Exhuming a Monarch.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2063, 26 September 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Exhuming a Monarch.

One of the most interesting accounts of the prr fcervation of ft body, the identity of which wa<3 undoubted, is thtvt of tho dif-intcrraent of King Edward 1., of England. Tho readers of Eoglirih hidtory will recollect that thin monarch gave, as a dying ahtrge to his Ron, that his heart should be sent to tho Holy Land, bat that his body should be carried in the van of tho army, till Scotland was reduced to obedience. He died in the month of July, 1307, &nd, notwithstanding his injunction?, ■"" hnrM in Westminster Abbey in Ootober of the same year. is, id fe..ordtd that he was embalmed, and orders for renewing the csreoloth about the body were issued in the reigns of Edward 111. mid Henry IV. The tomb of this monarch was opened and hia body examined in January, 1774, under the direction of Sir Joseph Ayloffo, alter it had been buried four hundred and sixty-seven years. Tho following account we extract from an old volume of the Gentleman's Magazine : — " Some gentlemen of the Society of Antiquaries, being desirous to see how far the j actual state of Edward I's body answered to the methods taken to preservo it, obtained leave to open the large stone sarcophagus, in which it is known to have been depositod, on the north Bide of Edward the Confessor's chapel. This was accordingly done on the morning of January 2, 1774, when in a coffin of yellow stone they found the royal body in perfect preservation, enclosed In two wrappers. Ono of them was of gold tissue, strongly waxed, and fresh ; the other and outermost considerably deoayed. The eorpea was habited in a rich mantle of purple, pnned v/ith white, and adorned with ornamonts of gilt metal studded with red and blue stones and pearls, Two similar ornaments lay on the hands. The mantle was tautened on the right shoulder by a magnificent fibula of the same metal, with the same stones and pearls. His face had over it a silken covering, bo fine, and so closely fitted to it, as to prnwve the features entire. Bound his temples was a gilt ooronet of fleure de lys. In his hands, whiob were also entire, were two scaptres of gilt metnl ; that in the right surmounted by a cross fleurd, that in the left by three clusters of oak loaves, and a dove on a globe. This eceptre was about five feet long. The feet were enveloped in the mantla and other coverings, but sound, and the toes distinct."