APPENDIX I.
His body was immediately carried into a room at
Whitehall; where he was exposed for many days
to the public view, that all men might know that
he was not alive. And he was then embalmed,
and put into a coffin, and so carried to
St. James's
;
where he likewise remained several days. They
who were qualified to order his funeral declared,
that he should be buried at
Windsor
in a decent
manner, provided that the whole expense should
not exceed five hundred pounds.
The Duke of
Richmond, the Marquis of Hertford, the Earls of
Southampton and Lindsey, who had been of his
bed-chamber, and always very faithful to him,
desired those who governed,
that they might
have leave to perform the last duty to their dead
master, and to wait upon him to his grave;
which,
after some pauses, they were permitted to do;
with this, "that they should not attend the corpse
out of town; since they resolved it should be
privately carried to
Windsor
without pomp or
noise, and then they should have timely notice,
that, if they pleased, they might be at his interment." And accordingly it was committed to four
of those servants who had been by them appointed
to wait upon him during his imprisonment, that
they should convey the body to
Windsor
; which
they did. And it was, that night, placed in that
chamber which had usually been his bed-chamber: the next morning, it was carried into the
great hall, where it remained till the lords came;
who arrived there in the afternoon, and immediately went to Colonel Whitchcot, the governor of
the castle, and showed the order they had from
the Parliament to be present at the burial, which
he admitted: but when they desired that his
Majesty might be buried according to the form of
the Common Prayer Book, the Bishop of London
being present with them to officiate, he positively
and roughly refused to consent to it; and said,
"it was not lawful, that the Common Prayer
Book was put down, and he would not suffer it to
be used in that garrison where he commanded;"
nor could all the reasons, persuasions, and entreaties, prevail with him to suffer it. Then they
went into the church, to make choice of a place
for burial. But when they entered into it, which
they had been so well acquainted with, they found
it so altered and transformed, all inscriptions, and
those landmarks pulled down, by which all men
knew every particular place in that church, and
such a dismal mutation over the whole, that they
knew not where they were: nor was there one old
officer that had belonged to it, or knew where our
princes had used to be interred. At last, there
was a fellow of the town who undertook to tell
them the place where, he said,
"there was a
vault, in which
King Harry VIII.
and
Queen Jane Seymour
were interred."
As near that
place as could conveniently be, they caused the
grave to be made. There the King's body was
laid, without any words, or other ceremonies than
the tears and sighs of the few beholders. Upon
the coffin was a plate of silver fixed, with these
words only,
King Charles
,
1648
. When the
coffin was put in, the black velvet pall that had
covered it was thrown over it, and then the earth
thrown in; which the Governor stayed to see
perfectly done, and then took the keys of the
church.
I have been the longer and the more particular
in this relation, that I may from thence take
occasion to mention what fell out long after, and which
administered a subject of much discourse; in
which, according to the several humours and
fancies of men, they who were in nearest credit
and trust about the King underwent many very
severe censures and reproaches, not without
reflection upon the King himself. Upon the return
of
King Charles II.
.
with so much congratulation,
and universal joy of the people, above ten years
after the murder of his father, it was generally
expected that the body should be removed from
that obscure burial, and with such ceremony as
should be thought fit, should be solemnly deposited with his Royal ancestors in King Harry
the Seventh's chapel, in the collegiate church
at Westminster. And the King himself intended nothing more, and spoke often of it, as
if it were only deferred till some circumstances
and ceremonies in the doing it might be adjusted. But, by degrees, the discourse of it
was diminished, as if it were totally laid aside
upon some reason of state, the ground whereof
several men guessed at according to their fancies,
and thereupon cast those reproaches upon the
statesmen as they thought reasonable, when the
reasons which were suggested by their own imaginations did not satisfy their understanding.
For the satisfaction and information of all men, I
choose in this place to explain that matter; which,
it may be, is not known to many; and at that
time was not, for many reasons, thought fit to be
published. The Duke of Richmond was dead
before the King returned; the Marquis of Hertford
died in a short time after, and was seldom out
of his lodging after his Majesty came to
Whitehall
:
the Earl of Southampton and the Earl of
Lindsey went to
Windsor
, and took with them such
of their own servants as had attended them in that
service, and as many others as they remembered
had been then present, and were still alive; who all
amounted to a small number; there being, at the
time of the interment, great strictness used in
admitting any to be present whose names were
not included in the order which the lords had
brought. In a word, the confusion they had at
that time observed to be in that church, and the
small alterations which were begun to be made
towards decency, so totally perplexed their memories,
that they could not satisfy themselves in
what place or part of the church the Royal body
was interred: yet where any concurred upon this
or that place, they caused the ground to be
opened at a good distance, and, upon such
enquiries, found no cause to believe that they were
near the place: and, upon their giving this account
to the King, the thought of that remove was laid
aside; and the reason communicated to very few,
for the better discountenancing further enquiry.'
