A marble slab marks Henry VIII and Jane Seymour’s final resting place in the Quire of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle; however, this was only intended to be temporary while a grand monument was completed.
In his will, Henry VIII describes the monument as being ‘almost made’ but what is perhaps not so well known is that the original tomb was not Henry’s at all, rather Cardinal Wolsey’s.
In 1524, Thomas Wolsey commissioned the great Italian Renaissance sculptor, Benedetto da Rovezanno, to construct a magnificent tomb for him. By the time of Wolsey’s fall from favour, the marble base, pillars and statues were appropriated by Henry VIII and redesigned for his own use.
A description of Henry VIII’s tomb, designed by Jacopo Sansovino, appear in John Speed’s The history of great Britaine (London, 1627). It is believed that while compiling his work, Speed had access to a manuscript owned by Nicholas Charles (Lancaster Herald from 1608-1613) showing or describing plans for the construction of the tomb. The original manuscript is lost but the magnificence of Henry’s planned tomb can be gleaned from Speed’s work and from conjectured drawings made by Alfred Higgins in 1894, one of which can be seen here.
Clare Rider, Archivist and Chapter Librarian, refers to Speed’s work in her description of Henry’s grand tomb,
“No expense was to be spared in crafting the vast edifice, ornamented with ‘fine Oriental stones’ and resplendent with white marble pillars, gilded bronze angels, four life-size images of the King and Queen Jane, and a statue of the King on horseback under a triumphal arch, ‘of the whole stature of a goodly man and a large horse’. In all, there were to be one hundred and thirty four figures, including St George, St John the Baptist, the Prophets, the Apostles and the Evangelists, ‘all of brass gilt as in the pattern appeareth’.”
An effigy of the king was cast and polished in Henry’s lifetime but the monument was not complete by the time of his death in 1547. Even though some work continued during the reign of his children, the monument remained unfinished and in 1646 the Commonwealth parliament sold the effigy of Henry VIII to raise funds.
Four bronze candlesticks from the tomb ended up in St Bavon’s Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium, replicas of which can be seen in St George’s Chapel, next to the High Altar. In 1808, the tomb’s base and black touchstone sarcophagus were moved to the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, to form part of Lord Nelson’s funerary monument, where it can still be seen today.
In 1649, the vault was opened and the body of the executed Charles I was added to it. In the seventeenth century a stillborn child of the future Queen Anne was laid to rest with Charles, Henry and Jane.
Here they remained undisturbed, and in relative obscurity, until the tomb was rediscovered in 1813 during excavations for a new royal vault. Several relics of Charles I were removed, including a piece of vertebrae, a section of beard and a tooth.
George IV requested that a marble slab be inserted to permanently mark the burial site and this was eventually added in 1837 at the behest of William IV.
King Henry VIII
In 1888, the tomb was opened once more to replace the relics removed in 1813. At this time, A.Y. Nutt, Surveyor to the Dean and Canons, made a watercolour drawing of the vault that can be seen here.
He noted that Henry VIII’s coffin lay in between Charles I and Jane Seymour. The tiny coffin of the infant child of Queen Anne lay on top of the coffin of Charles I. Henry VIII’s coffin was recorded as being two metres in length and badly damaged, with some remains of the king partially visible.
It is ironic that a king, who embodied magnificence and lived so opulently, should lie in a plain vault, marked only by a marble slab.
Read about the death of Henry VIII here.
Sources Henry VIII: A 500th Anniversary Exhibition Henry VIII’s Final Resting Place http://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/archives/archive-features/image-of-the-month/title1/henry-viii-tomb.html
Perhaps there is room in there for Richard III? Dont think Henry would approve!
I find it quite shocking how Henry and Jane’s grave have been desecrated over the centuries, opening the tomb and shoving in more bodies, without it seems, much thought or respect, albeit another King and a royal baby being added, it seems contrary to the sanctity of burying the dead and the religious beliefs of the times, whether Catholic or Protestant.
I wonder where they will inter Richard III if the remains do turn out to be his, and what kind of burial tomb or marker he will get!!
