The Mortuary Chests of Winchester Cathedral

Mortuary Chest

The Dean and Chapter of Winchester have announced that, as part of an initial assessment of the Cathedral’s Renaissance Mortuary Chests and an inventory of their contents, a project to record and analyse the contents has begun. The Chests are thought to contain the mortal remains of some of the early Royal Families of Wessex and of England, and three bishops, amongst other artefacts and mortal remains.

The contents of the six Mortuary Chests were disturbed by Parliamentarians in 1642. So mixed up were they after the disturbance that the Cathedral authorities just returned the remains into the chests in no particular order. It is thought that the chests contain the mortal remains of some of the Royal Families of Wessex and of England, together with those of three bishops. They include: Cynegils (d.643), Cynewulf (d786), Ecbert (d.839), Ethelwulf (d858), Eadred 955), Edmund Ironside (d.1016), Cnut (d.1035), Emma, Cnut’s wife (d.1052), and William ‘Rufus’ (d.1100). Bishop Wini (d.670), Bishop Alfwyn (d.1047) and Archbishop Stigan (d.1072).

Mortuary Chests in Lady Chapel

The work will assess the likelihood of whether the human remains in the chests relate to the historical burial records, as since the 16th century, there have been several inspections of the contents when the chests themselves were cleaned and partially restored, but the type of scientific analysis now proposed did not take place on any of these occasions. Recent developments in forensic archaeological study mean that it is now possible to examine the contents with a minimum of intervention and a greater certainty of accurate results.

The chests and their contents have recently been resting in the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel. Initial analysis on the chests has already taken place with a view to their conservation as part of King’s and Scribes: The Birth of a Nation exhibition, which will bring to the Cathedral’s South Transept a three stage exhibition space, designed both to make  the twelfth century Winchester Bible more accessible, but also telling many of the stories about the Cathedral, to which its Anglo-Saxon origins are key. 

The Dean and Chapter announced that some of the mortal remains in the Mortuary Chests have been formally dated by the Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford, and their origins are thought to be from the late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman periods, which is consistent with the historical burial records of the named individuals.

Mortuary Chest on Presbytery Screen

Speaking of this discovery, and the coming project, The Dean of Winchester, The Very Revd James Atwell, has this to say. “This is an exciting moment for the Cathedral when we seem poised to discover that history has indeed safeguarded the mortal remains of some of the early Saxon Kings who became the first monarchs of a united England. Winchester holds the secrets of the birth of the English nation and it does seem that some of those secrets are about to be revealed as future research continues. The presence of the bones in the Cathedral, where they would have been placed near the High Altar and the relics of St Swithun, remind us just how significant the inspiration of the Christian faith was for the foundation of our national life.” 

Emma and Cnut

The primary purposes of the project is academic research but, quite obviously, the stories which the research may tell, if Royal Family members they are, place Winchester Cathedral at the birth of our nation and establish it as the first formal national mausoleum, of similar importance to this country as St Denis and Reims are to France.stories which the research may tell, if Royal Family members they are, place Winchester Cathedral at the birth of our nation and establish it as the first formal national mausoleum, of similar importance to this country as St Denis and Reims are to France. 

The Project Director is the Cathedral’s Receiver General, Canon Annabelle Boyes. “This welcome news marks a further stage towards achieving our aspirations to tell the stories of the people who have inspired and been inspired by the Cathedral.” 

The University of Bristol will carry out the continued recording of the contents.

Further information on all of the development projects at the Cathedral can be found by clicking here

Photographs reproduced with permission of Winchester Cathedral - Copyright of Winchester Cathedral