Cromwell

[Dan Glebitts]

I heard that Oliver Cromwell was hung, drawn and quartered AFTER he died. Is this true?

[Peter Pedant]

yes in essence

dug up on the restoration of Charles II and his head put on a pike. The rest of him was sort of collected and is now at rest in a secret location in Sidney Sussex College Cam -his old college

[jno]

not actually quartered; history here

[MacGuffin1]

Dan this is malicious rumour.....

after Cromwell Richard Harris starred in a number of other films including "The Wild Geese" with Richard Burton and Roger Moore 1978 "Patriot Games" with Harrison Ford 1992 "Unforgiven" with Clint Eastwood 1992 and was the Roman Emperor in "Gladiator" in 2000.

He may have been Hung,Drawn and Quartered after that but not before 2002!!

[shammydodger]

It's probably true that you heard it, yes.

[shammydodger]

Sorry Dan

Yes, but not in essence. What are you supposed to believe anymore? If it appears on the web, does that make it true?

[jno]

if you hear it from Peter Pedant, yes.

[Octavius]

Cromwell�s death in September 1658 was caused by a visitation of a recurrent, malarial-type disease which he may well have picked up while serving in Ireland in 1649-50 and from which he suffered intermittently during his closing years.

There has been considerable controversy about the true resting place of Cromwell�s mortal remains, with doubts surfacing at the time and a variety of stories finding their way into print in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, it is likely that Cromwell�s body was buried in a vault in Westminster Abbey in autumn 1658, and that it was located, exhumed and posthumously executed (ritually H, D & Q by the Royalists) in January 1661 and hung at Tyburn. Then his head was cut off and put on public display for nearly 20 years outside Westminster Hall.
His torso probably lies in an unmarked grave in the Tyburn area, while his head, which became an undignified collector�s object, was eventually bequeathed to his former Cambridge College, Sidney Sussex, and was in 1960 immured in the anti-chapel there. The rest is history.