I am super excited to introduce you all to my first guest writer on 'The Tudor Bucket List', author, blogger and fellow Tudor enthusiast Lissa Bryan.
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| Lissa Bryan (Owned by Lissa) |
She has written about Anne Boleyn previously in her blog (http://www.lissabryan.com), has published nine books altogether, they are: 'Ghostwriter', 'Dominion', 'Tales from the end', 'Under these restless skies', 'The golden arrow and the butterfly', 'The end of all things (1-3)', 'The land of the shadow', 'Shadows have gone' and 'The end of all things', (which can be purchased using the following link: https://www.amazon.com/Lissa-Bryan/e/B009N6CFTQ), and she is a regular contributor on The Tudor Society. Lissa Bryan will be sharing with us all what her ultimate tudor dream would be. So without further ado, over to Lissa...
The crypt below the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower of London is on my “bucket list.” I was at the Tower in 1999 and paid my respects to Anne at her marble marker, but I wasn’t aware at the time there was a “secret” crypt tourists rarely visit.
The door leading to it is off to the side of the chapel.
Photo of door to crypt: https://maryvictrix.com/2011/03/07/saints-martyrs-and-more/tomb-st-thomas/
The Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula is one that’s on the “bucket list” of many Anne Boleyn fans. It’s where she was laid to rest after her execution in 1536. Today, around the altar at the end of the tiny chapel is an elaborate marble pavement featuring the names of many who were laid to rest beneath its floor. Anne Boleyn may have been buried there, but she’s not there today.
By the Victorian era, the chapel had fallen into disrepair, and the floor was sinking so badly that some feared the chapel might actually collapse. Queen Victoria gave the order for the chapel to be repaired, including laying a new foundation. Knowing that this would disturb the graves of those who were buried there, she ordered that an attempt be made to identify the remains and that they be treated with the greatest respect.
How the chapel looked before restoration: http://onthetudortrail.com/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/anne-boleyn-resting-gallery-300x200.jpg
This proved to be a greater undertaking than the restorers expected. Once they’d pried up the floor and began to dig, they discovered upwards of fifteen hundred burials within the small chapel. Over the years, the residents of the Tower and the surrounding neighbourhood had come to regard the chapel as a parish church, and so multitudes had been buried within its walls. When a new burial occurred, the bones of the grave’s previous occupant were shoved to the side, their coffins broken up, and the newly deceased person buried in that spot. The restorers feared that the graves had been “universally and repeatedly desecrated.”
When they reached the altar area, where many of the famous figures buried during the bloody reign of Henry VIII had been interred, they found a similar situation. In the spot where Anne Boleyn was supposed to rest, they discovered the lead casket of a woman who’d died in 1750. Nearby, a pile of bones lay, representing a partial skeleton of a woman between 25 and 30 years of age, matching Anne’s age if you agree with the 1507 birthdate. (Historian Allison Weir, who claims Anne was 35 when she died, believes they were the bones of Jane Parker, Anne’s sister-in-law.)
A photo of the restoration work: http://viewfinder.historicengland.org.uk/search/reference.aspx?uid=80863&index=144&mainQuery=Stepney&searchType=all&form=home
Other graves were discovered, including a tall female of advanced age — Countess Margaret Pole — and the bones the restorers identified as Jane Parker. Katheryn Howard was not located, but the restorers thought that the large quantities of lime in her grave explained why her bones hadn’t survived. Nor was George Boleyn, whose grave appears to have been moved, possibly to an area the restorers hadn’t excavated.
Outside the chapel, others had been buried. Four of the men executed with Anne Boleyn had been placed in two graves. Henry Norris shared his grave with Francis Weston, and Mark Smeaton shared his with William Brereton. Those bones were disinterred when the Waterloo Block was constructed after a fire in 1841. It wasn’t possible to individually identify those burials.
The bones were carefully placed in oak boxes that had name plates affixed to the top when the identity was known. The chapel restoration report says that they were re-buried in their approximate locations, but they were actually placed in a “secret” location to deter ghoulish souvenir hunters. That “secret” place was the crypt.
It was constructed after the 1841 fire when the new Waterloo Block was being built. It’s actually part of the old ordinance storage. Interior photos show it to be a vaulted brick room, Gothic in style, with whitewashed walls, and a stone floor.
This photo of the crypt was taken by the Ravenmaster at the Tower.
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13254618_1725853074298292_3720656999056903684_n.jpg?oh=666878880c4fc5052a9e6c0abab48729&oe=5A1B3713
Lead plaques on the wall identify the people interred within each niche.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Crypt of St Peter ad Vincula. <a href="http://t.co/hHO9MG7LyE">pic.twitter.com/hHO9MG7LyE</a></p>— Caroline Webb (@CaroLetters) <a href="https://twitter.com/CaroLetters/status/566524144050003969">February 14, 2015</a></blockquote>
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A cenotaph tomb dedicated to Thomas More is also located there.
A plaque installed after the chapel’s restoration notes that the remains were placed here.
Anne is no longer in the “great obscurity” Henry wished would obscure her memory forever, and her name is recorded with her rightful title of “queen” on her marker. Thousands of visitors pay their respects at her original grave site every year. But it would be especially wonderful to be able to do so near the place she really rests.
Thank you Lissa, what a great article! I can see why you would want to visit the crypt so much, to be so close to the remains of Anne Boleyn would be a truly remarkable experience.
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