The Medieval Queen UNBURIED And LEFT TO ROT For 400 Years!

welcome to her remarkable history remember to support our Channel please subscribe the unburied queen left to rot for 400 years Royal burials are considered today huge and spectacular events and over the centuries the same two can be said the funeral of Elizabeth the first marking the end of the Tudor period was huge and lavish with mourners making their procession away but Henry VIII her father is still today left in a vault which goes against his wishes Henry VII wished for a huge tomb to be created for him to encase the body of himself and his

third wife Jane Seymour but still 500 years following his death he remains in a sealed Vault Under the fluorescent George's Chapel in Windsor Castle where only a simple slab marks his burial site this is not what the king wanted but there was one Queen who died in the 15th century whose story after her death is nothing short of shocking disgusting and a disgrace Catherine of valois is remembered today as the queen who was left unburied for 400 years inside the heart of the Church of England Westminster Abbey she experienced a large amount of disturbing desecration

to her body in the centuries to come after her death Catherine of valois today is best remembered for being the queen and wife of Henry V of England Henry V is regarded as one of the finest kings that England has ever had and he won a spectacular battle at Agincourt during the 100 Years War Catherine gave birth to Henry VI a king who became embroiled in the wars of the roses and ultimately lost out and was murdered within the walls of the Tower of London despite having a long reign Catherine's marriage to Henry V was

part of a plan to combine the Throne of France and England and her son was later crowned king of both countries but this ultimately was too much whilst she was pregnant with her second child her husband Henry V died after becoming sick Catherine was not even 21 when this happened and was left as a dowager Queen but following the death of the French King her son Henry VI became the ruler of England and France Catherine was still seen as a catch due to her status and age despite being a widow and many wanted to marry

her however she had a relationship with Owen Tudor who was probably the keeper of her wardrobe she married him and they had at least six children but this gave the Tudor dynasty a link to the throne in the future centuries on the 3rd of February 1437 shortly after giving birth Catherine of valois died it's believed that she died from childbirth and complications around this but she had been ill for some time and she had traveled previously to burmancy Abbey to seek prayer and treatment she was just 35 when she died and was given a huge

Queen's funeral despite the fact she had remarried and this marriage called some scandal following her death she was embalmed and her internal organs were removed to prevent Decay and this cavity was stuffed with herbs and spices her remains were wrapped in Sea cloth a heavy material soaked in wax and then it was encased in lead before it was then placed inside of a wooden coffin her organs were removed and were kept sometimes in separate jars and boxes and sometimes they were buried in other locations to the rest of the body on top of her coffin

was an effigy showing Catherine dressed in her clothes and this Effigy was carved from wood it was painted to look as realistic as possible and shows her as a very tall woman with blue gray eyes following her first funeral she was then given a second funeral service on the 8th of February 1437 five days after her death this was to lay her to rest in an alabaster tomb in Westminster Abbey near to her royal husband Henry V now it was believed at the time that this would be the end of Catherine of valois story and

that she would be left to rest for the centuries to come inside of the remarkable Westminster Abbey but this was certainly not the case and what happened to her remains after her internment was shocking and disgraceful the tomb it's believed could have been temporary as Henry VI her son wanted to create a huge Memorial to her but he died before this could take place and had been occupied with the wars of the Roses after being deposed by Edward IV her grandson Henry VII then demolished the old lady Chapel where Catherine was laid to rest and

he drew up great plans to build a new one but during the building Works Catherine's tomb was destroyed and her body was Unearthed as they were digging the new foundations of the chapel Catherine's wooden coffin which had been in the ground for roughly five or six decades had been decaying and with this it had rotten a lot her remains were taken out of the coffin and from the inner lead coffin were placed in a wood chest lined with lead from the old roof of the chapel this then lay on the floor near to her husband's

tomb and it was left there for remarkably 300 years unburied this was a clear statement from Henry VII as a way of distancing himself from his relatives and possibly from the Scandal surrounding Catherine's marriage to Owen Tudor but he did say that Catherine should be buried alongside himself as an ancestor he said in our Monastery at Westminster rests our Noble progenators and blood and specially the body of our great Dame of right to Noble memory Queen Catherine wife to King Henry V our body therefore to be buried within the same Monastery that is to say

in the chapel where our said great Dame lay buried it seems he envisioned the lady Chapel as a family tomb for all of the Tudors but before the lady Chapel was finished Henry VII died and some of the instructions left were not carried out by Henry VIII his successor Henry VIII did not bury his great-grandmother Catherine vawa and other Tudor monarchs did not also the chest she was placed in had a lid which was in two parts meaning that the lid would be lifted to show her remains when people wanted to see her they would

