The Prince Regent, later to become George IV, was notified immediately that a Royal burial had been disturbed. At his instigation, an examination of the vault was made, and in particular, a detailed study of Charles' coffin.

A full account of this examination was made by Sir Henry Halford, personal Physician to the Prince Regent. Hafford's presence at the examination was obviously necessary to deal professionally with the examination, and to report on it from a medical point of view.

Sir Henry, who was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (later to become its President 1820-1844) published his account which appeared in "The Examiner" of April 11th, 1813, and in the "Annual Register" for 1813. The account was later re-printed, along with other items, in a volume entitled "Essays and Orations", which was published in 1831, and was itself re-printed in 1833.

The account caused a great deal of interest, and was widely reported. "The Times" of April 7th, 1813 gives a provisional account of the examination, and ends, "..we understand that by command of the Prince Regent, a full account of this interesting discovery, as far as it regards the martyred King, is to be prepared by Sir Henry Halford". Interest was aroused, and "The Times" printed a short article of the burial of Charles I, in its edition of April 17th. On April 28th, "The Times" printed a large extract from Halford's account. The opening of the vault was also the subject of the satirical cartoonists, who Fully exploited the idea of the Prince Regent examining the mortal remains of one of his predecessors.

Halford's account is short, but remarkably precise. As he states, his intention was to "record facts only, and not opinions'. He could not, however, refrain from expressing some opinions, which, in the light of more recent and accurate information, has proved him in minor points only, to be incorrect.

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 MDCCCXIll.

Drawing of Charles I head made afte rthe coffin was re-opened.

The full account follows, in Halford's own words, and with his original punctuation and spelling.

'It 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 ll., 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 faithfull attachment had led them to 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 userpation, that no marks were left, by which the EXACT place of burial of t e king could be ascertained. (Pope, alluding to the doubt which was entailed 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.

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 the most interesting narrative of Mr. Herbert, given in the "Athenae Oxonienses". Mr. Herbert had been a groom of the bedchamber, and a faithfull companion of the king in all circumstances, from the time he left the Isle of Wight, until his death was employed to convey his body to Windsor, and to fix upon a proper place for his interment there; and was an eye-witness to that interment, in the vault of King Henry VIII.

Were it allowable to hazard a conjecture, after Lord Clarendon's deprecation of all conjectures on the subject, one might suppose that it was deemed imprudent, by the ministers of King Charles II that his Majesty should indulge his pious inclination to re-inter his father, at a period when those ill-judged effusions of loyalty which had been manifested by taking out of the grave-, and hanging up the bodies of some of the most active members of the court which had condemned and executed the king might, in the event of another triumph of the republicans, have subjected the body of the monarch to similar indignity. But the fact is, King Charles I was buried in the vault of King Henry VIII situated precise where Mr. Herbert has described it; and an accident has served to elucidate a point in history, which the great authority of Lord Clarendon had involved in some obscurity.

(Mr. Herbert, whose account furnished the clue to our enquiry, retired immediately after his Majesty's death into Yorkshire, and lived to the beginning of the next century. His papers were not published till some time after his death). On completing the mausoleum which his present Majesty has built in the tombhouse, as it is called, it was necessary to form a passage to it from under the choir of St. George's Chapel. In constructing this passage, an aperture was made accidentally in one of the walls of the vault of King Henry VIII, through which the workmen were enabled to see, not only the two coffins, which were supposed to contain the bodies of King Henry VIII and Queen Jane Seymour, but a third also, covered with a black velvet pall, which from Mr. Herbert's narrative, might fairly be presumed to hold the remains of King Charles I.

On representing the circumstance to the Prince Regent, his Royal Highness perceived at once, that a doubtful point in history might be cleared up by opening this vault; and accordingly his Royal Highness ordered an examination to be made on the first convenient opportunity. This was done on the first of April last, the day after the funeral of the Duchess of Brunswick, in the presence of his Royal Highness himself, who guaranteed thereby the most respectful care and attention to the remains of the dead during the enquiry. His Royal Highness was accompanied by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, Count Munster, the Dean of Windsor, Benjamin Charles Stevenson Esq., and Sir Henry Halford.

The vault is covered by an arch, half a brick in thickness, is seven feet two inches in width, nine feet six inches in length, and four feet ten inches in height, and is situated in the centre of the choir, opposite the eleventh knight's stall, on the sovereign's side.

