ON THIS DAY: COFFIN OF TRAGIC PRINCESS ELIZABETH FOUND IN NEWPORT MINSTER 230 YEARS AGO

Workmen discovered the coffin containing the mortal remains of Princess Elizabeth – daughter of the martyred Charles I – at St Thomas’ Church in Newport in 1793. Princess Elizabeth died at Carisbrooke Castle aged just 14 (other sources say 15) on 8th September 1650. The pious child is said to have passed away with her head lying on an open copy of the bible. The Hampshire Chronicle on 30th November 1793 wrote: In digging a grave in the chancel of Newport church, Ifle of Wight, to depofit the body of the brother of Lord Delaware, was found a coffin, containing the remains of the fecond daughter of King Charles the firft, in a leaden coffin; her name was Elizabeth. The body of the young Princess had been embalmed and placed in a leaden coffin. According to the chronicler Fuller:

“Her body was brought (in a borrowed coach) from the Castle to the town of Newport, attended thither with her few late servants. “At the end of the town the corpse was met and waited on by the Mayor and aldermen thereof, in their formalities to the church, whereabout the middle the east part of the chancel in St Thomas’ Chapel, her Highness was interred in a small vault purposely made, with an inscription of the date of her death engraved on her coffin.”

Her final resting place remained forgotten for the next 143 years until rediscovered in 1793. However, the story of Princess Elizabeth does not end here. The Sydney Morning Herald reported:

“In 1851, the coffin was again disturbed, and, owing to some alterations in the church, was taken out of the vault and deposited in a shed, the door of which was locked. “In this shed it lay for some time, that is until the alterations to the church were completed.  And during its sojourn here, a remarkable thing happened… “One dark night, some four or five persons, one of whom was a doctor a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, marched clandestinely to the shed, forced the lock, and carried the coffin with its poor remains on a wheelbarrow to the doctor’s house. “Here it rested two days, during which time the doctor accomplished his object, which was a medical examination of the body of the Princess. The body was then replaced, but the story leaked out, and the doctor was pressed by the authorities He, however, gave his solemn assurance that he had replaced the body intact.”

Queen Victoria got to hear of the 2nd discovery of the princess’ bones and gave an order for their reinterment. In addition, she had a beautiful monument erected to the late Princess’ memory, designed by Baron Marochetti.

Nothing further was heard of the remains of the Princess until 1880, when the doctor who had performed a post-mortem examination died. Among the doctor’s effects were found a number of specimen jars, which came into the possession of Mr Ledicott, dealer of curiosities in Newport. One of these jars contained a quantity of bright brown hair and a human rib. Accompanying this jar was a note in the doctor’s handwriting, stating that they had been taken from the body of Princess Elizabeth in 1856. Mr Ledicott displayed the relics in his shop window. In 1890, Mr Ledicott received the following letter from the Home Office:

The attention of the Secretary of State having been drawn to the fact that you are exposing in the window of your shop a bone purporting to be a bone of the Princess Elizabeth, who died at Carisbrooke Castle. I am directed to point out to you the indecency of exposing fragments of human remains, unlawfully abstracted from a coffin, of a known individual of high rank in past times, and I am to say that the Secretary of State would be glad to hear that the fragments had been replaced either in or alongside the coffin where it is now deposited.

That same year, Mr Ledicott returned Princess Elizabeth’s relics to Princess Beatrice – the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. Further details of the tragic life of Princess Elizabeth may be found in the following article.