Catherine of Valois is known as the Queen who was left unburied for centuries, until
she was finally re-interred in Westminster Abbey.
Her remains were tampered with and even kissed by morbid tourists who even stole parts of
her remains, but there was a King who was also left to rot for centuries and was left
unburied for a significant amount of time.
James IV was the King of Scotland, and he was a King who reigned over the country for
25 years, and he saw the Scottish crown being very profitable.
He increased royal revenue, and also commissioned the building of Holyrood Palace which today
still is in the hands of the British monarchy.
But he was a King who had tense relations with England, and he is also known as the
last British King who died on the battlefield when his Scottish warriors faced Henry VIII’s
English troops at the Battle fo Flodden.
But after his death, his remains went on a shocking and remarkable journey, and his body
was not treated in a way which you could think a King’s remains should be.
But what is the story behind the unburied King left to rot for centuries?
James IV was born in March 1473 at Stirling Castle.
He was crowned King on the 24th June 1488 at Scone (pronounced Scoon) abbey.
One of the first duties James did was to attend the burial of his father, and he was seen
as a wise and good ruler early on.
He left much of his government to be run by the 1st Earl of Bothwell, and also the 5th
Earl of Angus.
He was seen as a good military leader as he did also put down rebellions.
He had good relations with a number of European rulers, but in September 1496 he invaded England
alongside the great pretender Perkin Warbeck who wanted to dethrone Henry VII.
He invaded England a number of times, and his use of warfare extended diplomacy between
England and Scotland as the English King realised how volatile of a region the Anglo-Scottish
border was.
There was a 7 year truce agreed between the Scots and English, and they tried to keep
the area lawful, with thieves being punished and executed.
Further treaty’s were sign to try and negotiate peace, but then James IV married Margaret
Tudor, the eldest daughter of Henry VII in an attempt to almost secure further peace.
The couple would have 6 children, but only one of them reached adulthood, and the marriage
resulted in the Union of the Crowns.
James was described as, ‘The King is 25 years and some months old.
He is of noble stature, neither tall nor short, and as handsome in complexion and shape as
a man can be.
His address is very agreeable.
He speaks the following foreign languages: Latin, very well; French, German, Flemish,
Italian, and Spanish; Spanish as well as the Marquis, but he pronounces it more distinctly.
He likes, very much, to receive Spanish letters.
His own Scots language is as different from English as Aragonese from Castilian.
The King speaks, besides, the language of the savages who live in some parts of Scotland
and on the islands.
It is as different from Scots as Biscayan is from Castilian.
His knowledge of languages is wonderful.
He is well read in the Bible and in some other devout books.
He is a good historian.
He has read many Latin and French histories, and profited by them, as he has a very good
memory.
He never cuts his hair or his beard.
It becomes him very well.’
He took an interest in education and intellect, and helped to establish Scotland’s first
printing press.
In 1507 he was granted the title the Protector and Defender of the Christian Faith by the
Pope, and he received the Blessed Sword and Hat in Holyrood Abbey.
He planned to go on pilgrimage, but when Henry VIII came onto the throne the relations between
Scotland and England broke down.
Henry VIII had no interest in appeasing James, and he saw the Scots as second class to the
English.
But ultimately relations broke down heavily, and the English Army invaded Scotland.
James IV declared war on the English, and then the Battle of Flodden erupted following
a number of border raids.
James led around 42,000 men and crossed the River Tweed into England.
They were well equipped, and James began the battle by firing his artillery.
But things quickly went wrong for the Scottish King.
His men encountered waterlogged ground and struggled, and they lost momentum but James
rode into battle himself.
He placed himself at the front line and put himself in danger, but he was taking risks
and it was not in his character to hold back.
As the fighting continued, James IV was killed in the final stages of the battle, and Flodden
was a devastating Scottish loss.
The Scots had lost their King and leader.
James was found after the battle lying close to the royal Scottish banner of the red lion
rampant.
One account claimed that he reached France but was still alive but only just.
