AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT APPEARED ON OPENING THE COFFIN OF KING CHARLES THE FIRST, IN THE VAULT OF KING HENRY VIII. IN ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR, ON THE FIRST OF APRIL, MDCCCXIII. TO THE READER. THE following narrative of the investigation, which took place at Windsor, on Thursday the 1st of April, 1813, in the vault of King Henry VIII., will probably be rendered more satisfactory by a comparison with. the statements of Lord Clarendon and Mr. Herbert, with respect to the interment of King Charles I. For the convenience of the reader, therefore, those narratives are here reprinted, as an appendix. Ir is stated by Lord Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion, that the body of King Charles I., though known to be interred in St. George's Chapel, at Windsor, could not be found, when searched for there some years afterwards. It seems, by the historian's account, to have been the wish and the intention of King Charles II., after his restoration, to take up his father's corpse, and to re-inter it in Westminster Abbey, with those royal honours which had been denied it under the government of the regicides. The most careful search was made for the body by several people, amongst whom were some of those noble persons whose faithful attachment had led them to N pay their last tribute of respect to their unfortunate master by attending him to the grave. Yet such had been the injury done to the chapel, such were the mutilations it had undergone, during the period of the usurpation, that no marks were left, by which the exact place of burial of the king could be ascertained*. There is some difficulty in reconciling this account with the information which has reached us since the death of Lord Clarendon, particularly with that of Mr. Ashmole, and more especially with that most interesting narrative of Mr. Herbert, given in the 'Athenæ Oxonienses.' Mr. Herbert had been a groom of the bed-chamber, and a * Pope, alluding to the doubt which was entertained in his day, as to the place of the King's interment, invokes the Muse to Make sacred Charles's tomb for ever known, ' (Obscure the place and uninscribed the stone.') Windsor Forest, v. 319. |