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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2004-04 > 1081988257
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Subject: Excerpt Of History
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 20:17:37 EDT
"William the Conqueror, the Norman hero of 1066, well known for conquering
England. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica....... "William died at
daybreak on Sept. 9, in his 60th year, and was buried in rather unseemly fashion
in St. Stephen's Church, which he had built at Caen."
OK, what's unseemly? According to the Oxford Illustrated History of
Britain........... "On Sept. 9, 1087, William l, died. His body was carried to his
great church of St. Stephen at Caen. Towards the end of his life he had grown
very fat, and when the attendants tried to force the body into the stone
sarcophagus, it burst, filling the church with a foul smell."
And another account..........." From postmortem decay the abscess had
turgidly putrefied, bloating the corpse and expanding its girth. The group of
bishops applied pressure on the king's abdomen to force the body downward in the
coffin but it moved only inches, the lid still would not shut. Again they
pushed, and the abdominal wall, already under intense internal pressure, burst. Pus
and putrefaction drenched the kings death garb and seeped throughout the
coffin. The stench so overpowered chapel mourners that, hands to noses, many raced
for the doors".................
So much for the stinky king. It is noted that William had his coronation in
the new Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day. Again according to the Oxford
Illustrated History of Britain........" The shouts of acclamation, in English and
French, alarmed the Norman guards stationed outside the abbey. Believing that
inside the church something had gone horribly wrong, they set fire to the
neighbouring houses."
And they called it the Dark Ages...........
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