The bag found in West Horsley Place. Photograph: The Mary Roxburghe Trust
Posted on 11/03/2018 7:33:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A red silk velvet bag found in the attic of West Horsley Place, former home of Raleigh’s son, could have been used by Raleigh’s widow to carry around his embalmed head, according to the stately home and a historical costume expert.
Accounts of the beheading at the palace of Westminster, London, on 29 October 1618 record that the head was placed in a red bag, and that it and his body, wrapped in his nightgown, were taken away in a mourning coach by his widow.
...One biographer claimed his widow, Elizabeth, formerly Bess Throckmorton, a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth I, had the head preserved in a case, while other accounts claim she kept it in a bag until her death at West Horsley Place, where she lived with her son Carew Raleigh and his family.
But historian Anna Beer, author of Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh, cast doubt on the discovery, which she likened to other posthumous myths about Raleigh – such as those wrongly crediting him with introducing the potato to Britain and placing his cloak over a puddle for Queen Elizabeth.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
The bag found in West Horsley Place. Photograph: The Mary Roxburghe Trust
Put not your trust in princes, btw.
I suppose having Sir Walter Raleigh in a bag isn’t all that different from having Prince Albert in a can.
Could have made a good script idea for Star Trek the Original Series.
Papa’s got a brand new bag.
And they just happened to turn up the bag on the 400th anniversary of his death?
Anyone that buys that might want to invest in a bridge in Brooklyn.
The Lady knew how to keep a head.
The origin of the term Bag Lady?
[flourish from the horn section]
Perhaps she was heading to the head-bagger’s ball.
:^) The head was stuck on a spike, I think at Westminster, for some period of time, then taken down and given to Lady Raleigh, who kept it until her death (reportedly, and there's no particular reason to doubt the story). I'm sure it wasn't in the best of shape, although having drained out all the fluids would have been some help. Excarnation (pecked at by buzzards) would have been one problem, but hey, the guy was dead.
Didn’t the daughter of Thomas More also carry his head around with her after his execution by Henry VIII?
“never be the head of a major corporation...”
Elizabeth Throckmorton Raleigh was granddaughter of Nicholas Carew; Carew more or less grew up with Henry VIII and they were best buds -- that is, until Henry turned on him and had him executed, and the Carew estates confiscated. When Hank the Crank died, his house was filled with monogrammed pillows and such from the Carew household, and from households of other executed folks.
Francis Carew spent much of his adult life in court trying to recover the family title and estates. By the time he succeeded, he was still unmarried, and adopted Nicholas Throckmorton, one of the sons of his sister Anne Carew Throckmorton; Nicholas took on the adopted name, becoming Nicholas Carew.
One of the sisters of this second Nicholas Carew married Sir Wally.
LOL!
That wouldn't surprise me either. :^) I watch that movie every couple of years or so, what a masterpiece (though not a documentary).
“never assume your success is in the bag”
One month max or the yotes will twist off the wire.
Bailing wire is not strong enough and old barbed wire too brittle.
"Comedienne" Kathy Griffin is today's Lady Raleigh.....we all remember photos of her carrying a gory severed head replica of Donald Trump on the public stage for all the world to see.
Leni
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