The Greatest Discoveries From Opened Royal Coffins

Throughout the centuries there have been many kings and queens who have had their burial vaults broken into and their coffins also opened. This includes infamous and notorious kings such as King Henry VIII and even powerful military commanders such as Napoleon had their burial places disturbed. But inside of these vaults and coffins a number of shocking things have been discovered over the years including the remains of a medieval king which was perfectly preserved and as fresh as the day he died over 500 years ago. These royal coffins have told us much about how the burial processes of monarchs years ago took place but from them we have been able to learn a great deal about the very men and women who ruled over nations. In this video we look at some of the greatest discoveries which were gained from the opening of royal coffins. King Henry VIII today is buried inside of a rather small burial vault in St George's Chapel inside Windsor Castle. It's not what he wanted as the notorious Tudor king greatly wished to be interred inside a huge tomb and memorial which would be the biggest ever made on English soil. Henry VIII died on the 28th of January 1547 inside his bedchambers at the Palace of Whitehall and he would following this be succeeded by his son Edward VI. He left many instructions for his funeral and death including that his son should be helped by a regency council and he would also state that he wanted to be buried alongside his third wife Jane Seymour who had died following the birth of her son his successor. But Henry VIII is known for a chaotic and bloody reign over his people in which 70,000 were sent to their deaths to be executed. This equates to around 3% of the population. There is a rather untold story of the king's remains and coffin and it involves a curious soldier stealing the bones of the most infamous king of England. But what is the story of the stolen bones of King Henry VIII? Following Henry VIII's death his body was embalmed and then laid inside of a lead lined casket and coffin. This was said to have been a huge coffin to hold the remains of the overweight king but Henry's body was cut open and his heart and other vital organs and entrails were removed and then it's believed were buried elsewhere inside of caskets away from his body. This was normal for kings and to have this done to them as a way of preserving the body and it would have also been normal for Henry's body to be wrapped in a seer cloth a thick wax coated cloth which was also said to have preserved the body well. Following this the body lay in state inside of the palace of Whitehall's presence chamber until it was time for the funeral procession to begin. The funeral procession of Henry VIII was incredibly long and it was four miles in total from start to finish. The funeral cortage was draped in black and on top of the king's coffin was a royal regalia including an effigy of the king and jewels encrusted clothes as well as the king's crown. For many who witnessed the procession it was the first time they had seen their king and an image of the man who had ruled for almost four decades over them. But the procession continued with the coffin pulled by four large horses and it would rest for the night inside of Scion Abbey as the procession needed to rest on its way from London to Windsor and specifically St George's Chapel. It's here where it's considered that the king's remains may have exploded inside of the coffin and caused some damage to the wooden box holding the king's body. This is important for later in the video as this damaged coffin would offer an opportunist a chance to steal the bones of Henry VIII. Following the procession getting to Windsor the coffin was carried by 16 strong yeomen of the guard as it was so incredibly heavy. The funeral service took place and then the coffin was lowered into the burial vault under the choir and with this Henry VIII was reunited in the burial vault with the remains of his third wife Jane Seymour. But this burial vault was opened a number of times and the coffin of Henry VIII was disturbed. The most notable time this happened was when the executed king Charles I was buried inside of the same vault with his large coffin being placed directly next to Henry's. This would have outraged the Tudor monarch as he hated the Stuarts and would even ban them forever from becoming the kings of England. Something which would happen following the death of Henry's daughter Elizabeth I. But when the coffin of Charles I was moved into the vault the workers had to also move Henry's coffin and it was said this was already in a bad way and that the coffin sustained some damage. The tomb when it was opened in 1649 was surveyed and it was said that Henry's coffin was a wreck and that the exterior wood coffin was in fragments meaning it had broken. The inner lead-lined coffin appeared as if it had been beaten in with violence about the middle leading to the possibility that someone had been in the vault before and had been tampering with Henry's remains. During this moment it's also said that Henry's skeleton including his skull was visible and could be seen and that his skull had traces of beard on it meaning that Henry's body for decades had been exposed to the elements. It's possible that the explosion inside of Scion Abbey may have caused this or that someone had tampered with it. This was shocking compared to the coffin of Jane Seymour who was buried years earlier but her coffin was in perfect condition. There are no records of repair work being conducted on Henry VIII's coffin as it should have been and there were no records of Henry then being buried or placed inside of a different coffin which would have helped to have preserved his body and this would have been much more dignified but the gaping holes in Henry's coffin would lead to a curious foot soldier creeping into the burial vault of Henry VIII and Charles I and he would allegedly then steal one of the notorious Tudor King's bones. It was said in an account that the sexton did his best to clear the chapel nevertheless Isaac the section's man said that a foot soldier