ABSTRACT
The King ordered that nothing should be omitted which might in any way do honour to his dead friend, and when the embalmed body of Buckingham left Portsmouth, after a coroner's inquest, it was borne on the shoulders of the colonels of the army and escorted by all the lords who were in the town. Buckingham's corpse lay in state at Wallingford House for more than two weeks, while preparations were made for the funeral. The King had ordered that no expense should be spared and that a magnificent memorial should be erected to this greatest of his servants. Buckingham was buried, without elaborate ceremony, on the night of 18 September. Buckingham's last resting-place was on the north side of King Henry VII's chapel. Here he lay surrounded by monarchs and princes of the blood royal, the first commoner to be honoured in this way, although his baby son Charles and his nephew had already been interred there.
