Lock of hair of Edward IV

After the discovery of King Edward IV’s tomb during the restoration of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 1789, the lead coffin was opened and the skeleton of the deceased monarch revealed. Edward IV had been buried there in 1483. According to reports by architect Henry Emlyn, the skeleton was discovered submerged in an unidentified liquid. He recorded: “Some long brown hair lay near the skull; and some of the same colour, but shorter, was on the neck of the skeleton. There was in the bottom of the coffin a liquid, which at the feet was about three inches deep.”

Analysis of the liquid was carried our by James Lind MD, physician at Windsor, who concluded it came from the dissolution of the body. Many relics were extracted from the tomb, including a vial of this liquid (which is no longer extant), locks of the hair, and fragments of wood from the adjacent Queen’s coffin, which were presented to the Society in 1790 by John Douglas, Dean of Windsor and Bishop of Newcastle. Emlyn’s diagram and account of the excavation were published by the Society in Vetusta Monumenta, vol. 3, pl. 7 (1796).