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The ‘Rufus Tomb’ in Winchester Cathedral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

John Crook
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Extract

One of Winchester Cathedral's most celebrated monuments, the so-called ‘Tomb of William Rufus’, has been officially re-attributed. It is now displayed to visitors as that of Bishop Henry of Blois (1129–71). The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the evidence which has led to the renaming of the monument. Information obtained when the tomb was last opened in 1868 is newly evaluated, leading to conclusions quite different from those of the nineteenth-century investigators, whose analysis of the evidence was coloured by their conviction that they had discovered the remains of the Red King. It is further suggested that William Rufus's bones are indeed located in the mortuary chests in Winchester Cathedral presbytery, as inscriptions on those chests maintain.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 79 , September 1999 , pp. 187 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1999

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References

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