With the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday, I couldn't help thinking of the demise of her namesake, some 419 years ago: Queen Elizabeth I. What struck me in revisiting this blog in light of these historic events, was the parallel between the impact on the people of these islands to the end of both of these long-reigning monarchs. Each embodied the best of what it meant to be English / British in their respective centuries.
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What I discovered in writing this blog sent tingles up and down my spine. I love finding out details that are new to me, no matter how small! So, I was curious to find out more, not just about the death and burial of Elizabeth I, which has been well-covered by many writers, but about Elizabeth’s final resting place in the hidden vaults of Westminster Abbey.
The vaults are so inaccessible that my curiosity has hounded me gently for quite some time to go in search of any little-known detail that I might be able to unearth. What do we know of the actual place in which Elizabeth’s coffin is buried? Has the coffin been seen in recent times? What does it look like? Questions, questions, so many questions! Well, I went hunting, and thanks to some guidance from the Westminster Abbey library, I was led to a text that has given me far more than I was hoping for. It felt like I was opening up a whole, hidden world that has not been widely accessed for 130 years. Yes, thanks to the Victorians, I can now answer all my hitherto pressing questions. What to find out more about the death and burial of Elizabeth I? Read on!
When Elizabeth I died in the very early hours of 24 March 1603, the sun finally set on the age of Gloriana. Indeed, a monumental era in England’s history was at an end. Even her contemporaries speak of how ‘strange’ the common folk of the realm found the name of ‘king’ when James VI of Scotland was proclaimed as her successor, just hours after her demise. There was to be no dynastic struggle, no bloodshed; just immense shock, sorrow and grieving for the only monarch many living in London at the time had ever known – for her reign of 44 years and 4 months was, at the time, ‘a far greater part of a man’s age’.
Elizabeth’s decline into ill health is noted by the chronicler, William Campden, as being from January of that year, 3 months before her death. He recorded how the queen, who had always enjoyed ‘health without impairment’, (which interestingly he attributes to her ‘abstinence from wine and a temperate diet’) became aware of ‘weakness’ and ‘indisposition’ in her health. On an icy and rainy January day, Queen Elizabeth I of England left Westminster for the last time. She traveled to Richmond to ‘refresh’ herself.
However, it was to be of no avail. This was indeed the beginning of the end for the 69-year-old queen. Her descent into despair and physical decay were inexorable from that point forward. As time went on, she spent increasing amounts of time in prayer and would speak only with the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift, and the Bishop of London, who encouraged her to turn her mind to God.