In his final years, Henry VIII was a grotesque and overweight man who was still incredibly
unpredictable.
He was known for having a raging temper and he could turn on even his closest and best
friends, leading to him executing his best advisors such as Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas
More.
To get on the King’s bad side was considered fatal, and many would make their way to execution
scaffolds across England.
Henry in his final days had to be moved around using pulleys and hoists, and he suffered
with gout and painful boils on his legs, but his obesity quickened his downfall and subsequent
death.
At the age of 55 inside the Palace of Whitehall, on the 28th January 1547 he died.
The man who began life as a virtuous prince who was incredibly handsome had long departed,
and the second part of his reign had been bloodstained by the executions of his wives
and close friends.
He had ordered his last execution 9 days before his death, that being the Earl of Surrey,
Henry Howard.
He must have feared for his soul in his final moments.
But the exact cause of his death is not the most well known.
However after hid demise there was a huge funeral that took place for the somehow beloved
Tudor Monarch, but his burial was one which was slightly puzzling.
Join us today as we look at the bizarre burial of Henry VIII and remember to support our
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Despite the chaos of Henry’s reign, his final moments were a complete contrast as
it was said, ‘“At the end there was no master and servant, no prince and churchman;
just a priest preparing a departing soul for eternity.
Cranmer begged Henry to give a sign that he trusted Christ for salvation and, in response,
he felt the grip on his hand tighten slightly.
It was an evangelical departure: no anointing; no reading of Latin prayers; just a simple
acknowledgment of the all-sufficient atoning work of Christ.
Cranmer would have been glad of that.”
In the morning of the 31st January, 3 days later it was announced to Parliament that
Henry VIII was dead, and on the same day Edward VI was taken to the Tower of London and was
proclaimed King.
In the few days after, his remains were embalmed and was then encased in lead and was surrounded
by burning tapers and it lay in state in the presence chamber at Whitehall, before it was
taken into the chapel.
Church bells in all of England’s parishes rang out for the memory of the late King,
and On the 14th February 1547, two weeks after his death, the remains of Henry VIII made
their way to their final resting place of Windsor Castle.
It was said, ‘“The vast coffin, covered with palls of blue velvet and cloth of gold,
lay on a chariot drawn by black-caparisoned horses, who drew it along roads that had been
swept and even widened for the occasion.
On top of the coffin was a wax effigy of the King, carved by Nicholas Bellin and clad in
crimson velvet trimmed with miniver; on its head was a crown atop ‘a night cap of black
satin, set full of precious stones.’
It wore jeweled bracelets and velvet gloves adorned with rings.”
The procession was magnificent, and it rested overnight at Syon Abbey before it reached
its next destination.
It was said that it was here where possibly the King’s remains inside the coffin exploded,
and there were reports that the remains were then licked at by dogs, but this is of course
a rather gruesome story.
When the coffin and the procession arrived at Windsor, it took 16 members of the Yeoman
of the Guard to carry it into the black draped chapel.
Henry was laid to rest next to his third wife and Queen Jane Seymour, the mother of Edward
VI and he was buried long away from where his father was buried inside the Lady chapel
of Westminster Abbey.
It’s believed that Henry may have intended the Lady Chapel to become a place where all
of the Tudor monarchs would be buried in peace, but Henry VIII is the exception to this.
Whilst the coffin was in the quire of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, the sermon was preached
by Stephen Gardiner from Catherine of Aragon’s window and viewing platform above, and after
the mass, the trumpets sounded and Henry VIII’s chief officers of his household broke their
staves of office, and the they threw them into the vault, which signified the end of
the service.
Henry VIII left money for daily mass to be said for his soul until the world ended, but
the Protestant officials during Edward VI’s reign stopped this after a year.
He was lowered into the vault under the quire of St George’s Chapel alongside Jane Seymour,
and then this burial place was left without a tomb of without a monument for centuries.
In fact it wasn’t until the 19th century that a black marble floor slab was added that
reads, ‘in a vault beneath this marble slab, are deposited the remains of Jane Seymour
Queen of Henry VIII 1537, King Henry VIII 1547.’
Later Charles I would be interred in the same vault along with one of Queen Anne’s children,
however despite the huge and lavish funeral Henry VIII’s vault and burial was one which
was rather unremarkable.
