CROMWELL’S HEAD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 87, 1 June 1911, Page 4

CROMWELL’S HEAD.

While the discussion is still fresh regarding the disposal of the body 01 Oliver Cromwell, the Great Protector it is interesting to note that, according to Ludlow’s account, Cromwell expressed on his death-bed some fears that Ins memory would be insulted and Ids remains trampled pon. Regarding the funeral, the mess of the day states that Cromwell received regal honours, winch ho had never claimed in Ins lifetime. .1 ho ‘‘Public Intelligencer” of November ;■>9 to 29, 1658, tells ns that on November 29, the day of the Protector’s funeral, as was then customary at the funeral of English kings, “the effigies of his Highness, standing under a rich cloth of state, having been beheld I>v those persons of honour and quality which came to attend it, was placed on a hearse . . . the effigies itself being vested with royal robes, a sceptre in one hand and globe, in the other, and a crown on t'he head.” Then follows an account of the ceremony in Westminster Abbey. But the same paper for June 14, 1660, records that ‘‘out of one of the windows of Whitehall . . the effigies which were made and show’ll with so much pomp at Somerset House, of Oliver Cromwell . . . . with a cord round his neck, was tied Unto one of the bars of the windows.” The hehoadal of Cromwell’s body came Inter. On January 26, 1661, the “Mercurius Puhlicns” reports that “in pursuance of an order ol Parliament the carcases of those two horrid regi- < ides Oliver Cromwell and Henry heron were digged out of their graves, which arc to ho hanged up at Tyburn and buried under (lie gallows.” On the 30th of January, the anniversary of King Charles’s liohoadal, according to the same journal, the bodies of Cromwell, I reton, and Bradshaw “were drawn upon sledges to Tyburn. All the way . . . the universal oiitcrv and curses of the people went with them.” At Tyburn they were hung on the gallows, and after sunset t!i<'v wore taken down and their heads were cut off, “and their loathsome trunks thrown into a deep hole under the gallows.” The three heads w.ere then set on uoles on the top of Westminster Hall.