37. Raleigh was only partially embalmed though he was given a Christian burial
The head of Sir Walter Raleigh was the only portion of his body to be embalmed, as preliminary to giving it to his widow. His body was buried in St. Margaret’s at Winchester, where his tomb is today a shrine. Raleigh’s head remained in the custody of his wife, kept in a bag of velvet, until her death, when it was reunited with his body in the grave. Whether Raleigh was guilty of the crime for which he was executed has been debated ever since, and even during his lifetime one of the judges at the trial which eventually cost him his life wrote, “The justice of England has never been so degraded and injured as by the condemnation of the Honourable Sir Walter Raleigh”.