But he did not intend for it to be this way.
In 1518 he had drawn up plans for a huge tomb and monument for himself and his first wife
Catherine of Aragon .The plans were made by Italian sculptor Pietro Torrigiano, who designed
the tomb of his father and mother.
Torrigiano planned for Henry VIII’s sarcophagus to be made from white marble and black touchstone,
and to be 25% bigger than his father.
Further designs took place, but then it was discovered that Henry VIII’s final design
for the tomb was very different, and this was found during the 17th century.
Work had began on the tomb, and the plans included huge white marble pillars, gilded
bronze angels and life size images of Henry and his Queen.
It was going to include a huge and grand statue of Henry VIII on a horseback under a huge
arch, and 144 brass gilt figures were to be on the tomb, and these would have included
St George, St John the Baptist and the Apostles.
He had stolen parts of the plans for this tomb from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s
former chief minister who had drawn up the idea, and Henry adopted the tomb ideas following
Wolsey’s downfall and death.
It would have been a huge tomb, and would also have had 16 effigies of angels at the
base holding candlesticks.
If this tomb would have been finished, it would possibly have been one of the largest,
and if not grandest in the whole of England, and it would have been in keeping with Henry’s
larger than life character and reputation.
The effigy of Henry VIII was cast and was polished whilst he was still alive, and other
parts of it were inside of workshops made in Westminster.
Work continued during Henry’s final years, but wars in France and Scotland were causing
financial problems for the monarchy, and the work was forced to grind to a halt.
Some of the work continued during Edward VI’s reign, but the royal coffers were short of
cash, but Edward VI did dictate during his will that he wanted the tomb to be finished.
However Mary I, the eldest child of Henry VIII had little interest in this and did nothing
with the tomb.
Elizabeth I showed some willing, and she ordered her minister William Cecil to commission a
survey on what was needed to be done to finish the tomb.
But after 1572, the work on it came to an end and a standstill, and the commonwealth
needed money in the 17th century, and sold the effigy of Henry VIII to be melted down
for money.
Four of the candlesticks were also sent to Ghent in Belgium, and this was the end of
the brutal and huge tomb that Henry VIII dreamed off.
It was not the burial he wanted, and in fact his tomb was lost to time it’s believed.
But following the execution of King Charles I, the beheaded King’s remains were hastily
taken to Windsor and were buried in secret inside the same vault as Henry VIII and Jane
Seymour.
This was done as it was considered quieter and less likely to become a place of pilgrimage
for royalists and those who saw the King as a martyr.
The Parlimentarians believed that Windsor would be the best place to inter him, and
his coffin containing his executed remains was quietly placed in the same vault.
Also during the reign of Queen Anne, a tiny coffin containing one of her many tragic children
was interred in a tiny coffin inside of the vault.
But the sarcophagus which had been planned for Wolsey and Henry VIII was used as the
base of Lord Nelsons’ tomb inside St Paul’s Cathedral.
The vault and burial place of Henry VIII was forgotten about until excavation work occurred
in St George’s Chapel in 1813, as a new passage to a new royal vault was being made.
The old vault was opened, and watching on was Regent George Prince of Wales, and the
future King George IV.
A number of relics of King Charles I were removed and were then placed back in 1888,
but inside the vault it was said that Henry VIII’s coffin had been badly damaged.
It could have been broken in a number of ways, as the trestle it had been placed onto of
could have collapsed, and it’s possible that when Charles I was placed in the vault
that Henry’s coffin was damaged then.
Also the pressure built up from within could have caused it to collapse, or on the way
to Windsor it may have fallen and split open.
It was then that a marble slab was placed marking the site of the infamous Tudor King’s
burial and remains.
But Henry VIII as a King was known for notoriety and brutality, and he caused a huge amount
of change and turbulence inside of the country.
But the infamous 6 wived King was loved inside of England, and when he died there was a huge
amount of compassion and love for the former Tudor King.
His burial place today is rather unremarkable when compared to what he planned for after
his death, and what he truly wanted.
But it was also said that his burial place was lost, but if his tomb had of been created
it would have been colossal and huge, and somewhere that visitors today would flock
to.
Instead inside of St George’s Chapel in Windsor, a simple floor slab marks where his
remains lay today.
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