A GROUND-BREAKING funeral and a SHOCKING CORPSE MUTILATION. That was the fate of Queen Catherine Parr’s body after her death in 1548. After being given the first Protestant funeral for English royalty in history, Catherine lay undisturbed in the Chapel of Sudeley Castle for over 200 years. Then her body was rediscovered by grave hunters and disinterred multiple times in the 1780s. One of these disinterments led to a disgraceful and gruesome case of grave desecration. By the time she was finally (badly) reburied, the remains of Henry VIII’s sixth wife were in terrible condition. In this six wives documentary from History Calling, we go back first to September 1548 to look at how Catherine’s body was handled and interred after her death from childbirth complications. She still had a funeral fit for a Queen, but it was very different to any of the ceremonies observed after the deaths of Henry’s other wives. We’ll learn about the actions of her chief mourner, who was Lady Jane Grey, see where she is buried and learn about the funeral procession and service which preceded her interment, for this was a funeral of a Queen which was like no other before it. The second part of the video will look at the events surrounding the rediscovery of this famous body and provide detailed, contemporary accounts of how she was mishandled and her eventual and final reburying.
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