dead) disinterred and taken to Tyburn where it was gibbeted* until sundown. The Public Executioner cut down the body and cut off the head which was then impaled on a 25 foot pole on the roof of Westminster Hall. It remained there for over 24 years until 1685 when it was dislodged during a gale. A soldier found the head and hid it in his chimney. On his deathbed, he bequeathed the relic to his daughter. In 1710 the head appeared in a 'Freak Show', described as 'The Monster's Head'! For many years the head passed through numerous hands, the value increasing with each transaction until a Dr. Wilkinson bought it.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]The head was offered by the Wilkinson family to Sydney Sussex College in 1960, as this was where Oliver Cromwell had studied. It was given a dignified burial in a secret place in the college grounds.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]King Charles I (1600 - 1649)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]King Charles I [/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]was beheaded in 1649 and buried at Windsor Castle in the same vault as Henry VIII. The coffin was opened in 1813 and Sir Henry Halford, the royal surgeon, performed an autopsy on the body. He secretly stole Charles' fourth cervical vertebra and for the next 30 years he loved to shock his friends at dinner parties by using the vertebra as a salt-holder!! [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Queen Victoria, hearing of this, demanded that the bone was returned to Charles' coffin immediately. It was![/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Louis XIV of France ( 1638- 1715)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]During the French Revolution the tomb of the French king was wrecked and plundered. His heart was stolen and sold to Lord Harcourt who later sold it to the very eccentric Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend William Buckland. One night at dinner, the Dean, who liked to experiment with food, ate the embalmed heart! (He loved eating animals. One of his favourite foods was mice on buttered toast. He also liked insects.)[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 - 1618 )[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Walter's body was buried after his execution but his embalmed head was kept by his wife Elizabeth Throgmorton. She kept it in a red leather bag, by her side, for the last 29 years of her life. Their son Carew took care of it until his death in 1666. Carew was buried in his father's grave with the head, but in 1680 Carew was exhumed and re-buried, with his father's head, in West Horsley, Surrey.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Ben Johnson ( 1573 - 1637)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Ben Johnson, the English dramatist, was buried standing up in Westminster Abbey, but in 1849 his grave was disturbed during a later internment. The Dean of Westminster, William Buckland ( see Louis XIV above), stole Johnson's heel-bone but it later disappeared and was not found again until 1938 when the bone reappeared in an old furniture shop![/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]It is quite amazing how many parts of the body belonging to famous people in history somehow become separated from the body itself and turn up again, many years or even centuries later. [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Let me give you some examples...
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Queen Anne Boleyn (1507 - 1536)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]After Queen Anne Boleyn was beheaded in 1536 on the orders of her husband, King Henry VIII, her heart was stolen and secretly hidden in a church near Thetford, Suffolk. Her heart was re-discovered in 1836 and re-buried under the church organ where it remains still.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Thomas More (1478 - 1535)[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Thomas was beheaded in 1535. He had enraged Henry VIII by refusing to acknowledge that the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn was legal. More's head was taken from the scaffold and parboiled, stuck on a pole and exhibited on London Bridge (as was common. Until the early 1800s, heads of criminals, usually traitors, were displayed on tall spikes at the entrance to London Bridge, which was demolished in the 1830s). His devoted daughter, Margaret Roper, bribed the bridge-keeper to knock it down and she smuggled it home. She preserved the head in spices but was betrayed by spies and imprisoned, but was soon released. Margaret died in 1544 and Sir Thomas' head was buried with her. In 1824 her vault was opened and More's head was put on public view in St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury for many years.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]The Duke of Suffolk[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Henry Grey, the Duke of Suffolk was the father of Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 - 1554) who became known as the Nine Day Queen. He was beheaded in 1554 and his mummified head can still be seen in a glass-topped box in the vestry of St. Botolph Aldgate in London.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Oliver Cromwell (1599 - 1658 )[/FONT]
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[/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of the English Republic died in 1658, was embalmed and buried in Westminster Abbey after a lavish funeral. After the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, his body was (on the orders of King Charles II who wanted those responsible for the execution of his father to be executed, even if they were dead) disinterred and taken to Tyburn where it was gibbeted* until sundown. The Public Executioner cut down the body and cut off the head which was then impaled on a 25 foot pole on the roof of Westminster Hall. It remained there for over 24 years until 1685 when it was dislodged during a gale. A soldier found the head and hid it in his chimney. On his deathbed, he bequeathed the relic to his daughter. In 1710 the head appeared in a 'Freak Show', described as 'The Monster's Head'! For many years the head passed through numerous hands, the value increasing with each transaction until a Dr. Wilkinson bought it.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]The head was offered by the Wilkinson family to Sydney Sussex College in 1960, as this was where Oliver Cromwell had studied. It was given a dignified burial in a secret place in the college grounds.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]King Charles I (1600 - 1649)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]King Charles I [/FONT][FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]was beheaded in 1649 and buried at Windsor Castle in the same vault as Henry VIII. The coffin was opened in 1813 and Sir Henry Halford, the royal surgeon, performed an autopsy on the body. He secretly stole Charles' fourth cervical vertebra and for the next 30 years he loved to shock his friends at dinner parties by using the vertebra as a salt-holder!! [/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Queen Victoria, hearing of this, demanded that the bone was returned to Charles' coffin immediately. It was![/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Louis XIV of France ( 1638- 1715)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]During the French Revolution the tomb of the French king was wrecked and plundered. His heart was stolen and sold to Lord Harcourt who later sold it to the very eccentric Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend William Buckland. One night at dinner, the Dean, who liked to experiment with food, ate the embalmed heart! (He loved eating animals. One of his favourite foods was mice on buttered toast. He also liked insects.)[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 - 1618 )[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Sir Walter's body was buried after his execution but his embalmed head was kept by his wife Elizabeth Throgmorton. She kept it in a red leather bag, by her side, for the last 29 years of her life. Their son Carew took care of it until his death in 1666. Carew was buried in his father's grave with the head, but in 1680 Carew was exhumed and re-buried, with his father's head, in West Horsley, Surrey.[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Ben Johnson ( 1573 - 1637)[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]Ben Johnson, the English dramatist, was buried standing up in Westminster Abbey, but in 1849 his grave was disturbed during a later internment. The Dean of Westminster, William Buckland ( see Louis XIV above), stole Johnson's heel-bone but it later disappeared and was not found again until 1938 when the bone reappeared in an old furniture shop![/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]© E.P.C[/FONT]
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[FONT=arial,helvetica,arial,lucida sans]*gibbeting: the practice of showing off the bodies of executed criminals in chains at public places, in order to deter others. Gibbets ceased to be used towards the end of the 18th century and gibbeting was formally abolished in Britain in 1834.[/FONT]
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