had hid himself so he was not discerned and being greedy of prey crept into the vault and cut so much of the velvet pearl that covered the great body as he judged would hardly be missed and wimpled also a hole through the said coffin that was largest probably fancying that there was something well worth his adventure the section at his opening the door espied the sacrilegious person who being searched a bone was found about him with which he said he had a knife the governor being therefore informed of he gave him his reward and the lords and other presents were convinced that a real body was in the great coffin which some before had scrupled the great body being referred to in this account is the body of King Henry VIII whose coffin was known to have been much larger in this it suggests that a foot soldier broke into the burial vault of the Tudor King and then he put a hole inside of the large decaying coffin and with this he then reached into the coffin and stole one of Henry VIII's bones he claimed that he wanted to use the bone to make a handle for a knife meaning a bone of the most infamous Tudor King would be used to make the handle of a rather common weapon but this theft was discovered and it's believed that the bone was then presumably returned to the coffin of King Henry VIII later the vault of Henry VIII was opened again as the body of one of Queen Anne's children was placed at the feet of King Henry but in 1813 the vault was then rediscovered after it was lost time but this vault was then explored by Sir Henry Halford who wrote an account of the discovery which he claimed happened by accident when excavating the floor to prepare the royal mausoleum for the current king but during this they peered at the body of Henry VIII through the holes in his coffin but the person they were most interested in was Charles I to make sure that it was really his body inside of the coffin and not that of an imposter they opened the coffin and found that it was Charles and that his head had come off from the body again after it had been sewn back on but the vault would finally be opened a last time in 1888 to return relics of Henry VIII still lies inside of the burial vault which he did not want to be interred in his magnificent tomb that he planned would never be made because of this 500 years on his body is still in the burial vault exposed to the elements the holes and damage in his coffin would have sped up the decay process and it's likely that only bones remains of Henry VIII today but there have been no attempts recorded to place his body inside of a new coffin but the story in which one of his bones was taken is shocking and incredible you'd think for one of the most famous monarchs in European history we would know for certain where she was buried and officially we do her tomb is in the Basilica of Saint Demi just outside of Paris but whether her actual remains are there that's less certain because after her execution during the French Revolution Marie Antoinette was buried in an unmarked grave in a mass burial pit alongside hundreds of other decapitated victims and when the monarchy was restored years later what was dug up from that mass grave may not have been her at all so let's unravel the story of how Marie Antoinette's head was lost dug up and then reburied and why more than two centuries later no one is completely sure what actually lies inside her tomb to understand how we got here we need to go back to October 16th 1793 Marie Antoinette the Queen of France had been imprisoned for months during the French Revolution her husband Louis XVI had already been executed earlier that year and on the morning of her own execution she was taken from the conciergerie prison and paraded through the streets of Paris not in a closed carriage like her husband but in an open cart deliberately exposed to the jeering crowds the guillotine was waiting for her at what was then the Place de la Revolution today it's the Place de la Concorde and at around noon the blade fell the executioner Charles Henry Sanson held up her severed head for the crowd to see she was only 37 years old and then came the question what to do with the body there was no ceremony there was no funeral no monument her head and body were loaded onto a cart and taken a short distance away to the Madeleine Cemetery a small parish graveyard tucked into the dense streets of Paris at the time Madeleine Cemetery wasn't a grand resting place it was a simple overcrowded burial ground already receiving dozens of guillotined victims every day during the reign of terror bodies were dumped into mass graves layer upon layer upon layer upon layer no separation between victims Marie Antoinette was buried like so many others anonymously no royal dignity no preservation just another casualty of the revolution for over 20 years that's where her remains lay it is believed that she had a separate burial just next to the layers of decomposing bodies unrecognizably mixed with the remains of others maybe she was lucky in that regard but during the revolution nearly 1300 people were buried at the Madeleine Cemetery including other high-profile victims such as King Louis XVI, Madame Elizabeth and numerous aristocrats and political figures the ground would have been shifted bones mixed together bodies decomposed and there was no attempt to separate heads from bodies the mass grave was a chaotic mass of remains in 1815 with Napoleon defeated and the Bourbon monarchy restored Louis XVIII a brother of the executed king wanted to recover the bodies of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and give them proper royal burials and so an official exhumation of Madeleine Cemetery was ordered but this was not an archaeological dig in the modern sense there were no forensic tools no DNA testing no dental records workers dug into the mass graves based on vague records and testimonies from those who had helped bury the bodies two decades earlier and eventually they identified two sets of remains that they believed to be the king and queen how largely by proximity and estimation the workers claimed to have found remains buried near to where the royal couple had