The Adventures of Darnley’s Skull

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6815, 19 January 1929, Page 13

The Adventures of Darnley’s Skull

The adventures of a skull, claimed by Sir Arthur Keith, the famous anthropologist, to be that of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots, were described by Sir Arthur in a lecture ,at the Royal College of Surgeons, says the “Daily Mail. On the table before him were half a dozen skulls of famous people, and more skulls were ranged on the shelves on either side of him. For more than an hour he talked about the Darnley skull, stroking it almost affectionately with his long fingers. , , Lord Darnley, he said, was killed when his lodging at Kirk o’ Field was blown up in 1567. His body was embalmed and taken to Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and interred in the James V. sepulchre. In 1768 the roof of the chapel fell in, exposing the vault, and five years later the Darnley skull and thigh bone were missing. He suggested that the skull was included in the collection of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, and passed into the collection of the Hon. Archibald Lovat, from which it was sold in 1865. It was purchased by a Bloomsbury dealer, and finally found its way into the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. “I have made inquiries in Scotland recently and I think the evidence is strong that this is Darnley’s Skull,” he concluded.