Royal Burials are considered today huge and spectacular events, but over the centuries
the same can too be said.
The Funeral of Elizabeth I marking the end of the Tudor Period was huge and lavish with
mourners marking the processional way, but Henry VIII her father is still today left
in a vault which goes against his wishes.
Henry VIII wished for a huge tomb to be created for him to encase the body of himself and
his third wife Jane Seymour, but still 500 years following his death he remains in a
sealed vault under the floor of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, where only a simply
slab marks his burial site.
This is not what the King wanted, but there was one Queen who died in the 15th century
who’s story after her death is nothing short of shocking, disgusting and a disgrace.
Catherine of Valois is remembered today as the Queen who was left unburied for 400 years
inside the heart of the Church of England, Westminster Abbey.
But she experienced a large amount of disturbing desecration to her body in the centuries after
her death.
Catherine of Valois today is best remembered for being the Queen and wife of Henry V of
England.
Henry V is regarded as one of the finest King’s England had, as he won a spectacular battle
at Agincourt during the 100 Years War.
Catherine gave birth to Henry VI a King who became embroiled in the Wars of the Roses,
and ultimately lost out and was murdered within the walls of the Tower of London, despite
having a long reign.
Catherine’s marriage to Henry V was part of a plan to combine the throne of France
and England, and her son was later crowned King of both countries but this ultimately
was too much.
Whilst she was pregnant with her second child, her husband Henry V died after becoming sick.
Catherine was not even 21 when this happened and was left as a Dowager Queen.
But following the death of the French King, her son Henry VI became the ruler of England
and France.
Catherine was still seen as a catch due to her status and age despite being a widow,
and many wanted to marry her.
However she had a relationship with Owen Tudor, who was probably the Keeper of her wardrobe.
She married him, and they had at least 6 children.
But this gave the Tudor dynasty a link to the throne in the future centuries.
But on the 3rd February 1437 shortly after giving birth, Catherine of Avoid died.
It’s believed that she died from childbirth, and complications around this, but she had
been ill for some time and she had travelled previously to Bermondsey Abbey to seek prayer
and treatment.
She was just 35 when she died, and was given a huge Queen’s funeral despite the fact
she had remarried and this marriage caused some scandal.
Following her death she was embalmed, and her internal organs were removed to prevent
decay, and this cavity was stuffed with herbs and spices.
Her remains were wrapped in cerecloth, a heavy material soaked in wax, and then it was encased
in lead before it was placed inside of a wooden coffin.
The organs were removed and were kept sometimes in separate jars and boxes, and sometimes
they were buried in other locations to the rest of the body.
On top of her coffin was an effigy showing Catherine dressed in her clothes, and this
effigy was carved from wood.
It was painted to look as realistic as possible, and shows her as a very tall woman, with blue-grey
eyes.
Following her first funeral, she was then given a second funeral service on the 8th
February 1437 5 days after her death.
This was to lay her to rest in an alabaster tomb in Westminster Abbey near to her royal
husband Henry V.
It was believed at the time that this would be the end of Catherine of Valois story, and
that she would be left to rest for the centuries to come inside the remarkable Westminster
Abbey.
But this was certainly not the case, and what happened to her remains after her interment
was shocking and disgraceful.
The tomb it’s believed could have been temporary as Henry VI her son wanted to create a huge
memorial to her, but he died before this could take place and had been occupied with the
Wars of the Roses after being deposed by Edward IV.
Her grandson Henry VII then demolished the Old Lady Chapel where Catherine was laid to
rest, and he drew up great plans to build a new one.
But during the building works, Catherine’s tomb was destroyed, and her body was unearthed
as they were digging the new foundations of the chapel.
But Catherine’s wooden coffin which had been in the ground roughly 5 or 6 decades
had been decaying, and with this it had rotten a lot.
Her remains were taken out of the coffin and from the inner lead coffin and were placed
in wood chest lined with lead from the old roof of the chapel.
This then lay on the floor near to her husband’s tomb, and it was left her remarkably for 300
years unburied.
This was a clear statement from Henry VII as a way of distancing himself from his relatives
and possibly the scandal surrounding Catherine’s marriage to Owen Tudor.
But he did say that Catherine should be buried alongside himself as an ancestor.
He said, ‘In our monastery at Westminster rests... our noble progenitors and blood,
and specially the body of our great dame of right noble memory, Queen Catherine, wife
to King Henry the 5th….
Our body therefore to be buried within the same monastery, that is to say, in the chapel
where our said great dame lay buried...."
It seems he envisioned the Lady Chapel as a family tomb for all of the Tudors.”
But before the Lady Chapel was finished, Henry VII died and some of the instructions left
were not carried out by Henry VIII his successor.
Henry VIII did not bury his great grandmother Catherine of Valois, and the other Tudor monarchs
did not also.