On removing the pall, a plain leaden coffin, with no appearance of ever having been enclosed in wood, and bearing an inscription "KING CHARLES, 1648", in large, legible characters, on a scroll of lead encircling it, immediately presented itself to the view. A square opening was then made in the upper part of the lid, of such dimensions as to admit a clear insight into its contents. These were, an internal wooden coffin, very much decayed, and the body carefully wrapped up in care-cloth, into the folds of which a quantity of unctuous or greasy matter mixed with resin, as it seemed, had been melted, so as to exclude, as effectually as possible, the external air. The coffin was completely full; and from the tenacity of the care-cloth, great difficulty was experienced in detaching it successfully from the parts which it enveloped. Wherever the unctuous matter had insinuated itself, the separation of the care-cloth was easy; and when it came off, a correct impression of the features to which it had been applied was observed in the unctuous substance.

At length, the whole face was disengaged from its covering. The complexion of the skin of it was dark and discoloured. The fore-head and temples had lost little or nothing of their muscular substance; the cartilage of the nose was gone; but the left eye, in the first moment of exposure, was open and full, though it vanished almost immediately: and the pointed beard, so characteristic of the period of the reign of King Charles, was perfect. The shape of the face was a long oval; many of the teeth remained; and the left ear, in consequence of the interposition of the unctuous matter between it and the care-cloth, was found entire.

It was difficult, at this moment, to withhold a declaration, that, notwithstanding its disfigurement, the countenance did bear a strong resemblance to the coins, the busts, and especially to the pictures of King Charles I by which it had been made familiar to us. It is true, that in the minds of the spectators of this interesting sight were well prepared to receive this impression; but it is also certain, that such a facility of belief had been occasioned by the simplicity and truth of Mr. Herbert's Narrative, every part of which had been confermed by the investigation, so far as it had advanced; and it will not be denied that the shape of the face, the forehead, an eye, and the beard, are the most important features by which resemblance is determined.

When the head had been entirely disengaged from the attachments which confined it, it was found to be loose, and, without any difficulty, was taken up and held to view. It was quite wet, and gave a greenish red tinge to paper and to linen which touched it. (I have not asserted this liquid to be blood, because I had not an opportunity of being sure that it was so, and I wished to record facts only, and not opinions: I believe it, however, to have been blood, in which the head rested. It gave to writing paper, and to a white handkerchief, such a colour as blood which has been kept for a length of time generally leaves behind it. Nobody present had a doubt of its being blood; and it appears from Mr. Herbert's narrative, that the King was embalmed immediately after decapitation. It is possible, therefore, that the large blood vessels continued to empty themselves for some time afterwards. I am aware, that some softer parts of the human body, and particularly the brain, undergo, in the course of time, a decomposition, and will melt. A liquid, therefore, might be found long after interment, where solids only had been buried: but the weight of the head, in this instance, gave no suspicion that the brain had lost its substance; and no moisture appeared in any other part of the coffin, as far as we could see, excepting at the back of the head and neck).

The back part of the scalp was entirely perfect, and had a remarkably fresh appearance; the pores of the skin being more distinct, as they usually are when soaked in moisture; and the tendons and ligaments of the neck were of considerable substance and firmness. The hair was thick at the back part of the head, and, in appearance, nearly black. A portion of it, which has since been cleaned and dried, is of a beautiful dark brown colour. That of the beard was a redder brown. On the back part of the head it was more than an inch in length, and had probably been cut so short for the convenience of the executioner, or perhaps by the piety of friends soon after death, in order to furnish memorials of the unhappy king.

On holding up the head, to examine the place of separation from the body, the muscles of the neck had evidently retracted themselves considerably; and the fourth cervical vertebra was found to be cut through its substance transversely, leaving the surfaces of the divided portions perfectly smooth and even, an appearance which could have been produced only by a heavy blow, inflicted with a very sharp instrument, and which furnished the lastproof wanting to identify King Charles the First.

After this examination of the head, which served every purpose in view, and without examining the body below the neck, it was immediately restored to its situation, the coffin was soldered up again, and the vault closed.

Neither of the other coffins had any inscription upon them. The larger one, supposed on good grounds to contain the remains of King Henry VIII measured six feet ten inches in length, and had been inclosed in an elm one of two inches in thickness: but this was decayed, and lay in small fragments near it. The leaden coffin appeared to have been beaten in by violence about the middle; and a considerable opening in that part of it exposed a mere skeleton of the king. Some beard remained upon the chin, but there was nothing to discriminate the personage contained in it.

The smaller coffin, understood to be that of Queen Jane Seymour, was not touched; mere curiosity not being considered, by the Prince Regent, as a sufficient motive for disturbing these remains.

On examining the vault with some attention, it was found that the wall, at the west end, had, at some period or other, been partly pulled down and repaired again, not by regular masonry, but by fragments of stones and bricks, put rudely and hastily together without cement.

