The Forgotten Tomb of Henry VIII: Why Was He Buried Somewhere Else?

King Henry VIII had grand plans for his tomb at the beginning of his reign, hiring the artist Pietro Torrigiano to design and execute. Torrigiano was an unstable man who caused problems wherever he went and left England without ever finishing the tomb. Henry VIII then had to turn to other artists like Jacopo Sansovino and Benedetto Da Rovezzano, going so far as to steal design elements from his previous advisor after charging him with treason. Despite multiple artists and a lifetime of planning, the tomb would never be finished, and Henry VIII would remain in his temporary grave.

When Henry VIII died in 1547, his tomb was only partially completed. Roughly a year before his death, he wrote down his will, expressing that if the tomb remained unfinished at the time of his death, it would be completed as soon as possible. His will is quoted:

“Do will and ordeyn that oure bodie be burye[d] and entered in the Quire of oure College of Windesor midway between the staples and the high Aultar and there to be made and sett assoneas conveniently may be doon after our decease by our Executours at our costes and charges if it not done by us in our lief tyme an honorable tombe for our bones to rest in which is well onward and almost made therefor alredye w a fayre grate about it in which we will also that the bones and body of our true and loving wief Quee Jane be putt also And that there be provided ordeyned made and sett at the costs and charges of us or of our executours if it be not done in our lyf a convenient aulter honorable prepared and apparailled w all maner of things requisite and necessary for daily masses there to be sayd pereptuelly while the woorld shall endure.”

Pietro Torrigiano

Torrigiano’s volatile emotions caused problems for him in England as well. When commissioned to create the elaborate tomb for Henry VIII, Torrigiano would not start working without receiving some sort of pay. He expressed his complaint as a reason for not yet beginning the project in a letter to Cardinal Wolsey in 1518. He requested to travel to Italy to recruit workers for the project but was denied. He left anyway in 1519 with 1,000 pounds sterling from the project funds and probably returned later that year. However, some sources suggest he remained in Italy for the time being to avoid punishment for leaving without royal permission. Nonetheless, the disagreement over funds and Torrigiano’s leaving London without permission caused Torrigiano to drop the commission and continue his career in Spain.

In Spain, Torrigiano was commissioned to create a religious statue for the Duke of Arcus. However, upon completing the statue, the Duke of Arcus did not pay Torrigiano the total amount agreed upon when the commission was placed. Torrigiano responded by defacing the statue by chiseling off the face before it could be delivered. The Duke of Arcus declared him a heretic for his actions, causing Torrigiano to be arrested by the Spanish Inquisition. He died in a Spanish prison as a proclaimed heretic.

In the 17th century, a mapmaker and antiquarian named John Speed wrote about Henry VIII’s plans for his tomb. He had been shown the manuscript by an acquaintance named Nicholas Charles while putting together a book on the history of Great Britain. There were multiple artists involved in the process of creating Henry VIII’s tomb. In 1527, Henry VIII commissioned Jacopo Sansovino for the job, though the tomb was never finished. It is unclear if the design made by Jacopo Sansovino was used in the later designs of the tomb or if it was a different design altogether that had been scrapped.

Nonetheless, it is described as grand and expensive and made of black touchstone and white marble with copper and gilt. It showcased two large effigies of the King and Queen and included decorative and symbolic elements, such as pillars of serpentine and alabaster, a sculpture of Henry VIII on horseback under a decorative arch, and 134 sculptures of various minor religious figures.

Benedetto Da Rovezzano

While King Henry VIII was thinking about his future tomb, his closest advisor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, was also planning a grand tomb for himself. Wolsey also commissioned an Italian sculptor, Benedetto Da Rovezzano, in 1524. Benedetta Da Rovezzano was an incredibly sought-after artist during the early 16th century, with a notable commission in 1508 to finish the bronze version of Michelangelo’s David. Commissioning an Italian sculptor was a mark of status, as the Italian Renaissance had been brought to England only a few decades earlier with Pietro Torrigiano. Wolsey’s tomb is also described as being made of black touchstone and white marble, as many Renaissance tombs were for wealthy and politically influential patrons, including the tombs of Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, and Margaret Beaufort.

Cardinal Wolsey would meet his downfall in 1530 after failing to obtain a divorce for the King from the Pope so that Henry could marry his next wife, Anne Boleyn. Though Wolsey was charged with treason, he did not die by the ax. He instead died on his way to trial. With Cardinal Wolsey accused of treason, Henry VIII could seize anything Wolsey owned, including parts of his tomb to incorporate into his own tomb design, as well as the tomb’s artist, Benedetto Da Rovezzano, the last artist to take on the project.

Benedetto Da Rovezzano continued working on the project, though it would remain unfinished by Henry VIII’s death in 1547. His successor, Edward VI, planned to complete it, but when the royal treasury got low in funds, he could not. Mary I and Elizabeth I both wished to complete the tomb as well, yet it remained in pieces. Eventually, the valuable metals were melted down and sold by the Commonwealth in the 17th century.

Thankfully, Benedetto Da Rovezzano kept records of his projects in England, including the tomb for Wolsey and, later, the King. These records allowed an early 19th-century art historian, Alfred Higgins, to recreate the tomb with a rough sketch in 1815. The original sketch is housed at the College of St. George, and a section of it has been digitally recreated for this article.

The Outcome of the Tomb of Henry VIII 

With the metal parts of the tomb repurposed, the rest could also be used in other ways. The black marble sarcophagus was moved to St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1808 to be repurposed for Lord Admiral Nelson’s final resting place. Today, it sits in the Nelson Chamber of the crypt in the cathedral’s basement. Four bronze angels from Wolsey’s original design also survive due to their use at Harrowden Hall as decorative gate pillars. They were only rediscovered to be Wolsey’s angels in 2008.

Henry VIII and Jane Seymour’s bodies never reached their elaborate tomb. They remain in their so-called temporary tomb under the floor at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, marked only by a simple black slab. The tomb has been opened several times since the King’s death. It was opened in the 17th century to inter Charles I’s body alongside Henry and Jane, again in the 18th century to inter a child of Queen Anne’s, and again in the 19th century while constructing a passageway to a new royal vault.

During its last disturbance, A.Y. Nutt, the Surveyor of the Fabric to the College of St. George, created a watercolor painting of the tomb, showing Henry VIII’s coffin to be badly damaged. Historians remain unsure if the damage was caused before or after the burial. Historical reports indicate that the King’s coffin exploded due to the gas build-up in his body and that dogs had been caught licking the bodily fluids from beneath the coffin and were shooed away. However, the validity and correlation of these reports are questioned, and it is entirely possible that the damage to the coffin had been caused by falling rocks within the crypt and movement of the coffin during earlier disturbances. Nonetheless, if Henry VIII could see the outcome of his tomb, his reaction would likely be similar to the destructive rage he was known for in life.