William the Conqueror




But the conqueror's body would undergo further indignities....
To begin with, the room in which his body lay was almost immediately looted.
The king’s body was left lying naked on the floor, while those who had attended his death scuttled off clutching anything and everything.
Eventually a passing knight appears to have taken pity on the king and arranged for the body to be embalmed – sort of – followed by its removal to Caen for burial.

As monks prepared his body for burial, they had to stuff William's over-large body into a small sarcophagus.
In pushing the body into the box, William's bowels burst, unleashing a sickening smell of decomposing King, throughout the building 

No amount of incense would cover up the smell, and the mourners got through the rest of the proceedings as quickly as they could.

The burial place of the first Norman king of England, is marked by a simple stone slab.
His stone slab reads~
'Here is buried the victorious William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and King of England, builder and founder (of this abbey) who died in the year 1087'
.

.

.

Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution.
Reacties
Een reactie posten