this video was made possible by
curiositystream watch all of my videos
early and ad free along with my upcoming
original series exclusively on nebula
which you can get access to
for 15 a year through the bundle deal at
curiositystream.com
real life lore there is perhaps no
single historical figure
more controversial in british history
than oliver cromwell
nor has anyone's disembodied head gone
on a stranger journey in the mid
17th century england became embroiled in
a civil war between supporters of the
parliament and supporters of the king
cromwell was a prominent general who
supported the parliament and upon their
victory in 1649
he personally signed the death warrant
that led to the beheading of
king charles the first oversaw the
abolition of the english monarchy the
transition of england into a republic
the military conquest of ireland and in
1653
was appointed lord protector of all of
britain
effectively becoming a new absolute
monarch in his
own right he would rule all of the
british isles in this way for five years
until his own death from natural causes
in 1658
which rather promptly led to the
complete destruction of his entire
regime
initially cromwell's body and funeral
were treated with all the respect and
grandeur of every english monarch who
came before him
his body was embalmed light in state and
buried prominently in westminster abbey
after an elaborate funeral procession
through london
but none of this lasted for long because
unfortunately for cromwell's body
and legacy things were about to get real
weird the king he had executed nine
years previously had a son
who was living in exile who then
promptly returned to england
shortly after cromwell's death to take
the country right back over
he was successful and restored the
english monarchy as
charles ii after over 11 years of
absence
and perhaps a bit understandably upset
by the execution of his father
and his forced decade in exile he was in
the mood for some vengeance
12 still surviving men who had
participated in the trial and execution
of his father were rounded up and found
guilty of regicide
for which the punishment was hanging
drawing and
quartering a horrifically brutal
execution technique that went like this
for each of them they would be stripped
naked tied to a wooden panel
and dragged through the streets of
london by horse to the place of
execution
they would then be hanged by the neck
right up until the point they were
almost dead
and then cut back down they would then
get pinned to a table
have their bowels pulled out of their
abdomen and to add insult to injury they
would be emasculated
literally their manhoods would be
chopped off and all of this
was of course while they're still alive
finally
eventually they would be killed by
beheading by sword and then
for extra measure their body was torn
apart into four pieces by horses before
getting dumped into a ditch somewhere
and forgotten yeesh as horrific and
brutal as these executions were
charles ii couldn't get his hands on the
main people responsible for his father's
death like cromwell
because obviously they were already dead
except just kidding that didn't actually
stop him
he had cromwell's body ripped out of its
resting place in westminster
and had his corpse posthumously executed
for high treason by
hanging in the public square of london
afterwards the already dead corpse was
taken down
the head was lopped off by an
executioner and the fascinatingly
bizarre
300-year adventure of cromwell's
disembodied head
would begin to start king charles ii had
the head impaled on a spike and placed
high above westminster hall in london
as a warning to what happens to
regicides this was in 1661
and it remained up there for 20
continuous years until in 1681
it was briefly removed by construction
workers for routine roof maintenance
but right after they were finished they
placed it back on the spike
charles ii himself died in 1685 and his
son
james ii ascended to the throne next who
continued to keep the head
high up above westminster however
sometime early in his reign between 1685
and 1688 it's believed that a great
storm hit london
that blew cromwell's head off that spike
and into the streets of london
for the next several decades only
circumstantial evidence has been put
forward for where the head
was but according to legend it was
discovered in the street by a guardsman
who picked it up took it home with him
and hid it in his chimney the loss of
promo's head in the late 1680s
was still significant in london you see
james ii was the grandson of the king
cromwell had had executed and so
a large reward was offered for the safe
return of the head
many people began searching across
england for it and the guardsmen who
took it for himself
was allegedly too afraid to turn it in
because
it would have meant confessing to
stealing it in the first place
eventually a few decades later in 1710
after the heat had cooled off a bit
the heads somehow fell into the
possession of a swiss guy named claudius
dupoy
a collector of curiosities who had
opened a museum in london
evidently dupois museum was among the
top tourist attractions in the city at
the time
and the head remained a prominent
display inside there for gawking
tourists to look at
until dupois died in 1738
after the museum closed following his
death it's not entirely
clear what happened to cromwell's head
for a few years
until it showed up again in the mid
1700s