supposedly been placed among the remains were two skulls one presumed to have been Louis XVI and one presumed to have been Marie Antoinette and this is where the real mystery begins because in 1815 the bodies had been in the ground for over 20 years the decomposition process would have rendered most soft tissue gone only bones and possibly scraps of clothing or hair would have remained the head believed to have been Marie Antoinette's was identified largely because it was found with the body thought to be hers there was no attempt to match facial features because there were none left no attempt to verify anything beyond rough location in fact even at the time some officials admitted the absolute certainty was impossible and once the remains were retrieved they were placed inside of New Province and transferred to the Basilia of Saint-Denis the traditional burial place of French royalty now a grand tomb was then constructed and the remains were ceremonially interred and that's where they remain to this day in Saint-Denis surrounded by elaborate marble monuments but inside of those monuments simple wooden coffins and very little documentation of what exactly was placed inside you might be thinking surely with modern science we could confirm whether those remains really belong to Marie Antoinette and yes in theory we could mitochondrial DNA could be compared with known relatives from the Hapsburgs family Marie Antoinette's birth family there are living descendants there are even preserved samples from other royal burials but there's a problem the French government and the Catholic church which oversee Saint-Denis have consistently refused requests to exhume and test the royal remains the official position is the matter is settled disturbing graves would be sacrilegious and unnecessary and so to this day the identification remains unconfirmed as for the Madeleine Cemetery itself no longer exists shortly after the exhumations the site was sold cleared and eventually replaced by a chapel exploiteur a chapel built specifically to memorialize Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette today it's a quiet park in the middle of modern Paris most visitors walk by there without even realizing they're standing above what was once a mass grave of guillotine victims in fact not all remains were recovered during the 1815 exhumation many bodies perhaps hundreds were left behind their identities lost forever there's even an odd footnote to all of this during the revolution rumors circulated that the heads of executed royals were sometimes stolen preserved or studied we know for example that medical students occasionally acquired severed heads for anatomal studies but Marie Antoinette's head having stolen or separated from her body after the execution there's no direct evidence for that but given the chaos of the time it's not entirely impossible so is Marie Antoinette's head inside of her tomb probably possibly maybe we may never know for sure without modern forensic testing the question remains open and for now it remains one of the many unsolved mysteries buried beneath the surface of the French Revolution but the story reminds us that even the most famous figures in history can vanish into ambiguity but the story reminds us that even the most famous figures in history can vanish their remains scattered their identities uncertain their final resting places only assumed he was one of the most incredible military generals and commanders in history and Napoleon Bonaparte made a huge impact on European history his French forces captured many different lands and his wars changed Europe forever he had a huge amount of success and the small Frenchman was regarded as a military genius but when he was in power he was despised by some as he was considered a tyrant his enemies feared his every move but he spent his final days in the captivity of his enemies and living in exile a long way away from his homelands and a on the remote island of St Helena Napoleon died and his cause of death has been greatly debated over the years from the wallpaper poisoning him to a medical issue he lived with for many years but in the years after his death his grave was broken into and opened and his coffin was also opened he was later reburied but what was found when the grave of Napoleon was opened for the first time after his final defeat the battle of Waterloo in the June of 1815 Napoleon surrendered to the British hoping for a relatively comfortable exile in England instead the British government sent him to St Helena a tiny windswept island more than 1200 miles from the nearest mainland the location was deliberately chosen to prevent any possibility of escape unlike his earlier exile on Elba which he had famously escaped in 1815 St Helena was isolated heavily guarded and bleak Napoleon arrived on the island in the October of 1815 and was confined to Longwood house a damp poorly constructed residence exposed to harsh weather the climate was unhealthy the surroundings depressing and the accommodations far below what Napoleon believed suitable for a former emperor he lived there under constant surveillance guarded by British troops and overseen by Sir Hudson Lowe the island's governor relations between the two men were tense and hostile and Napoleon viewed Lowe as petty and vindictive while Lowe saw Napoleon as manipulative and dangerous in exile Napoleon's physical and mental health deteriorated steadily he gained weight suffered from chronic fatigue abdominal pain nausea and reoccurring fevers he complained frequently of stomach discomfort loss of appetite and weakness over time he became increasingly withdrawn spending long periods confined to his room once renowned for his boundless energy and sharp mind Napoleon now lived a monotonous and isolated existence broken only by the conversations with a small circle of loyal followers psychologically exile weighed heavily on him Napoleon was deeply conscious of his fallen status he dictated memoirs and reflections of his life carefully shaping the narrative of his legacy these writings were intended to present him as a misunderstood hero betrayed by Europe's monarchs in this sense