T he discovery in early 1813 of the “lost” burial vault containing the coffins of Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, and Charles I was real and excited considerable popular attention. At the time, Byron wrote of the discovery, “Famed for contemptuous breach of sacred ties, / By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies,” while Cruikshank produced a satire of the event called Meditations amongst the Tombs. The caricature portrays the effeminate, unhappily married Prince Regent as envious of Henry VIII’s success in ridding himself of so many wives, while Charles sits up in his coffin holding his own detached head in silent warning.
Cruikshank’s cartoon considerably exaggerates both the size and the grandeur of the crude vault, which was indeed less than five feet high and ten feet wide. My description of the burial vault and the formal opening of Charles I’s coffin comes largely from the account written by Sir Henry Halford, one of the Regent’s personal physicians who was present for the opening and was responsible for the removal of several items, including a piece of the severed vertebrae and a tooth. When these items were returned to the vault in 1888, a still extant watercolor sketch was made that shows the interior of the tomb and the disposition of the coffins. That watercolor can now be found online.
There is some dispute as to the wording of the inscription on Charles’s coffin strap. Sir Henry Halford reports that the lead strap was inscribed with the words, “King Charles, 1648.” Later writers, including Guizot, who wrote a History of the English Revolution in 1838, claim the strap read “Charles, Rex, 1648.” Another nineteenth-century writer named Sanderson claims it read, “Charles King of England.” Clarendon Fuller says it was a plate of silver, not a lead strap, and was inscribed “King Charles I,” while John Ashton goes with Halford’s version, “King Charles, 1648.” Since Halford was there and wrote his account shortly after viewing the coffin, I have used him as my authority.
For the execution and burial of Charles I, see Memoirs of the Last Two Years of the Reign of King Charles I, written by Sir Thomas Herbert, who was present at the hurried burial of the executed King. Although his account plus a letter written by Herbert to Sir William Dugdale in 1681, which also detailed the burial of the King, were in existence in 1813, both were forgotten and the location of Charles I’s body was considered a mystery. Although I have omitted it to avoid confusion, there was actually a fourth burial found in the vault: A small mahogany coffin covered with crimson velvet and containing the stillborn child of Queen Anne was found resting atop Charles’s coffin (which tells us that at the time of Queen Anne, the exact location of Charles I’s body was known).
The description of what happened to the remains of Edward IV when his tomb was discovered in St. George’s Chapel in 1789 is based on fact; even Horace Walpole bragged about having managed to snag a lock of the King’s hair.
For the colorful history of Oliver Cromwell’s head, see Beales, The Posthumous History of Oliver Cromwell’s Head, and Howard, The Embalmed Head of Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell’s head was recently reburied; the fate of the rest of his body is unknown.
For the history of Henri IV’s head, see Gabet and Charlier, L’énigme du roi sans tête. Henri IV was originally buried at Saint-Denis, but his head was reputedly stolen in 1793 when the revolutionaries broke into the royal tombs and tossed the Bourbons’ bones into a common grave. When that grave was opened in 1817, Henri IV’s head was indeed found to be missing. Forensic reconstruction of a head currently held in a Parisian bank and long believed to be the one taken from the grave confirmed that it belonged to Henri. Recent DNA testing on the same head cast doubt on that authentication, as its DNA reportedly did not match that of a living Bourbon who provided a sample. However, the paternity of a number of Bourbons has always been cloudy, and the accuracy of the test is also in dispute.
Henry Addington, First Viscount Sidmouth, was a former Prime Minister and Home Secretary in 1813. His father was indeed a simple physician, although of course he had no cousin named Stanley Preston.
The Irish Dullahan is essentially an embodiment of death and is most likely derived from some forgotten, ancient god placated with human sacrifices in which the victims were decapitated.