if there's one thing that even non-brits
know
it's that the royal family is a stickler
for tradition
among the more obscure rules that
members of the family must follow
according to good housekeeping
include no shellfish no public displays
of partiality
and no monopoly it should come as no
surprise then
that when it comes to matters of death
and burial the reach of royal tradition
extends even to the great beyond
unsurprisingly
funerals for the british monarchy are
planned well in advance of a family
member's death
due to the overwhelming number of
details that must be tended to
the plans in place for years envisioned
by prince philip himself
among these details is a curious one
about the caskets in which royals are
buried
no a member of the royal family doesn't
get the standard steel casket that
you'll find on display in any funeral
home
per the daily mail members of the royal
family have typically been
interred in lead-lined caskets and there
are a few very interesting reasons for
that
metro uk takes us back to a memory many
of us may have forgotten about princess
diana's funeral
reporting that her coffin weighed nearly
a quarter of a metric ton
or about 500 pounds the welsh guard
serving as pallbearers could be seen
visibly struggling under the coffin's
weight the reason
you guessed it it too was lined with
lead
why all the extra structural support
much can simply be chalked up to that
most
prized royal attribute tradition it's
simply how things have been done
and the monarchy is famously change
averse in addition to the pull of
tradition
though there are a few practical reasons
for the lead-lined coffins
a sealed casket is aired tight meaning
moisture can't get in
quite so easily because the environment
is drier
the remains take much longer to decay a
very real concern
for some royal burials since the
deceased member of royalty might be
moved later on
as was the case for princess alex prince
philip's mother
basically the royals don't want their
beloved family members decomposing
bodies to smell up the vaults they are
interred in
the tradition of using personal sized
boxes for internment began centuries ago
and usually those with more wealth could
afford better
after death digs ancient egypt and
mesopotamia for example
had coffin-like structures that were
constructed of wood
cloth or paper over the centuries burial
practices began to change
the celtic tribes for example are known
for laying out their dead in caskets
made from flat stones circa 700 a d
the materials used for burying the dead
tended to vary depending on the culture
and time period as the years went by and
while people without financial means
didn't get much more than a shroud at
their burial
others with more money had better
options including hollowed-out trees and
stone
during the middle ages europeans began
using lead coffins
and eventually iron coffins became all
the rage in
england and scotland in the united
states before the civil war
caskets were made as they were needed by
the local furniture craftsman
who often doubled as the town's
undertaker but that war
raised a need for ready-to-go coffins
due to the
innumerable soldiers who died on the
battlefield while the lead-lined coffins
do
protect the environment the more
important aspect of using these types of
coffins is the preservation of the body
lead-lined coffins seal out any kind of
moisture and air
ingredients needed for decomposition to
begin another benefit
of the lead-lined coffin also comes from
the vacuum-like seal the lining creates
just as nothing can get in nothing can
get out either
meaning the smells released during
decomposition which according to
biohazard cleanup company aftermath
are not great some people compare the
putrid
stench of a decomposing body to that of
rotting fruit
not the smell the royal family wants
emanating from their royal vaults
on a more practical note metro uk notes
2
that it is uk law that any internment
above ground
as is the case with many members of the
monarchy must be within a sealed casket
hence that lead lining check out one of
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