even in decline Napoleon remained focused on history and how posterity would judge him by the late 1820s and early 1821 Napoleon's condition worsened significantly he experienced severe stomach pain persistent vomiting and weakness that left him largely bedridden British soldiers attended him but their treatments typical of early 19th century medicine were limited and often ineffective bleeding purges and crude medications were still common practices Napoleon himself believed he was suffering from the same illness that had killed his father Carlo Bonaparte who died of stomach cancer in 1785 this belief was widely shared by those around him as his health declined Napoleon prepared for death with remarkable calm he dictated his will distributed personal belongings and made final statements about his life and achievements and on the 5th of May 1821 at the age of just 51 Napoleon Bonaparte died at Longwood house his last recorded words reportedly included references to France the army and his wife Josephine though the precise phrasing varies between counts an autopsy was conducted the day Napoleon's death attended by both British and French doctors the findings described a severely diseased stomach including a large ulcer or cancerous lesion the official conclusion was that Napoleon died of stomach cancer consistent with the symptoms and family history for much of the 19th century this explanation was widely accepted Napoleon's death was seen as tragic but medically unremarkable a natural end hastened by stress poor living conditions and hereditary illness today it's believed that the conditions of his captivity and exile made his life considerably shorter too now after his death Napoleon's body was dressed in his favorite uniform this was a green coat of the chasseurs of the imperial guard he was also clothed in white breeches and boots and on his chest was pinned the legion of honor medal Napoleon was buried on the 9th of May 1832 in a valley close to the site of his incarceration Longwood house this specific plot was chosen by Napoleon and it was shaded by willow trees and was far from the sea breeze now to begin with he was buried with little ceremony and was interred without his name on a tombstone the grave marker just said here lies and that's it some people believe that Napoleon's body would later be dug up by his supporters and even used as a relic to be venerated or that his grave would become a shrine which is something the British didn't want for one of their enemies now his body did not stay on the island of Saint Helena for too long in 1840 around two decades following his death King Louis Philippe of France arranged with the British to have Napoleon's body repatriated back to the nation and specifically to be taken to Paris the exhumation was a great spectacle and it was known as the return of the ashes and on the 15th of October 1840 Napoleon's grave was opened those who witnessed this including the French and British officials and a few had even seen his original burial now the two layers of cement laying on top of the burial vault was smashed up and broken and the giant stone slab protecting the coffin was lifted up the coffin was then exposed and this was a coffin which was lead lined the outer coffin was mahogany shell and the coffin was intact and there was little dampness or moisture on the wood there were two small holes then drilled into the lid of the coffin and this was done to allow any possible buildup of gases within the coffin from the body to escape as they did not want the body of Napoleon exploding in the same way Henry VIII's body allegedly did the casket was then taken out of the tomb and the coffin lid was lifted and inside was an inner lead chamber the lead coffin which contained the mortal remains of Napoleon the outer wooden coffin was resting on top and was easy for the officials to remove the body of Napoleon despite the fact it had been in the ground almost 20 years was shockingly and remarkably intact and it was in a brilliant state of preservation to anyone who witnessed it it was quite clearly the corpse of Napoleon too as officials peered in they noticed the skin of Napoleon was very white and his body was complete his hat was placed over his legs and there was a silver vase which was said to have contained his heart which had been removed after death after the body was discovered officials acted relatively quickly and the body was taken from the original coffin and was then placed inside of a large sarcophagus and this was then placed on specially made hearse and the journey back to France began eventually on the 15th of December 1840 the coffin of Napoleon was placed inside of a huge tomb in Paris the French capital which was the seat of his power became his final resting place not the place where he suffered in exile and his sarcophagus today can still be seen Napoleon's death was not dramatic in the way his life had been there was no battlefield no final speech to troops and no heroic last stand instead there was illness isolation and reflection on a remote island at the edge of the known world yet in many ways this quiet ending underscored the central tragedy of Napoleon's story a man of unmatched talent and ambition brought low not by a single enemy but by the combined forces of Europe time and his own limitations two centuries later the death of Napoleon Bonaparte continues to fascinate because it forces us to confront the human cost of greatness stripped of power far from home and facing mortality Napoleon died not as an emperor but as a man whose life and legacy still cast a long shadow over history his body was eventually sent back to Paris after his grave was disturbed and he remains at rest there still today the execution of King Charles I was a horrifically sad event and many people who witnessed the public slaying of the monarch sighed as the axe fell upon his shoulders despite his failings and the fact many viewed him as a tyrant King Charles I many believed today should never have been executed he lost his head on the 30th of January 1649 outside of the banqueting house in London on Whitehall he was led through a window onto the scaffold where