On this day in history, 4th August 1557, Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII, was buried at Westminster Abbey, in a tomb on the south side of the High Altar.
The requiem mass was led by the Lord Abbot of Westminster and the chief mourner at the funeral was Elizabeth, Marchioness of Winchester and wife of William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester and Lord High Treasurer.
Click here to read diarist Henry Machyn’s account of Anne’s funeral.
Also on this day in history:
- 1540 – Brother William Horne, laybrother of the London Charterhouse was hanged, disembowelled and quartered at Tyburn. He was the last of the Carthusian martyrs to be killed after eighteen members of the Carthusian order of monks based at the London Charterhouse were condemned to death in 1535 for refusing to accept King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church. Click here to read more.
- 1598 – William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, died at his home in London aged seventy-six. He was laid to rest at St Martin’s Church, Stamford, in his home county of Lincolnshire. Click here to read more about him.