come to Westminster over the centuries and pull back the sea cloths showing her face and chest all the way down her body it was said that the bones being firmly United and thinly closed with flesh like scrapings of tanned leather people described her as having bare skin with no clothes and it was considered she was buried naked with no clothes except the shroud some tour guides inside of the Abbey made money from this charging visitors of Shilling to see her remains and her body was a very popular tourist attraction many believed that she was a

scorned lady who had been punished by being unburied going against the wishes of her husband the king to give birth to their Heir at Windsor Henry V allegedly heard a prophecy that stated that a prince born in Windsor would lose all rights to the kingdom and Henry VI did this during the wars of the Roses because of this it was said that Catherine's body was left out as one witness stated sensible of her fault in disobeying her husband it was her own desire and pleasure that her body should never be buried if so it is

pity but that woman especially a queen should have her will therein whose dust doth preach a sermon of Duty and of mortality to all but many people would flock to Westminster Abbey and would go further than just viewing the remains of the 15th century Queen they would touch them and mistreat her body the London diarist Samuel peeps wrote once how he saw Catherine's body following watching Shakespeare's play of Henry VI he said on Trove Tuesday 1669 I to The Abbey went and by favor did see the body of Queen Catherine of valois and had the

upper part of the body in my hands and I did kiss her mouth reflecting upon it I did kiss a queen and this my birthday I 36 years old I did kiss a queen so people would flock to The Abbey to kiss the corpse of the queen and this became a tradition however further mistreatment of her remains took place as during the 18th century it was written that she had been Torn to Pieces by a group of young scholars who amused themselves when this writer witnessed the body he said it was a shapeless mass of

whitish color and had been desecrated her remains were placed inside of a vault in 1788 and it was laid there for around 100 years however during the reign of Queen Victoria her Vault was opened and people broke through to see if Catherine's body was really inside of the villier's Vault they found her remains on top of a pile of coffins and the wooden coffin she was buried in had yet again rotted it had stuck to another coffin and they did manage to free it but when it came into the atmosphere again it fell into pieces

when her body was inspected Catherine's remains had a number of pieces missing it was said that there had been covered in line and several parts had been eaten away the entire front part of her skull had gone and one part of the back was found lying on her pelvis many of her backbones were missing as were all of her ribs except one and two of her right arm bones had disappeared her clavia had been taken and replaced with a bone from her pelvis souvenir Hunters had raided her body and had taken the remains of the

former Queen and her legs were found in perfect condition these remained protected by 12 layers of sear cloth and were preserved well with the skin still remaining the coffin was replaced and her remains were placed into it a witness who saw it being carried into Henry V Chapel said it was a striking and impressive scene which I shall ever remember and which at the time it was impossible to view without some feeling of emotion the daylight had quite faded and we were all alone in the darkened Abbey two workmen took up the box containing the

Queen's remains and followed Mr Paul and the clerk out of works the latter carrying in his hand one small Lantern to lightest led the way out of Saint Nicholas's Chapel to the north side of the Chantry Chapel Mr George scarf and myself followed no one else was present and we seemed unconsciously and Silent to fall into a sort of processional order I remarked to him we are attending the Queen's third funeral not a word was said as we were slowly passed around the ambulatory in darkness her remains inside of the thick English Oak coffin were

marked by an inscription showing the bizarre Journey her remains had been on they built a new Tomb near to The Altar and in Henry V Chapel her remains were laid to rest 400 years finally after the death of Catherine vawa the inscription marked it is the latest Royal tomb in the Abbey and though Long delayed it has been thought that the singular and romantic history of a French princess and an English Queen should at length be brought to an honorable end requisite in Pace Catherine of valwa was the queen who married Henry V in an

attempt to unite the French and English Thrones she produced an heir in Henry VI who despite ruling a while was deposed during the wars of the roses and was murdered whilst he prayed inside of the Tower of London her remains throughout the years after her death were treated a very disrespectful manner with some people even kissing the lips of the queen who had died centuries before this is shocking as many of her remains had also been stolen by Relic Hunters who wanted to possess the bones of the queen the story of Catherine of valois remains

after her death and is a disgusting and morbid one and she was not given the respect that she truly deserved thank you for watching and to support please subscribe to her remarkable history thank you