the executioner's block was found and he made a short speech to the crowd it was hard to hear the king but he said that an unjust sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished now by an unjust sentence on me but I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government it is not their having a share in the government that is nothing appertaining unto them a subject and a sovereign are clean different things before finishing I shall go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown where no disturbance can be he knew that his time on earth was over and he then around 2 p.m gave himself to the executioner for his death he knelt down and then had to lie down on the scaffold as the block was so low he rested his head on the block and said a final prayer before giving the signal to the executioner that he was ready and he stretched out his arms with this the executioner crashed down his sharp axe skillfully onto the neck of the king and his head was taken clean off in front of the crowd some thought in the crowd that by executing a king who was sent to rule by god that vengeance would occur upon england but the executioner then displayed the head of charles to the crowd before quietly making his getaway and the remains of the king were collected and were placed inside of a coffin ready for burial his remains were taken to a place in the palace of whitehall and they were embalmed and his head was actually sewn back on but for some time parliament were concerned about where they should bury charles the first he was in a lead lined coffin and his remains were wrapped in a thick seer cloth to prevent them from decaying quickly over the centuries and parliament knew that if they buried him in central london such as within westminster abbey that there could be people who wanted to exhume him they did not want the burial place of charles the first to become a shrine either and with this they settled on windsor castle to bury the stewart king specifically within the walls of saint george's chapel and they knew that here was one very small vault which could fit one other coffin alongside a king but this was the burial vault of king henry the eighth the notorious six-wifed king and inside of this vault he was buried alongside his third wife jane seymour preparation work was performed within the vault to allow one more coffin to be lowered in and fit in and with this henry the eighth's coffin was moved to the side and the trestle he was resting on actually broke henry the eighth's coffin was noted to have been in a very bad way on the night of the 9th of february 1649 within two weeks of his execution the coffin of king charles the first was taken under the cover of darkness from london on a short journey to windsor it was carried into saint george's chapel and was lowered inside of the burial vault of henry the eighth and jane seymour right under the choir within the orders of the garter chapel later charles's son king charles the second planned to have his father exhumed and interred in a huge mausoleum inside of hyde park but this building work was never completed and still today the executed king lies inside of this burial vault next to king henry the eighth but for centuries the true location of charles the first coffin was lost to time and people forgot where he had his remains went missing but the burial vault of him and henry the eighth was actually broken into during building works in 1813 and the builder discovered a child's coffin at the foot of henry the eighth this was a child of queen anne and would have been a direct descendant of charles however during these initial investigations it was noted that henry the eighth's coffin was in a bad way and then the coffin of charles the first was found and it was noted that it had an inscription on the coffin almost confirming that inside were the executed stewart king's remains sir henry halford was the man who was asked to help investigate king charles the first coffin and on the 1st of april 1813 in the presence of the future king george the fourth the burial vault was opened again and the coffin of charles was opened it was first noticed that the seer cloth covered the body and the head and when this was peeled away it was discovered that the head of charles the first which had previously been sewn back on had come apart because the thread used had decayed the wrapping of the king's body was so well performed and carried out that henry halford actually had to take the whole of the king's body out of the coffin to unwrap parts of it the investigation was detailed and halford documented what he saw and did and he said that at length the whole face was disengaged from its covering the complexion of the skin of it was dark and discolored the forehead and temples had lost little or nothing of their muscular substance the cartilage of the nose was gone but the left eye in the first moment of exposure was open and full though it vanished almost immediately and the pointed beard so characteristic of the period of the reign of king charles was perfect the shape of the face was a long oval many of the teeth remained and the left ear in consequence of the interposition of the matter between it and the seer cloth was found entire it was difficult at this moment to withhold a declaration that notwithstanding its disfigurement the countenance did bear a strong resemblance to the coins the busts and especially to the pictures of king charles i by van dyck by which it had been made familiar to us it is true that minds of the spectators of the interesting sight were well prepared to receive this impression but it also certain that such a facility of belief had been occasioned by the simplicity and truth of mr herbert's narrative every part of which had been confirmed by the investigation so far it had advanced and it will not be denied that the shape of the face the forehead and eye and the beard are most important features which by resemblance is determined when the head had been entirely disengaged from the attachments which confined it it was found to be loose and without any difficulty was taken up and held to view it was quite wet gave