Volume 2

An account of the discovery of the body of King John, in the Cathedral Church of Worcester, July 17th, 1797. From authentic communications; with illustrations and remarks / [Valentine Green].

  • Green, Valentine, 1739-1813.
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the discovery of the body of King John, in the Cathedral Church of Worcester, July 17th, 1797. From authentic communications; with illustrations and remarks / [Valentine Green]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE BODY O F KING JOHN. Among the various circumftances which eventually produced the difcovery of the body of King John to have been depofited in the tomb in the choir of the cathe¬ dral church of Worcefter, the following, as the moft prominent, are conceived ne- ceflary to be ftated. In the courfe of my refearches into the Hiftory of that Cathedral, and a minute examination of its fabric and monumental remains, for the purpofe of forming a part of my new edition of “ the Hiftory and Antiquities of the City and Suburbs of Worcefter” publilhed in two volumes, quarto, 1796, I was led to adopt the opinions of the moft eminent and learned of our antiquaries who appeared to have joined in a conclufion, that although the original interment of King John had taken place in the Lady’s chapel of that cathedral between the fepulchres of the Saints Ofwald and Wulftan, before the altar of the blefled Virgin, yet that the effigy of the king, at the time of the reformation was removed from his grave, and laid upon the tomb which had been newly ere&ed in the choir to receive it, and that this was done without removing the body, which was conje&ured to have been left in its original ftate of fepulture in the Lady’s chapel. Thefe conclufions deduced from the accounts and authorities of Leland, Abing¬ don, Dr. Stukely, Brown Willis, Mr. Garbet, Mr. Gough, Dr. Nafh, and others, had been oppofed by Dr. Thomas, and Mr. Dougharty ;* the firft affirming the interment of King John to have been in the choir, in the place on which the tomb now Hands ; and the laft that the royal body remained within the tomb. After Sec Vo!.. I. Sc£t, IV. q>, 68, and Se<51. VII. p. 156, Hid. and Antiq. of Worccfler* A