in the possession of a man named samuel
russell a failed comedian
and well-known public drunkard allegedly
russell
was a distant relative of cromwell's and
it's theorized that he may have
purchased the head from the museum
after dupoy's death but regardless of
how it came into his possession
russell was certainly the least
respectful owner of it
tearing several drunken parties and
gatherings russell would bring out the
disembodied head of a man who once
ruled the british isles with absolute
authority and passed
it around to everybody like it was an
inflatable beach ball at a concert
unsurprisingly tossing the head around
at parties like that caused irreparable
damage to the head's facial features
over time and it was getting less and
less recognizable eventually broke and
desperate for money
russell attempted to sell the head to
sydney sussex college
who for some reason wasn't interested in
buying a deformed head that once
belonged to the lord protector of
england
fortunately for him a very prominent
goldsmith and toymaker at the time
named james cox was interested for some
reason
and he paid the equivalent of 5 600
pounds in today's money
to purchase the head from russell a
century after oliver cromwell had died
and his head was being tossed around at
parties and sold for the price of a used
early 2000s toyota corolla
but apparently buying a head for 5 600
pounds turned into a worthwhile
investment for james cox
because he sold it a few years later in
1799 for 7 400 pounds in today's money
to a group of three brothers who wanted
to use the head in their new london
exhibition of curiosities
thousands of posters for the exhibition
displaying an image of the head were
printed but it ended up becoming a
financial
failure for the brothers anyway one of
those brothers daughters came into
possession of the head
next who continued showing it to all
kinds of people privately and attempted
to sell it to multiple museums and
colleges
all of whom for some reason refused
eventually
in 1815 the daughter sold it privately
for an undisclosed amount to a guy named
josiah henry
wilkinson who wanted it for some reason
and who began the tradition of keeping
the
cromwell head as a family heirloom for
the next
one and a half centuries over these
years the wilkinson family
passed the head down from one generation
to the next and subjected it to multiple
scientific studies and examinations to
determine if it really
was the original head of oliver cromwell
in the 1930s a 109 page
scientific report was written about the
head's authenticity that determined that
it was
in fact the actual original head of the
former lord protector
eventually in 1957 horus wilkinson died
and by tradition bequeathed the head to
his son
and heir also named horus wilkinson this
horace wilkinson
finally decided to do what nobody else
had done with the head in the past 300
years
he buried it and put it to rest and so
on the 25th of march 1960 in a secret
location at sydney sussex college
the head was finally placed into a box
and buried
after a journey that spanned 299 years
since 1661
when cromwell's head was first locked
off of his already dead body
that saw an eccentric cast of owners
tossing the head from one person to the
next
the three century long journey of oliver
cromwell's disembodied head
had finally come to a close unless
of course someone decides to dig it back
up
again now if you've made it this far
into watching you probably love
all things real life lore and i'm
certain you've probably already heard
all about curiosity stream the
documentary streaming
service with thousands of videos on
history nature
science and tons of other things like
the real war of thrones
an excellent two season 10 episode
documentary series that dives deep into
the
intrigue betrayals politics and wars
between the noble families of early
modern europe
it's an incredible series that will give
you much more historical context than i
can provide you in such a short video on
youtube but thanks to curiositystream
when you sign up for them
you'll also get access to nebula a
streaming service made by educational
creators like me
where we can safely publish our original
thoughtful content without any fears of
getting demonetized or intentionally
buried by an algorithm that doesn't
support us like on youtube
by signing up for curiosity stream and
nebula you are directly empowering real
life lore
and dozens of other educational creators
you probably know
to make awesome exclusive content that
we wouldn't get the chance to make
otherwise content like all of my own
real-life lore videos that go up at
least
24 hours early before they do on youtube
and all without
any ads or sponsorships and exclusive
content like my upcoming series ghost
towns
a show where i take you directly to some
of the world's most spooky and
haunted abandoned places or money a game
show hosted by tom scott and featuring a
bunch of my creator friends
in a series of psychological experiments
that test their willingness to work
together
best of all though curiosity stream is
offering nebula subscribers 26
off just for you in other words that's
two
fantastic streaming services for less
than 15
dollars a year so go ahead and sign up
using the link in the description or by
going to curiositystream.com
real life lore watch cool content and
support creators by watching stuff we've
made
just for you everyone wins and as always
thank you for watching