a greenish red tinge to paper and to linen which touched it the back part of the scalp was entirely perfect and had a remarkably fresh appearance the pores of the skin being more distinct as they usually are when soaked in moisture and the tendons and ligaments of the neck were of considerable substance of firmness the hair was thick at the back part of the head and in appearance neatly black a portion of it which had been since cleaned and dried is of a beautiful dark brown color that of the beard was a reddish brown on the back part of the head it was more than an inch in length and had probably been cut so short for the convenience of the executioner or perhaps by the piety of friends soon after death in order to furnish memorials of the unhappy king sir henry halford had opened the coffin of the executed king and he confirmed that it was him completely he also said that the muscles of the neck had evidently retracted themselves considerably and the fourth cervical vertebrae was found to be cut through its substance traversally leaving the surface of the divided portions perfectly smooth and even an appearance which could only have been produced by a heavy blow inflicted with a sharp instrument this added further evidence that it was the king as confirmed that he had lost his head by a sharp weapon such as an axe but after this it was said that following the examination of the head which served every purpose in view and without examining the body below the neck it was immediately restored to its situation the coffin was soldered up again and the vault was closed after this opening of the coffin the burial vault of charles the first was never opened again and has since been left undisturbed it's probable that the investigation caused significant decay and damage to charles the first body and that he remains today just as a skeleton by 1602 elizabeth was nearing 70 an exceptional age for a monarch in the early 17th century those close to her noticed she was growing frail the deaths of her trusted friends hit her especially hard and the passing of catherine howard countess of nottingham in early 1603 was devastating elizabeth had loved her dearly and some accounts say the queen never recovered from this loss after nottingham's death she became withdrawn and melancholy her physical health also worsened and elizabeth suffered from swelling in her legs likely dropsy a condition caused by heart or kidney failure she was increasingly weak and struggled to eat yet she refused medical treatment or bed rest proud and politically aware she knew that any signs of illness could spark instability or plots by march of 1603 it was clear that elizabeth was dying she spent long hours standing or sitting on cushions staring into space refusing to sleep members of her court described her as restless stubborn and unwilling to lie down this behavior has puzzled historians but many believe she feared that once she took to her bed she would never rise again her ladies-in-waiting and counsellors including sir robert cecil begged her to allow physicians to examine her but she resisted every attempt she had always distrusted doctors and at the end she seemed determined to let nature take its course as her strength faded her mind wandered she spoke little and when she did it was often vague but she remained politically sharp enough to understand that england needed a clear successor for decades she had refused to name one keeping europe guessing now on her deathbed she finally broke her silence the privy council needed confirmation of her wishes when pressed elizabeth made a gesture that answered the question without speaking she raised her hands to indicate james the sixth of scotland the son of mary queen of scots this symbolic act paved the way for a peaceful transition and the beginning of the stuart era on march 24th 1603 at richmond palace queen elizabeth the first died quietly in the early hours of the morning she was 69 years old no dramatic final words were recorded instead she slipped away surrounded by her women after a long and exhausting struggle her death ended the tudor dynasty which had begun with her grandfather henry the seventh over a century earlier despite the sadness of her final days she left behind a kingdom stronger more stable and more confident than it had ever been when she inherited it in 1558 elizabeth's funeral on the 28th of april 1603 was one of the grandest seen in england her coffin covered in purple velvet was carried through london from whitehall to westminster abbey a life-sized effigy of the queen lay on top dressed in her robes of state scepter in hand crowds lined the streets to mourn the only monarch many had ever known she was processed to west minster abbey and was buried inside of the abbey to begin with in a different vault she was interred within the vault of king henry the seventh her grandfather let's now look into the dark secrets now after her funeral king james the first her successor ordered a large tomb to be made for elizabeth out of respect she was then to be interred underneath this today this is elizabeth the first final resting place but she was exhumed and her coffin was removed from henry the seventh vault this was done years after so her remains may have decayed slightly when this happened not many people know today that elizabeth the first was a queen who was actually buried twice but there are darker secrets immediately after her death elizabeth the first's body was embalmed in a harrowing and brutal manner this was shockingly traditional for monarchs of the time but this consisted of her heart being removed from her body physicians cut open a large cavity in her chest and they cut out her heart her lungs intestines and other internal organs this was done in an attempt to keep away decay and rot from her corpse to reserve her for centuries to come the body was then washed and wrapped inside of a seer cloth a thick wax coated shroud now the internal organs including the heart were placed in a separate lead container and box and these to begin with were interred with her body and they were then moved from the first vault to her final resting place but one curious