Category: Nobility

The Execution of Henry Howard

24/2/2017

The 19th January 1547 saw the execution of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. He had been charged with high treason and found guilty.

Howard has been branded 'reckless and arrogant' and he was a bit of a rebel in his youth. He had a noteworthy military career and was a religious reformer, a suspected supporter of Anne Askew who perished at the stake for her religion only six months previous. Like Howard, Askew had Thomas Wriothesley as her interrogator, and at her death she quoted one of Howard's poems.

Henry Howard was the last noble to be executed during the reign of Henry VIII. He had been sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, but this was later commuted to beheading, his father, the Duke of Norfolk was luckier, he escaped the executioners blade only because Henry had died before the execution could be carried out.

Henry Howard was first buried at All Saints Church in Barking, however his remains were later removed by his son to the church of St Michael the Archangel in Suffolk.

You can see his beautifully decorated tomb you can see below in my photographs from 2018.

You can read more about Henry Howard here

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/history-blog/trial-of-henry-howard

0 Comments

February 12th, 2017

12/2/2017

0 Comments

On the 15th February 1382, the Earldom of Suffolk fell into abeyance on the death of William Ufford when he collapsed and died whilst climbing the stairs into Parliament.

Ufford was highly regarded, he carried the royal sceptre at the coronation of ten year old Richard II and was a councilor during the king's minority and was one of Richard's men who put down the Peasants' Revolt in 1381.

Three years after Ufford's death, part of the family estate and the Earldom of Suffolk passed to Michael de la Pole, William's cousin via sisters Catherine and Margaret Norwich, mother's to Pole and Ufford respectively. However, the vast majority of the Suffolk estate passed in accordance to Ufford's will to his sister Cecily, the wife of John Willoughby of Eresby in Lincolnshire.

William's father Robert, was granted the Earldom of Suffolk in its second creation in March 1337 and they take their name from their manor in Ufford in Suffolk, being descended through the family of Peyton. The Ufford name died along with William in 1382, their bloodline however continued through three daughters.

The descendants of the de la Pole and the Willoughby families play important parts in history. Michael de la Pole's grandson William was blamed for the loss of French territories Maine and Anjou, a scapegoat who was exiled and murdered in 1450. The Willoughby's, in the form of Robert Well's, fought against Edward IV at Losecoat field in 1470 and fourteen year old Catherine Willoughbly would marry Charles Brandon.

William Ufford was buried at Campsey Priory, in Campsea Ashe, Suffolk.

0 Comments

Caroline Louise von Schoenberg and the Burial of German Nobility

23/6/2015

5 Comments

The mummies seen here were members of the German nobility whose titles were inherited by their male line descendants. The surnames of nobles such as these, were preceded by the word Von meaning of and this leads me nicely into writing about the mummy of the poor woman on the far right of the image who has been restrained.

She is Caroline Louise von Schoenberg, she was born in March 1740 she died on the 17th April 1821.

The Schoenberg's were an important and widespread Saxon noble family whose ancestry can be traced back centuries. Members of this family occupied important state and administrative positions, including bishops and ministers.

Legend has it that Caroline was buried alive, the fact that she was tightly bound goes some way to suggesting that the legend was true. She is bound but not gagged. I wonder what would have prevented her from shouting out? Maybe she was drugged too.

The reason for the murder of this elderly lady, according to the same legend, is as you might imagine money. Her grasping children had already divided their mothers estate, disposing of her in this way, it has been suggested, prevented her banging on the coffin lid during the burial service and revealing her wretched offspring's guilty secret.

Poor Caroline! True or not there must be a reason why she was retained. The answer may be found in the mummification and burial rituals of German nobility. Burial documents, dated to the 18th century suggests

'the aforementioned corpse should not decay in the vaults below the church.'

Archaeologist have discovered that many of these vaults have cleverly designed ventilation systems between the tombs, this aided mummification as did lining the coffins with sawdust and straw. This may have been tradition but it was not compulsory, it seems that the preservation of the corpses in this way was a conscious decision and a matter of choice. Quite a few people chose to have personal objects buried with them.

Another reason could be to do with the new religion of Protestantism and Martin Luther's teachings on the afterlife, this corresponds with the deaths and burials of earlier mummies. Luther translated the bible into German which these nobles would have read

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been
destroyed, yet in my flesh, I will see God."

Maybe wealthy protestants chose this method of mummification out of fear that they might not rise to heaven if their mortal remains rotted away.

5 Comments

The Execution of Henry Howard

February 12th, 2017

Caroline Louise von Schoenberg and the Burial of German Nobility

Archives

Categories