ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the funerals of four medieval English kings who were removed from power prior to their deaths: Edward II in 1327, Richard II in 1400, Henry VI in 1471, and Richard III in 1485. In particular, it analyses the embalming, appearance, funerals, and burials of these men in respect to their compliance with extant medieval prescriptive funerary texts. It further notes the critique and praise of these exequies in chronicles, as well as their writers’ conveyance of public opinion. Although they were removed from their position as kings, Edward II and Richard II were viewed as legitimate monarchs and continued to have noble status; their successors gave them exequies that were appropriate to the station which they would have held had they not acceded to the throne, carefully guarding their own status while still acknowledging their predecessors’ position in society. In contrast, Henry VI and Richard III, because they were attainted and stripped of all titles, were given exequies far below the station of king or noble; in part, this was done by their successors to secure their own newfound dynasties.
