At last there was a fellow of the town who undertook to
tell them the place where, he said, 'there was a vault in which King
Harry the Eighth and Queen Jane Seymour were interred.' As near that
place as could conveniently be they caused the grave to be made.
There the King's body was laid, without any words, or other ceremonies,
than the tears and sighs of the few beholders. Upon the coffin was a
plate of silver fixed, with these words only, '_King Charles_, 1648.'
When the coffin was put in, the black velvet pall that had covered it
was thrown over it, and then the earth thrown in; which the governor
staid to see perfectly done, and then took the keys of the church.
"Owing to the privacy of this interment, doubts were at the time current
as to its having actually taken place. It was asserted that the King's
body was buried in the sand at Whitehall; and Aubrey states a report,
that the coffin carried to Windsor was filled with rubbish and
brick-bats. These doubts were entirely removed by the opening of the
coffin (which was found where Clarendon described it,) in the presence
of George the Fourth, then Prince Regent, in April, 1813--of which Sir
Henry Halford has published an interesting narrative. On removing the
black pall which Herbert described, a plain leaden coffin was found,
with the inscription 'King Charles, 1648.' Within this was a wooden
coffin, much decayed, and the body carefully wrapped in cerecloth, into
the folds of which an unctuous matter mixed with resin had been melted,
to exclude the external air.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51