The chest she was placed in had a lid which was in two parts, meaning that the lid would
be lifted to show her remains when people wanted to see her.
They would come to Westminster Abbey over the centuries, and pull back the cerecloth
showing her face and chest, all the way down to her body.
It was said that, ‘The Bones being firmly united and thinly clothes with flesh, like
scrapings of tanned leather.’
People described her as having bare skin with no clothes, and it was considered she was
buried naked with no clothes except the shroud.
Some tour guides inside the Abbey made money from this, charging visitors a shilling to
see her remains, and her body was a very popular tourist attraction.
Many believed that she was a scorned lady who was being punished being unburied, going
against the wishes of her husband the King to give birth to the heir at Windsor.
Henry V allegedly heard a prophecy that stated that a Prince born in Windsor would lose all
rights to the Kingdom, and Henry VI did this during the Wards to the Roses.
Because of this it was said Catherine’s body was left out as one witness stated, ‘Sensible
of her fault in disobeying her husband it was her own desire and pleasure that her body
should never be buried.
If so it is pity but that woman especially a Queen should her her will therein, whose
dust doth preach a sermon of duty and of mortality to all.’
But many people would flock to Westminster Abbey and would go further than just viewing
the remains of the 15th century Queen.
They would touch them and mistreat her body.
The London diarist Samuel Pepys, (PEEPS) wore once how he saw Catheirne’s body following
watching Shakespeare’s play of Henry VI.
He said, ‘On Shrove Tuesday 1669, I to the Abbey went, and by favour did see the body
of Queen Catherine of Valois, and had the upper part of the body in my hands, and I
did kiss her mouth reflecting upon it I did kiss a Queen, and this my birthday I thirty
six years old and I did kiss a Queen.’
So people would flock to the Abbey to kiss the corpse of the Queen, and this became a
tradition.
However further mistreatment of her remains took place, as during the 18th century it
was written had been torn to pieces by a group of young scholars who amused themselves.
When this writer witnessed the body he said it was a shapeless mass of whitish colour,
and had been desecrated.
Her remains were placed inside of a vault in 1788 and it was laid there for around 100
years.
However during the reign of Queen Victory, her vault was opened and people broke through
to see if Catherine’s body was really inside of the Villiers vault.
They found her remains on top of a pile of coffin, and the wooden coffin she was in had
yet again rotted.
It had stuck to another coffin, and they did manage to free it, but when it came into the
atmosphere again it fell to pieces.
But when her body was inspected, Catherine’s remains had a number of pieces missing.
It was said that they had been covered in lime, and several parts had been eaten away.
The entire front part of her skull had gone, and one part of the back was found lying on
her pelvis.
Many of her backbones were missing as were all of her ribs except one, and two of her
right arm bones had disappeared.
Her clavier had been taken and replaced with a bone from her pelvis.
So souvenir hunters had raided her body and had taken the remains of the former Queen,
and her legs were found in perfect condition.
These remained protected by 12 layers of cerecloth and were preserved well with the skin still
remaining.
The coffin was replaced and her remains were placed in it.
A witness who saw it being carried into Henry V’s chapel said, ‘“It was a striking
and impressive scene, which I shall ever remember, and which at the time it was impossible to
view without some feeling of emotion.
The daylight had quite faded, and we were alone in the darkened Abbey.
Two workmen took up the box containing the Queen's remains, and followed Mr. Poole and
the clerk of the works; the latter, carrying in his hand one small lantern to light us,
led the way out of St. Nicholas' chapel to the north side of the chantry chapel.
Mr. George Scharf and myself followed, no one else was present, and we seemed unconsciously
and silently to fall into a sort of processional order.
I remarked to him 'We are attending the Queen's third funeral.'
Not a word was said as we passed slowly round the ambulatory in the darkness.”
Her remains inside of the thick English Oak coffin were marked by an inscription showing
the bizarre journey her remains had been on.
They built a new tomb near to the altar, and in Henry V’s chapel, her remains were laid
to rest 400 years finally after the death of Catherine of Valois.
The inscription marked, “It is the latest royal tomb in the Abbey, and, though long
delayed, it has been thought that the singular and romantic history of a French Princess
and an English Queen should at length be brought to an honourable end.
Requiescat in pace.”
Catherine of Valois was the Queen who married Henry V in an attempt to unite the French
and English thrones.
She produced an heir in Henry VI who despite ruling a while was deposed during the Wars
of the Roses, and was murdered whilst he prayed inside the Tower of London.
Her remains throughout the years after her death were treated in a very disrespectful
manner, with some people even kissing the lips of the Queen who had died centuries before.
This is shocking, as many of her remains had also been stolen by relic hunters who wanted
to possess the bones of the Queen.
The story of Catherine of Valois’ remains after her death is a disgusting and morbid
one, and she was not given the respect she truly deserved.
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