From Lord Clarendon's account, as well as from Mr. Herbert's narrative of the interment of King Charles, it is to be inferred, that the ceremony was a very hasty one, performed in the presence of the Governor, who had refused to allow the service according to the Book of Common Prayer to be used on the occasion; and had, probably, scarcely admitted the time necessary for a decent deposit of the body. It is not unlikely, therefore, that the coffin of King Henry VIII had been injured by a precipitate introduction of the coffin of King Charles; and that the Governor was not under the influence of feelings, in those times, which gave him any concern about the Royal remains, or the vault which contained them.

It may be right to add, that a very small mahogany coffin, covered with crimson velvet, containing the body of an infant, had been laid upon the pall which covered King Charles. This is known to have been a stillborn child of the Princess George of Denmark, afterwards Queen Anne.

LONDON, APRIL 11, 1813. Sir HENRY HALFORD, Bart., M.D., G.H.C.

AUTHENTICATION. ..

When the manuscript containing the above account was read to his Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, by whose command it had been drawn up, his Royal Highness was pleased to desire that He might authenticate it, which lie did immediately previous to its being deposited in the British Museum.

NOTES TO HALFORD'S ACCOUNT

From accounts of the burial and funeral of Charles 1, many of the observations made by Halford, agree with the known facts. A few areas of Halford's account are worthy of further comment.

Halford clearly states that there was no evidence of any external wooden coffin. Had such a coffin ever existed, parts at least would have been preserved, albeit in a fragmentary condition. The velvet pall still covered the coffin, and therefore must have been tolerably preserved, which indicates that wood would also have survived. Halford specifically mentions the very decayed outer coffin of Henry VIII -Whilst mentioning Henry's coffin, Halford describes damage to the coffin, and implies that this may well have taken place at the time of Charles' burial. This is probably so, but not perhaps in the way Halford imagined. The coffin was broken into by a soldier, whilst preparations were being made for Charles' burial, and has already been mentioned. It is of course possible that further damage was done to the coffin after 1649.

The description of the head of Charles I, is very precise. Mr. Julian Litten, of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Dr. A.C. Hunt, a Home Office Consultant Pathologist, have both been able to confirm that the appearance is what would be expected, from a body enclosed in a sealed lead coffin for some time.

It is well known that lead coffins, because they are air-tight, do preserve their contents well, although as we have already stated this was not the reason for their use. After burial the body would begin to decay, but with the external air excluded, the "atmosphere" within the coffin would at some stage reach a point of equilibrium, which would effectively halt any further decay. Many lead coffins have been opened in recent years, and exhibit the same characteristics as described by Halford.

Dr. Hunt has described the head of a middle aged woman, buried in a lead coffin, in the church yard of St. Marylebone Parish Church, about one hundred and fifty years ago. The cartilage of her nose had disappeared. The pores of the skin were very prominent, and her eyebrows were well preserved, which suggests that a beard would have been similarly preserved. Dr. Hunt states that it is his experience that in bodies kept in lead coffins, the muscles and tendons ("the tendons and filaments") of the neck, are often well preserved, as described by Halford.

Halford mentions that one eye vanished almost immediately. Dr. Hunt points out that this was a possibility, but that it is an "old wives tale" that bodies crumble to dust as soon as the air reaches them; what really happens is that the body, or parts of it, may be so extremely fragile, that the slightest disturbance or touch, makes them fall apart.

In the course of his work, Dr. Hunt has seen the cervical vertebra of one person who had been judicially decapitated in the past, and he too remarked on the perfectly smooth and even surfaces of the cut ends. The fourth cervical vertebra, is, incidentally, the most likely vertebra to be severed, in such a judicial decapitation.

Halford has his own theory, as to why the King's hair was cut so short. It is clear from the account of the execution that Charles' hair was not cut by the executioner, and unlikely that it was cut by "pious friends".

From the account of the embalming of Charles, we know that his severed head was stitched back on to his body. Halford states that the head was "without difficulty taken up"; the stitches must have rotted with the passing of time. The temptation to examine the body further, and to examine the other two coffins in detail, must have been great. "Mere curiousity" as Halford states, was not considered a sufficient motive to disturb the bodies further.

The Prince Regent had set out to resolve a "doubtful point in history", that task accomplished, it was his wish that the contents of that small vault be disturbed no more, and for the bodies of two Kings and one Queen, be left in peace.

More Execution of Charles I

Introduction
Execution
Embalming
Cromwell
Charles I Coffin Opened (1813)
1813 to 1888
The Confession of Richard Brandon
Rainsborowe's Standard

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