He had his left hand severed, and his throat was cut and an arrow was through his lower
jaw.
The Earl of Surrey who then became the Duke of Norfolk who’s men defeated James’ army
later changed his family arms to show a red lion rampant with an arrow through it’s
head to represent James’ slaying.
His body was surrounded by the corpses of his bodyguard of archers, and he was indentified.
The arrow through his jaw would have stopped him from attacking the enemy well, and this
allowed the English soldiers in to slash him with their bills.
His body was then taken from the battlefield back to Berwick Upon Tweed, and here it was
embalmed and then sealed in a lead lined coffin.
It was transported then to Sheen Priory in Surrey, and the Carthusian monastery there.
IT was not allowed to be immediately be buried there, as James died after being excommunicated
by the Pope, as he defied the Pope’s orders not to attack England whilst Henry VIII was
in France.
Henry VIII asked for the Scottish King to be buried in sacred ground, but then a funeral
at St Paul’s was granted.
His torn and bloodstained coat was sent to the English King by his Queen Catherine of
Aragon who was acting as regent.
But despite being allowed to be buried in St Pauls’ in London, James IV stayed unburied.
His coffin remained above the ground at Sheen Priory and as time went and the decades passed
by, nobody did anything with his remains.
When the dissolution of the monasteries occurred, the priory was dissolved and it became land
owned by Henry Grey the 1st Duke of Suffolk.
It was shown to John Stow during the reign of Edward VI and it was noted that it was
lying in a store room unburied still.
It was said that, ‘Since the dissolution of the House, I have been showed the same
body as was affirmed, so lapped in lead, thrown into an old waste room, amongst old timber
stone, lead and other rubble.’
So the Scottish King’s coffin was literally just sitting in a store room or a shed, with
lots of rubbish.
It was left for more time, and during the reign of Elizabeth I, it was rediscovered.
But during this time, the Scottish King’s remains were desecrated, and some workmen
discovered it and it was said they then hacked off the Scottish King’s head from his body.
This shocking desecration fo the corpse of James IV showed how barbaric people could
be at the time, and it was no way to treat the remains of a human, let alone a King who
ruled Scotland well during his time in power.
It was said the King’s head still had his red beard on it when it was rescued by a Londoner
who then kept it in his houses and he even commented how it smelled nice.
This man was Elizabeth I’s Master Glazier, and he then asked a priest at the local church
of St Michaels in London to bury it.
But this church was later demolished after it caught fire during the Great Fire of London,
and today a pub sits on it’s locations, so does the head of a Scottish King today
lie under a pub?
But what is shocking is that this treatment of the Scottish King’s remains could have
occurred due to the animosity that many in England had to their neighbours north of the
border.
Henry VIII may have backtracked on his idea of burying an enemy monarch inside of St Paul’s
and this may have been why James IV’s body did not get buried.
His remains interestingly have been lost to time, and there is no trace of what happened
to them and where they are today.
There were many rumours even that James survived the battle and was seen riding across the
River Tweed, or that he’d been buried again in Scotland.
There are two castles in the Scottish Borders that claim to be his resting place.
One legend states that four horsemen snatched his body from the battlefield, but in the
1800s a well of Hume Castle was being cleared.
In this a skeleton of a man with a chain around his waste was found in a side cave, but these
remains too have disappeared.
Some believed this could have been James’ body, and some claim that this day was later
reinterred at Holyrood Abbey.
This same story was told for Roxburgh Castle, and there are further legends that claim what
happened to James Body.
However ultimately his remains have been lost today.
He was the King who was left unburied for centuries, and during the reign of Elizabeth
I his head was hacked from his body.
Like Catheirne of Valois, there was little respect given to his remains over the years,
and this may have been due to the fact if they did remain in England, many people may
have looked down upon the Scottish King’s remains, as they were considered the old enemy.
But James IV as a King did a lot of good things in Scotland, and his body deserved a significant
amount of respect following his death on the Battlefield.
Today however he is remembered as the unburied King of Scotland.
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