Discovery of velvet bag may solve gory mystery of Walter Raleigh’s missing head

Guardian (UK) ^ | October 28, revised October 31, 2018 | David Batty

[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.

[Little Bill]

I was given one of those by a bud when I was in the Army. I threw up after smoking it, first and only time that happened in a long career of smoking.

[SunkenCiv]

It would be interesting to hold everyone to that standard, eh? Think of all the "hate speech" entertainers could be punished (or posthumously turned into a non-person) for. The crown was looking for a reason to chop off his head. He first got in trouble for knocking up, then marrying Bess Throckmorton, and that imprisonment was a rule-by-decree, no real justice involved.

He was executed based on false accusations (the Main Plot) by James I, who obviously was cleaning house of old supporters of his cousin Eliz I. And that's all that he was doing. Since Raleigh conformed to the discipline in the chain of command, ultimately the commanding officer was responsible for what happened -- if anything. There's no verification that any of it happened, maybe on the next dig. Even so, saying he deserved execution is ludicrous, he was just another victim of the ever-bloodthirsty institution of monarchy.

Maybe this slaughter will make you feel better:

• Rewriting history: 400-year-old battle in County Fermanagh

[ZULU]

Armor piercing bullets?

Killing trooos in combat is fine. Slaughtering prisoners is not. I guess he could plead he was “just following orders” and he may very well have been a victim of preventative purging by James I.
But that episode with the elopment happened during Elizabeth’s reign and she pardoned him, if i recall.

[SunkenCiv]

He was unjustly accused of Main Plot participation, and that's what led to his execution. The fact that he was railroaded regarding having *done his duty* in years before in Ireland was also unjust, not least because no one pulled a hair about it at the time. I'm not sure what you're having a problem with, and am no longer interested, since you're clearly trying to equate him with concentration camp Nazis. What's next? Henry V should have been execuled? Or maybe all those US troops in WWII whom Bill O'Reilly accused of the Malmedy massacre?

[wildbill]

No doubt this is caused by our obsessive white privilege nurtured in English immigrants to America.

[ZULU]

I think you clearly have issues with my opinions which border on the absurd. I made no such comparison. You sound like liberals attacking Trump.

Please remove me from your list.

Thanks

[P.O.E.]

I know - that was the next line in the song :)

[SunkenCiv]

I'll be happy to. Your opinions border on the absurd, and your snarky BS will not be missed.

[Deaf Smith]

Just shot another hog. Got it moved out the area so the deer will come.

He is worth tying up to barbed wire

[colorado tanker]

He was executed based on false accusations (the Main Plot) by James I, who obviously was cleaning house of old supporters of his cousin Eliz I. And that's all that he was doing.

Agreed. Also, Bess' father was Nicholas Throckmorton, who was Elizabeth's ambassador to Scotland at the time of Mary's deposition and James' coronation by the rebels. He was a friend of Mary and supported her restoration. I wonder if Raliegh's father-in-law's involvement in Scottish intrigues contributed to James' decision to get rid of such a prominent courtier of Elizabeth's.

[SunkenCiv]

It's remarkable how much side-switching went on, both political and sectarian, and for that matter, how many strange literal bedfellows walked down the aisle.

[dfwgator]

Surprised it took 38 posts.

[Tunehead54]

Just so you know. A perfect post. Succinct, history, social memories, dry humor, ironic, etc, etc.

Thanks.

Of course adult beverages may be a factor nonetheless I maintain my position.

Seated upright for the most part. ;-)