One thing I do hope for is that the ‘powers that be’ give permission to test the DNA of the bones that are supposedly the 2 Princes if it is Richard’s remains, I will bring to an end, at last, to centuries of speculation of their identity. Also if the remains are of those 2 poor young boys, it will be nice for them to be given back their names, and hopefully a better grave marker befitting their rank, after all they were heirs to the throne, bless them…
It’s all very exciting though, and I can’t wait for the test results, there was also female remains too, I wonder who she could be…
I Think it’s a disgrace for a king and queen to be laid to rest in this way only remembered with a bit of marble
Think the lesson might be don’t cut the head off your daughters mother if you want to be remembered fondly
henry might not still be there. most people belive that Elizabeth the Idug up his bones were burnt and throne into the river thames. But she did it because she did not like her father because of what he did to her mother. And Elizabeth was very upset about her mother being beheaded .
Well, It is Crystal clear that this is the Law of Karma, you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that, no matter what crime you commit, you will surely pay the price.
Elizabeth was devoted to both her parents, not just her mother. The story about her having Henry’s body burnt and thrown into the Thames is just a myth. He’s in St. George’s, with Charles and James. I was there recently, and the stone looks properly “royal”. The choir is a very regal setting, and it’s almost literally in the centre of the chapel; not as ‘over the top’ as he might have wished (look at the Albert Memorial, where he was going to be buried, if you want to see what Victorian excess is like), but somber and serene, as befits the resting place of two kings and a queen.
What was Charles I relationship to be added with Henry and Jane ?
I think it was just “any port in a storm” for Charles’s remains. They obviously couldn’t bury him in Westminster Abbey, so Windsor was the next choice, and Henry’s vault had room.
Charles is related to Henry through the Stuart line, his grandmother or great grandmother would be Henry’s sister.
Yes, that’s right. James I’s great, great, great grandmother was Margaret Tudor, Henry VIII’s elder sister.
Charles I was buried here because it was a handy large grave with enough room. The Parliament would not let the funeral in or the service to go ahead. The vault was identified the night before and guarded. The Bishop came with the coffin of King Charles I and pall bearers and a few loyal supporters but found Cromwell’s soldiers blocked the way into Saint George Chapel. A bit of a tussle followed but the funeral were eventually let in. With the Puritan men objecting, the Royal party made loud lamenting and sang songs to drown them out. The service was short and Charles was placed in the vault but slipped and hit the lid of the coffin of Henry Viii. It was removed and laid inside again, making certain it cleared the other bodies. He was put in the middle of Henry and Queen Jane Seymour. It really does sound as if the coffins are in a bad state. What a shame they can’t be restored. James I his father was placed in the same vault of Henry Vii and Elizabeth of York. These places are just over crowded. It’s little wonder no monarch has been buried in Westminster Abbey since George iii.
I am pleased that Richard iii got his own tomb which nobody can open and it is in a small but lovely Cathedral, close to his original burial place and not stuffed in with some unconnected Tudor monarch. I have visited three times and smile that he has a better tomb than Henry Viii. I actually like the plain black stone over Henry’s vault but it is a shame the tomb was never finished and Nelson stole his outer marble coffin.
The vault was opened several times in the Nineteenth Century, and contemporary sketches made at the time clearly show that Charles’s coffin is not in the center. Henry is, with Charles on his right and Jane Seymour on his left. A small coffin with the remains of one of Queen Anne’s stillborn children was placed on top of Charles’s in 1696.
Henry’s coffin does seem to have deteriorated, and both his and Charles’s have had the inner lead opened so that the contents could be viewed. It’s really not worth the time and money it would take to “restore” the wood, which would be expected to rot away eventually. It’s not like the public can view them. Money is also the reason that James I was interred with Henry VII and Elizabeth of York; there was no political will to spend the money for a separate memorial. The same with Mary Tudor, who’s buried under Elizabeth I.
Note: George III is in St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, not Westminster Abbey. George II is, however. And Nelson didn’t “steal” Henry’s outer marble coffin. It was actually made for Cardinal Wolsey, and Henry VIII actually appropriated it after the Cardinal’s fall from grace and death. But Henry’s elaborate memorial never happened (again, for financial reasons) and the sarcophagus was in storage for nearly three hundred years until it was re-discovered and used for Nelson, where you can view it today in the crypt under St. Paul’s.