Death and Burial

Abstract

This chapter examines the queens’ deaths, including the causes and circumstances. Utilizing early modern medical knowledge and practice as well as assessments of life expectancies, the queens’ deaths are examined individually and collectively. Funeral rituals for them varied according to their official statuses as queen, dowager queen, or ex-queen. Those who died while still reigning, as well as Anne of Cleves, received elaborate funerals and were interred in important houses, Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle . Katherine of Aragon, in disgrace because of her unwillingness to accept the title of princess of Wales, was buried at Peterborough Abbey, far from London. Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were hurriedly interred at the Tower of London, and Katherine Parr was buried at a private home, Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire.