Cromwell's Funeral Banner

24-10-23 - 25-11-23,
11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Admission: £FREE

Location: The Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon

A rare opportunity to see one of the most fragile objects in our collection - an original painted silk banner used at Oliver Cromwell's state funeral in November 1658. Due to the nature and rarity of this object we can only display it for a short time every couple of years for conservation reasons.

This painted silk banner was one of 2,000 ‘escutcheons’ or heraldic flags displayed at Oliver Cromwell’s state funeral on 23 November 1658. It shows his coat of arms.

This is one of only four such banners to survive. The others are in the collections of the Museum of London, the National Army Museum and Westminster School.

Cromwell was buried quietly in Westminster Abbey with a small family funeral two weeks before the state event. His body was exhumed in 1661 and hung at Tyburn; his body was most likely thrown into the felon’s burial pit nearby. Cromwell’s head was displayed on a spike at Westminster Hall until stolen; in 1960 it was buried at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge.

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