The record-union., 1898-04-18
BODY OF THE BOY KING.
THAT OF EDWARD vi THOUGHT
TO HAVE BEEN FOUND.
Workmen Excavating for a Rail-
road Exhume a Coffin at
Windsor.

NEW YORK, April IA cable to
the Sun" from London says: What
many people believe to be the remains
of the boy king, Edward VI, have been
| unearthed. The find was made in the
same way so many similar finds have
| been made. Workmen were excavating
! for new station of the Great Western
Railroad at Windsor About 100 yards
from the castle walls, fourteen feet be-
low the surface, a leaden coffin of the
finest metal and finished workmanship
was brought to light
Every sign of a sumptuous sepulture
was there. The corpse had been incased
| in three collins. The outer casing, of
| oak, was in crumblnig condition, but
! the brass handles We're intact Within
the oaken casing was a peculiarly beau
tiful leaden coffin, smooth as the top
of dning-room table, and of the fin
est quality. This inclosed a shell in
which the body was found hidden from
view in a quantity of sawdust The
corpse was wrapped in a silken embroi-
dered shroud of exquisite texture, and
did not crumble to dust when exposed
/ to the air, which would suggest that
the body had been embalmed
| Those who saw the body give
strangely varying accounts They all
| agree that the face had neither beard
nor mustache, and the hands and feet
were delicately formed. But while one
emphatically says the body was of one
who died in early manhood or youth
another declares it was that of a full
grown man, though apparently youth
full. 1t has already been reburied. and
antiquarians are endeavoring to move
the authorities to take action for it's
elimination
And how is this body to be connected
with the long-dead King? Extraordi-
nary as it may seem, there is really
much in support of the theory Hay
ward Heylin and others represent the
royal invalid Edward VI. as being dur
ing the latter part of his life taken out
of the hands of his physicians and en-
trusted to the care of a female quack
whose nostrums FASTENED his death and
| led many to suspect that poison had
| been reSorted to. When his physicians
were at last recalled, they declared him
| past recovery
Henry VIII. and Lady Jane Seymour,
the young Kings father and mother
are buried under the choir of ST
Georges Chapel Windsor, and the
vault in which their remains are depos-
tied is in a direct line only a stones
throw from where the mysterious coffin
was unearthed. After Edwards death
his body it is said, was conveyed to
! Windsor that it might be placed near
the collins of his parents. The royal
corpse, however. never reached the
/ castle, having, it is alleged upon the
highest authority, been stolen on the
way. Up to the present day what be-
came of the body has remained a mys-
! terry.
! The spot where this coffin was lying
/ cannot have been disturbed for at least
/ 300 years, space of time leading back
! to the period that would coincide with
/ the remarkable disappearance of the
/ Kings body. Whatever may have been
! the motives of those who hid the corpse,
! the locality, which was a resort Of
thieves and other bad characters. was
we'll suited for the commission of such
crime. And the sumptuous character
/ of the collins and shroud. the embalmed
corpse, and the fact that trouble was
taken to bury it so deep in the ground
all point to the theory that the dead
| man ndu Deen some one OF more imam
ordinary note.
! 1t is hardly necessary to say that not
all historians agree with the story Of
the disappearance of the Kings body
| Doubtless it is the opinion of many and
the late Privy Purse, Sir Henry Pom
| sonby, related it as a fact that was be-
yond doubt or disputation. According
| to others, the body remained unburied
| at Greenwich during Lady Jane Greys
brief rule. and was then taken to West
| minister Abbey and buried there "at
the head of his grandfather, Henry
| VII" where sit resteth under the altar
monument of brass gilt, curiously
wrought but without any inscription,
though he well deserved it, saws
Strype. The fact that there was no in
/ scription on this altar is in itself sig
nificant. According to Miss Strickland
| Edward VI. never had any monument
erected to his memory, and this. too is
strange, if men really knew where his
| body 10y j. A Froude distinctly de-
| clares Edward VI. was buried at West
| minister.