One night the ladies of the court, who were watching over the body of the ruler, were awakened by a powerful roar. The room filled with a monstrous stench. It turned out that the body of the Virgin Queen ... exploded. But why had Elizabeth's last path turned into a shambles?
As for the conditions prevailing at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Elizabeth I could still speak of a lot of happiness. The English ruler ruled for over four decades and died at the aged (in the realities of the time) age of 70. After her death, however, she did not rest in peace. Or at least - not right away…
Bloody mess at the funeral home
The Virgin Queen died on March 24, 1603. Throughout her life, she was highly sensitive to her body (which is why she pampered herself with deadly lead-based cosmetics), so before saying goodbye to the world, she issued a number of recommendations on how to handle her corpse.
Queen Elizabeth I left in peace, although she would not be so calm if she knew what would happen to her body ...
First of all, she firmly opposed the autopsy - forced the court doctors to swear a solemn oath not to do so (well, she couldn't personally see to it). In addition, she banned the embalming procedure. Instead, she wished the body to be washed, clothed and rubbed with sweet-smelling spices.
As Eleanor Herman emphasizes:“She had good reason to refrain from embalming. Before the use of drips to remove blood from the body and replace it with preservative fluid, embalming was a terrible shambles that would now send the butcher carrying it to prison for desecrating a corpse. "
Funeral procession during the funeral of Elizabeth I. The ceremony took place over a month after the death of the ruler, which brought not very pleasant consequences.
Ambroise Paré, a 16th-century physician of the four French kings, vividly described the course of a typical surgery. Admittedly, it gives you shivers. The scholar reported:
The body that is to be embalmed with herbs, in order to be preserved for a long time, must first be deprived of the guts (...). The brain should also be removed, having first cut open the skull with a saw. Then deep incisions are made along the arms, thighs, lower legs, back, loins and buttocks, especially where the main veins and arteries run, first to get rid of the blood that would otherwise start to rot and decompose the rest of the body, and second to create a place that fills up with the aromatic powder (...).
Finally, the cuts, as well as all wires and holes in the body, are filled with herbs (…). The cuts and any holes should be sewn up so that nothing falls out and the whole body is rubbed with turpentine. Finally, the deceased is placed in a lead coffin that is neatly soldered and filled with dry herbs with a sweet aroma.
Horror scenes
In the end, Elizabeth's will was not respected, all because her successor, James I Stuart, was in no rush to assume the duties of King of England. He did not arrive in London until a month after the death of his relative and had not made arrangements for the funeral beforehand.
Had Elizabeth's successor Jacob I had had a little haste to arrive in London, perhaps the whole affair could have been avoided.
Meanwhile, tradition required that a vigil should be held while waiting for the burial. The six ladies-in-waiting took turns watching over the coffin twenty-four hours a day. For this reason, however, the doctors decided to embalmer the body - but (perhaps taking into account the ruler's demands) they did it quite superficially. The effects of such action are described by Eleanor Herman:
One night an explosion opened the coffin with a deafening bang, releasing foul gases and terrifying the ladies of the court which screamed out of the room. Searching for the positive aspects of the situation, they agreed that "if the queen had not been opened, the exhaust from her body would have been much worse."
The ruler was finally buried. On April 28, 1603, she was buried next to her half-sister Maria in Westminster Abbey. Interestingly, the explosion of Elizabeth's corpse was not the only such case at the English court. Earlier, a similar fate befell the body of her father, Henry VIII, and - in the 11th century - William the Conqueror. As you can see learning from mistakes is slow…
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