ROYAL FUNERALS

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13738, 20 May 1910, Page 8

ROYAL FUNERALS

FROM WILLIAM I. TO VICTORIA

In Britain. Westminster Abbey—eelcbiatcel alike for its coronations as for its burials—contains the remains of more of the Royal dead than any other place, and Windsor the next largest uumlvc-r (says tho Wellington "Post" in an article on Royal funerals in England). The beginning of the Royal burials at Westminster is uncertain. .>elert and Ethelgoda were believed to lit- by tho entrance to the Chapter iior.se. .Says one authority:—"ln the centre of Westminster Auocy lie the re-n-j.ins of its founder—Edward the Confessor, who was interred there in IC3G. In "the Palace, thc elead King —as usual in tho funerals of all our earlier sovereigns—was attired in bis royal habiliments; _h«"s crown upon his head; a crucifix

of geld, with a golden chain around his neck: tho pilgrim's ring ou his hand. Crowds flocked from all the neighbouring villager. Tho prelates and magnates assisted, and the body was placed before the high altar." William the Conqueror was buried at Caen, in the Abbey which he had dedicated to St. .Stephen: William Ruins a" Winchester, close to the forest where he found violent death: Henry I. at Reading, in the au.rey founded our, of his father's treasure for Ins father's soul; .Stephen in his abbey at Faversham. Henry JI. was interred in the great Angevin Abbey of Fontevrault. Jn Rouen was laid the "lion heart" of Richard. But his body rested at Fonto\rault, at his fathers feet—in token of .sorrow for his unfilial conduct, to bo, as' it were, his father's footstool —in the robes which he had worn at his second coronation at Winchester. John's wile, Isabella, was interred at Fontevrault, and his own heart was placed there* in a golden cup: but lie himsell was laid at Worcester. Henry 111., who did so much for tho restoration ot Westminster Abbey, was ii.'teired there, and so, too. were f.dward 1., Edward 111., and Richard 0., but- Edward IPs remains were deposited at Gloucester. At Canterbury Henry J\*. was laid to rest, and Henry Vl."s interment, and n!-o that- of Edwarel IV., took place at Windsor—the former being the first king buried there. An account of the funer.il of Henry V. says:—"Tho long procession from Paris to Calais, and from Dover to London, was headed by tho King of the Scots, oames 1., as chief mourner, followed by Henry's widow. Catherine of Valois. At e3ch stage between Dover and London funeral services were celebrated. On the precession reaching London it was met "by all the clergy. The obsecjuies were performed, first at St. Paul's, and tnen at Westminster Abbey. No English king's funeral had ever been so grand On the splendid car, accompanied by torches and white-robed piiest.s innumerable, lay the effigy, now for thc first time seen in the royal funerals, as pre-exhibited iv their royal attire.. Behind were led up the nave to the altar stops, his three chargers. To give a worthy place to the mig..*y dead a severe strain was put on the

capacity of the Aubey and in the place of the sacred relics at the eastern end of the Confessor's Chapel, was deposited the body of the most splendid king that England had down to that time producetl—second only as a warrior to the Black Prince — seccnci only as a sovereign to Edward I. His tomb accordingly was regarded almost as that of a saint of Paradise . . ." "Where the young King Edward V. was burieel is not known, but Richard 111., who survived him only two years, was interred at Leicester' In the burial of Henry VII. at Westminster, "the black velvet coffin, markeel by a white satin cross from end to end, was eloposited. not, as in the burials of previous Kings, in the raised tomb, but in the cavernous vault beneath, by tho side of his Queen. The Archbishops and Abbots stood round, and struck their croziers ou the coffin, with the word 'Abs-olvimus.' The Archbishop of Canterbury then cast in the earth, and tho vault was closed. The heralds stripped off their tabards and lniii£ them on the rails of the hearse, exclaiming, in French, "The noble King Henry VII. is elead!' and then immeeliately put tliem on again, anel cried, 'Vivo le noble Roi Henri VIII.' " Henry VIII. was interred at Windsor.

Edward VI. lay unburied for a whole mouth, during the long negotiations- between Queen Mary and her Ministers as to the mode of the funeral rites. By a hard-won concession the funeral service, at Westminster Abbey, was that of the Reformed Church of England, the first ever used over an English Sovereign, and "the last and saddest function of his public ministry that Archbishop Granincr was destined to perform, was this interment of tho Prince whom he had baptised and crowned." Mary soon followed in 1.155, with "Calais on her heart." The black cloth in which the Abbey was draped was torn down by the people before the ceremony was well over. Her obsequies were, with one exception, tho last funeral solemnity of tho Roman Church r-elebratcd in thc Abbey; that exception was the dirge and requiem ordered by Elizabeth, a lew days later, for Charles V., Emperor of Pome.

The body of Queen Elizabeth was brought by tho Thames to Westminster. "The city of Westminster was surcharged with multitudes of all sorts of people, in their streets, houses, windows, leads, and gutters, that camo to see tho obsequy, and when they beheld her statue, or picture, lying upon the coffin, set forth in Royal robes, having a crown upon the head thereof, anel a ball and sceptre in either hand, there was such a general sighing, groaning, and weening, oj. the like has not been seen or known in the memory of man: neither doth any history mention' any people, time, or State, "to make like lamentation for the death of their Sovereign."

James 1., Charles 11., William 11lMary 11., and Anne, were buried at Westminster, James 11. at Paris, while the ill-fated Charles I. was buried at Windsor. Of his obsequies it is recorded; "The head and trunk were put into a coffin, covered with black velvet, and conveyed into the lodgings ot Whitehall, where the body was embowclled by tho Army's surgeon, and thence carried to St. James's and put into a lead coffin, with the plain epitaph 'King Charles, 1649.' About a fortnight later, some of the late King's friends obtained leave to bury it. Tbey removed it to Windsor Chapel,' and buried it in the vault- of King Henry the Eighth, without-the Form in Common Prayer Bcok, the Governor, Colonel Whiehcat. not permitting it, it being put down, and therefore "should not be used in that garrison where ho commandcel; for which," continues tho historian, "the Colonel showed no better judgment than the Archdeacon did in making so much ado about it." Coming to tho House of Hanover, it is recorded that George I. was buried with his ancestors at Hanover. George 11.. however, and bis Queen Caroline" were buried at Westminster, and, in accordance with the King's directions, as a last proof of his attachment to her. the two coffins wero placed in a Large black marble sarcophagus, inscribed with their joint names, and with their sceptres crossed, and one side of each of the wooden coverings withdrawn.

It was the close of George lll.'s reign that witnessed tho final separation *of tho Royal interments from Westminster Abbey. He, with Queen Charlotte, and his numerous progeny (with, a few exceptions), wen.- interred in the Wolscv Chapel, at Windsor, and there, also, Georgo JV. wos buried. William IV. was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

The funeral of the Prince Consort took place with the strictest privaov in St. George's Chapck Windsor, the body being subsequently interred in tho Mausoleum at Frogmorc.