Hi my name is Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad. Now
today's video they're digging up of a Tudor queen is actually all about the exhumation
of Anne Boleyn the second wife of Henry VIII. Queen Anne Boleyn, who had been executed on the
orders of Henry VIII, now there's a surprise, on the what I think are trumped up charges of
adultery, uh incest with her brother George and conspiracy against the king and, and if you,
if you've seen my previous uh video about the execution of Queen Anne Boleyn you may remember
that they'd forgotten to bring a coffin up onto the scaffold. So they cut her head off and, oh
my goodness me, there's no coffin, so they quickly ran to the armory, got an empty arrow chest. She
was placed in it, the lid put down and she was buried uh in the chancel of St Peter's ad Vincula
which is the parish church basically of the Tower of London. So anyway the reason for the exhumation
of the corpse of Anne Boleyn was to do with the restoration of St Peter's
1876-77 what had happened, it had fallen into such disrepair and a bad state people had been
putting more and more uh should we say dead people in they'd even been digging up bones
pushing them to one side so they could get more in and it'd become such a state that it was
unsanitary. There literally was bodies everywhere in coffins and bones and so on and so forth. Now
there is a quote about the condition of the um the chapel at the time and I’m going to read you that.
So this is the quote it's from Lord Macaulay in his 'History of England' and it's what
he said about St Peter's ad Vincula. "I cannot refrain from expressing my disgust
at the barbarous stupidity which has transformed this interesting little church into the likeness
of a meeting house in a manufacturing town." In other words it's become just a place where
people will talk gossip meet. "In truth there is no sadder spot on earth than this little cemetery.
Death there is associated not as in Westminster or Saint Paul’s with genius and virtue,
but with whatever is darkest in human nature and in human destiny, with all the miseries of fallen
greatness and of blighted fame." You see buried in there are 34 people, of note, who either died as
prisoners in the tower or were executed that's on top of all the other people that have been
crammed into the chapel. So there were lots and lots of coffins, bones and it was in a very bad
sanitary state. So there's actually more to the quote and I’ve just dug a little bit more out.
"Thither have been carried through successive ages by the rude hands of jailers" and he talks
about how the people the 34 notaries were leaders of parties, were captains of armies,
the ornaments of court and how they just been really quite badly treated and also
you must understand the most important people are buried uh right up by the altar as you go in
but the church spreads out there and they call that part the chapel
and there were partitions that have been put up so I understand in the 17th century
and these were stacked with coffins there were bones all these kind of things and Queen
Victoria when she heard about this was kind of horrified because, unsanitary conditions for sure.
But she stipulated we're going to try and you know restore the chapel to its original condition.
Any bodies that are found in complete coffins mark them get them straight down into the crypt.
If they're already in a vault down there fine, but those that are buried in their coffins are rotting
or there are just bones place them in coffins containers mark them accordingly if you can
identify them, then do, then get them all down into the crypt so that's the, the whole business
and it was the um captain of the town was Sir Charles uh York who put forward the plan and the
original plan was very simple. They're just going to get rid of all of the pews that are in there
replace them make it more of a proper place of worship for the garrison and the people who
live in the Tower of London and just replace the pavement in the chapel because it was all
over the place but unfortunately when they emptied all of the pews out they could see
that they needed to dig up all of the paving and this is difficult because it takes you
right up to where Queen Anne Boleyn was buried in the chancel
so the great thing about this whole subject is it was all recorded by a person called Doyne C Bell,
who was the secretary of her majesty's privy purse. Now he'd found, through history, a plan
of who was buried in the chancel which is right in front of the altar there in St Peter's immediately
on your left as you look was Lord Rochford, George who was actually uh Queen Anne Boleyn's
brother. Queen Anne Boleyn's next, then you have the Dukes of Somerset, Northumberland
then you have poor Queen Catherine Howard and then lady Rochford, who was Jane Boleyn the wife
of George the sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn. This is so complicated, then on the right hand side
you have the Countess of Salisbury, Margaret de la Pole. I’ve already done a film about her terrible,
terrible execution. So when they lifted up the paving slabs there wasn't um the
remains of George, they think he may have been further to the north or the body may have been
disturbed but exactly where it was said that uh Queen Anne Boleyn would be buried, there
they found a pile of bones, but they had been disturbed. But they were taken out and examined.
So Queen Anne Boleyn's bones were discovered two feet below the surface. They were exhumed,
they were examined by Dr Mouat. He gave a detailed description of the bones, saying they belonged
to a woman 25 to 30 years of age, delicate slender fingers and feet a very small neck,
which she actually referred to her little neck. But there's been some controversy
about was it Anne Boleyn. Now that's down for you to decide, but this is my point of view
and that's all it is. She was found exactly where the old historical plan tells you she was found,
also she does resemble Holbein's painting of her. You know there was this thing, oh she didn't have
a square chin and that's for other people to to discuss. Now what happened to the remains is
brilliant, because all of them are accounted for and I’ve actually got it written down here
from the original um account of what happened to the bodies and I’m going to read it for you.
This is November 1876, the, "they were soldered up in thick lead and coffers and then fastened down
with copper screws and in boxes made of oak an inch thick each were then
placed in their original locations and then they were buried four inches beneath the surface
and then there was concrete poured over them". So there's no way we're ever going to get access in
which amuses me because people are saying they should be dug up and DNA tests should be done
hey can we not let the dead rest um "and then the earth was filled in and uh all the positions
old positions of the dead were recovered tiles were done when they relayed the floor" and if
you go in to some pieces to this very day you can go up and you can just about see.
But there are plenty of plans around the uh church that tell you who's buried there.
So the Tower of London wow what a fantastic place to visit I love it I really do,
but it's also such a sad place and if you look just to the north of the tower itself you have
Tower Hill over 400 people apparently were executed there. But when you come inside the
tower just in front of St Peter's there is Tower Green, where notables were executed.
There is a lovely memorial now it's a a glass cushion and around it is this poem and I’m going
to read that to you because it's a great way to finish this little video and this is what it says
"Gentle visitor pause a while, where you stand death cut away death cut away
the light of many days. Here jewelled names were broken from the vivid thread of life.
May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage
under these restless skies". Well I hope you found that video interesting if you did
like share and subscribe and remember to turn on notifications so you can find out what's coming
next. Now I’ve got some of my Patreon members that I’m going to mention we have PG Guillotine,
Peter Kost and Craig S, I really appreciate what you guys are doing it's helping me with
future films and I look forward to seeing you all in the future, but for now, bye.