man would open the organ box decades after her death inside the vault william taswell found the urn and he opened it and was said that previous to which a royal vault was opened in which were two urns one appropriated to queen mary the other to queen elizabeth i dipped my hand into each i took out of each a kind of gluttonous red substance somewhat resembling mortar that of mary contained less moisture what he had done was reach into the urn and touched and removed heart matter of queen elizabeth the first now later when the burial vault was opened in the 19th century it was also discovered that elizabeth the first was not buried alone despite the elaborate tomb above the ground when her vault was opened her coffin was found sitting directly on top of the coffin of queen mary the first inside the center of the vault mary the first or bloody mary was elizabeth's half-sister and elizabeth's coffin was placed on top to symbolize that she was a greater more historic and more superior queen to that of mary this was strange and when the vault was opened it was found there was no disorder or decay except from a small bit of the centering wood of elizabeth's coffin which had fallen in also the carved tudor rose and initials er elizabeth regina were found on the coffin along with the date 1603 when she died the coffin lid was made of fine oak an inch thick and it was covered in red silk velvet which remained attached to the wooden coffin that was the last time that someone has documented viewing the vault of elizabeth the first another thing which many people actually miss inside of elizabeth the first tomb and resting place is that placed at the head of the tomb is a large stone urn this doesn't belong to just anyone it's said to have contained the bones and remains of possibly the princes in the tower these were the two sons of king edward the fourth who was allegedly murdered inside the tower of london upon the orders presumably of their uncle king richard the third bones belonging allegedly to the two children at the same age of the princes were discovered centuries later and king charles ii was so moved by this he ordered them placed in a large urn and being interred within queen elizabeth the first tomb this urn was opened at the start of the 20th century and it was found the bones did fit the boys at their ages but there were no dna tests done and also found inside were animal bones finally elizabeth the first is buried opposite her once great nemesis mary queen of scots was a woman she ordered to execution elizabeth is laid to rest in a tomb that is actually slightly smaller than mary's tomb and this was done intentionally by james the first as he wanted to give his mother mary a dignified burial but it was also a subtle dig at the tudor dynasty as james was a member of the stewards edward the first was born in 1239 the son of king henry ii and elena of province from an early age edward's character was shaped by war rebellion and political struggle he fought against his father's enemies during the baron's war and developed a reputation for ruthlessness and determination when he became king in 1272 while returning from crusade england was in a state of relative calm but edward was not a man who rested easily he quickly set about strengthening royal authority reforming the legal system and expanding england's dominion his conquest of wales between 1277 and 1283 was one of his greatest achievements he crushed the native welsh princes and built a chain of massive stone castles carnarvon conway harlech and others to secure english control but after wales was subdued edward's attention turned north to scotland there his ambition to dominate all of britain would ultimately lead to his death the scottish crisis began in 1290 when the death of the young queen margaret known as the maid of norway left scotland without a clear heir the scots invited edward to arabrate between rival claimants to the throne assuming he would act as a neutral judge instead edward saw an opportunity he declared himself overlord of scotland and placed john baliol a compliant noble on the throne when baliol rebelled against him edward invaded scotland in 1296 he captured berwick massacring its inhabitants and carried off the stone of destiny the ancient symbol of scottish kingship to westminster abbey it was a brutal display of english power but edward's domination of scotland was not to last in 1297 the scots rose again under the leadership of william wallace the shocking scottish victory at the battle of sterling bridge humiliated edward though he soon struck back crushing wallace at falkirk in 1298 wallace was later captured and executed but rebellion continued to simmer by the early 1300s a new scottish leader had emerged robert the bruce in 1306 bruce crowned himself king of scots murdering his rival john comwyn in a church in dumfries enraged edward i declared bruce an outlaw and marched north once again to destroy him by 1306 edward was 67 years old a great age by medieval standards especially for a man who had spent his life in the saddle and on campaign yet despite his age he was determined to crush robert the bruce and end the scottish threat once and for all in the spring of 1307 the king set out from london traveling slowly north his health was failing chronic dysentery and exhaustion plagued him and he could no longer ride his horse for long periods and his attendants had to lift him into the saddle still edward refused to stop he had spent his entire life conquering commanding and enforcing obedience he would not give up now chroniclers of the time admired his iron will the monkish writer walter of geeseborough described how the aging king burnt with wrath against the profidious scots and swore he would not return to england until robert the bruce was destroyed edward even vowed that his bones should be carried into scotland after his death so that he might continue to terrorize his enemies from beyond the grave by early july of 1307 edward's army reached borough by sands a small coastal village just north of carlisle near to the scottish border the king was now gravely ill he could barely eat and was too weak to