Year: 1875

Its Appearance When Exhumed


BIXty-twO Years Ago.


A correspondent of Notes and Queries
recalls Sir Henry Halfords account Of
the appearance of the remains of King
Charles l sixty.two years ago. The
corpse was buried in the vault of King
Henry VIII, in st. Georges chapel, at
Windsor, and the coffin was opened by
the command and in the presence of the
Prince Regent, April |, 1913. Halford,
who witnessed the disinterment, wrote a
report of the proceedings, which was
authenticated by the sign manual of the
regent After remarking on the striking
resemblance of the head, even in its de-
cayed state, to the coins. busts, and es-
pecially the Vandyke pictures of the
King, the report proceeded


when the head had been entirely dis.
engaged from the attachments, which
confined it, it was found TO be loose, and
without any difficulty it was taken up
and held to view. 1t was quite wet, and
gave a greenish-red tinge to paper and
to linen which touched it, The back
part of the scalp was entirely perfect,
and had iemarkably fresh appearance,
the pores Of the skin being more dis
tinct, as they usually are when soaked
in moisture, and the tendons and liga-
ments of the neck we're of considerable
substance and frmness. The hair was
thick at the back part of the head, and
in appearance nearly black. A portion
of it, which has since been cleaned and
dried, is of a beautiful dark brown color.
That of the beard was of a redder
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 per-
haps by the piety of friends soon after
death in order to furnish memorials of
the unhappy King


"0G holding up the head to examine
the place Of separation from the body,
the muscles of tie neck had evidently
retracted themselves considerably, and
the fourth cervicsl vertebra was found to
be cut through its substance transversely
leaving the surface of the divided por-
tions perfectly smooth and even, an ap.
pesrance which could have been pro-
duced only by heavy blow inflicted by
sharp instrument, and which furnished
the last proof wanting to identify King
Charles /. After this 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 closed" I"


Neither Of the other coffins had any
inscription upon them. The large one,
supposed, on good grounds, to contain
the remains of King Henry VIII,
measured six feet ten inches in length,
and had besn inclosed in an elm one of
two inches in thickness; but this was
decayed, and layed in small fragments
near it. The leaden coffin appeared to
have been beaten in by violence about
the middle, anG a considerable opening
in that part of it exposed mere skele-
ton of the King. Some beard remained
upon the chin, and there was nothing to
discriminate the parsonage contained in
it. The smaller coffin, understood to be
that of Queen Jane Seymour, was not
touched, mere curiosity not being con-
sidered by the Prince Regent as a
sufficient motive for disturbing these re-
mains"


The correspondent contradicts Hal
ford's conjecture that the Kings hair
was cut short for the convenience of the
executioner, by quoting the following
extract from the trial reports of the
execution;


He (the King called to the Bishop
for his nightcap and, having put it on,
he said to the executoner, Does my
hair trouble you2 who desired MIN to
put it all under his cap, which the King
did accordingly, by the help of the ex-
ecutioner and the Bishop. Then the
King said to the executioner, Is my
hair well2 y


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