In autumn parliament ordered the exhumation and posthumous execution of several regicides and in January Westminster Abbey was searched for the remains of Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw. The heads were displayed on poles above Westminster Hall.
The three headless corpses, including the supposed trunk of Oliver Cromwell, were simply dumped at dusk in an unmarked pit beneath Tyburn gallows. By the mid s reports were circulating that the Protector had transposed the royal tombs in Westminster Abbey to conceal the site of his own grave so that the body exhumed in may not have been his.
Unfortunately, contemporary reports of the handling and disposal of the body are vague and the vocabulary misleading.
Nonetheless, it is clear that what was on show in Somerset House in October and November was not the corpse itself but a moveable effigy, crafted in wood and with a wax face and features. Neither the detailed description of the lying and standing in state carried by many newspapers and pamphlets nor the crude woodcut of the scene reproduced in Some Further Intelligence gives any indication of the whereabouts of the mortal remains. The body may have been stored in Somerset House for a time, but it was never displayed and was probably not within the apartments open to the public during the lying in state.
The reason for the speedy disappearance and premature burial of the corpse is revealed by George Bate, one of the physicians summoned to embalm the remains on 4 September. Bate mentions neither the date of the burial — he does not claim that interment immediately followed the events of 4 September — nor the location. The ambiguities of vocabulary permit several interpretations. Decomposition could have set in quite quickly, necessitating interment soon after death, probably sometime during September.
The most colourful version, in which Cromwell directed that his corpse be exchanged with that of Charles I, has a horrified executioner discovering at Tyburn that the hanging body had already been decapitated and the head sewn back, whereupon proceedings were brought to a hurried and understandably embarrassed halt. The tale, first aired in the mid-eighteenth century, rests upon no contemporary evidence and is quite inconsistent with contemporary accounts of events at Tyburn.
Under Cromwell, England became a Puritan country as he replaced the monarchical regime with a puritanical republic. He banned drinking in public, visiting the theater or playing football, so Oliver Cromwell increasingly took on more of the trappings of monarchy.
Cromwell suffered from malaria and urinal infection and died at Whitehall on 3rd September, Contemporary scene outside Westminster Hall, showing Tyburn and the three heads mounted on poles on the right. King Charles II, who had spent the majority of his life in exile, returned to the throne and restored the monarchy. Charles II demanded punishment of Cromwell for his crimes of high treason and regicide.
The bodies were then thrown in a common grave and the heads were displayed on a twenty foot spike at Westminster Hall, where they remained until when a storm caused the spike to break, tossing the heads to the ground below.
On his deathbed, he bequeathed the relic to his daughter. For many years the head passed through numerous hands, the value increasing with each transaction until a Dr.
Wilkinson bought it. It was given a dignified burial in a secret place in the college grounds. Despite his death over years ago, to this day Cromwell continues to provoke a strong reaction following his significant role in a dramatic and troubled period of British history. It is very strange how the body parts of famous people often go missing, only to reappear hundreds of years after the demise of their owners. Read on for the true if rather gory!
It is a common myth that Cromwell personally abolished Christmas. The ancient city of Ely occupies the largest island in the Fens. Ledenberg hoped that with his death, the trial would end and the court would not be able to seize his property. But he was wrong. Ledenberg was still convicted and along with another conspirator, was sentenced to death. John Wycliffe was a staunch disbeliever of the papacy, maintaining that all Christians should rely on the Bible rather than on the teachings of popes and clerics.
He spoke out boldly against the privileged status of the clergy, the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies. He disapproved of clerical celibacy, pilgrimages, the concept of purgatory and praying to saints. He thought the monasteries were corrupt and the immorality with which many clerics often behaved invalidated the sacraments they conducted. His unorthodox views gained him as many followers as enemies. In , Council of Constance declared Wycliffe a heretic and banned his writings.
The Council also decreed that Wycliffe's body remains should be removed from consecrated ground. This act was performed in , forty four years after his death. Wycliffe's corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the river.
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