mount his horse yet he insisted on pressing forwards hoping to reach the border before he died on the 6th of july 1307 edward the first died at borough by sands the precise cause of his death is uncertain though most accounts suggest dysentery a common and deadly disease among medieval armies he was 70 years old and according to chroniclers the king was sitting upright in his tent trying to eat when he suddenly collapsed in his attendants arms his death came just as his army prepared to invade scotland it was a bitter end for the old warrior who had spent much of his reign trying to bring the northern kingdom to heel legend holds that edward's dying wish was for his heart to be taken on crusade to the holy land and for his bones to be carried at the head of his army into scotland so that even in death he said i shall be a terror to my enemies and his servants reportedly promised to fulfill these wishes though in the end neither were carried out when news of the king's death reached robert the bruce he is said to have remarked with relief now at last the fox has died who so often sought to trap me for the scots edward's death was the end of their greatest tormentor for the english it marked the passing of a king who had ruled with both iron and intelligence edward's body was carried south from borough by sands to waltham abbey in essex where it rested temporarily before being taken to london his funeral took place at westminster abbey on the 27th of october 1307 and he was buried in a plain sarcophagus of purbeck marble beneath a simple inscription edwardus primus scutorum malleus pactum serva the latin phrase translates to edward the first hammer of the scots keep the vow the inscription reflected both the king's proudest achievement and his enduring obsession the subjugation of scotland unlike many other medieval monarchs edward's tomb was left largely unadorned he had ordered that it remained simple perhaps as a sign of humility before god or perhaps to reflect his self-image as a warrior rather than a saint he's his embalmed body was placed within a wooden coffin and sealed inside of the marble chest now a little more on the embalming of medieval kings it was a very expensive process and one which was time-consuming but also ruthless straight after his death physicians would have tended to edward's corpse and they would have cut straight down his stomach and taken out his vital organs and entrails this included his heart lungs liver intestines and this was done to keep away decay and to prevent the body from rotting quickly and immediately the cavity left was then washed and was treated with spices and other materials to keep it allegedly fresh then the body was washed again and then wrapped in a thick seer cloth a linen shroud which was dipped in wax this helped to prevent anything getting into the body meaning that this also secured air out and prevented the in the year 1377 70 years after edward's death this wax cloth was actually renewed to ensure the body of the king remained fresh and there was money allocated by parliament to do this the seer cloth was an important part of the embalming and preservation process and it was also relatively effective but then in 1774 400 years after his death the tomb of edward i was opened and what was found was incredible it was claimed by those who opened it up that on lifting up the lid of the tomb the royal body was found wrapped in a strong and thick linen cloth waxed on the inside the head and face were covered with sundarium or face cloth of crimson sarsnet wrapped the three folds conformable to the napkins used by our savior in his way of crucifixion the corpse was discovered in all the ensigns of majesty richly habited the body was wrapped in a fine linen seer cloth closely fitted to every part of the body even to the very fingers and face the writs ordering the renewal of the wax and covering of the body of king edward the first being extant gave rise to this search over the seer cloth was a tunic of red silk damsk above that a stole of thick white tissue crossed the breast and on this a six inch distant from each other quarter folius of filigree work of gilt metal set with stones imitating rubies sapphires and amethysts and the intervals between the quarter foils on the stole powdered with minute white beads tacked down into the most elegant embroidery in form not unlike what is called the true lover's knot above these habits was the royal mantle of rich crimson satin fastened on the left shoulder with a magnificent fibula of gilt metal richly chased and ornamented with four pieces of red and four of blue transparent paste and 24 more pearls the corpse from the waist downwards was covered with a rich cloth of figured gold which fell down to the feet and was tucked beneath them on the back of each hand was a quarter foil like those of the stole in the king's right hand was a scepter with a cross of copper gilt and an elegant workmanship reaching to the right shoulder in the left hand was the rod and dove which passed over the shoulder and reached to the ear the dove stood on a ball placed on three ranges of oak leaves of enameled green the dove was of white enamel on the head was a crown chased with truss folds made of gilt metal the head itself was lodged in the cavity of the stone coffin always observable in those receptacles of the death the corpse was dressed in the conformity with ancient usage the body of edward the first and his corpse has shown that even over 400 years after his death his remains were in a remarkable condition and they were very well wrapped and protected they were so well preserved that his face was recognizable and the skin remained on his face and body with this it showed the medieval techniques for embalming and preserving were successful and effective but today edward the first still remains inside westminster abbey inside his rather plain tomb an effigy of the king was never made but within the tomb the king almost 500 years after his death remained complete and uncorrupted with decay and rot thank you for watching and to support our channel please make sure to subscribe and once again thank you so much for watching