The academics compared the silk fabrics and found them both to have the same design of white hares and floral patterns in gold, blue and red, albeit now faded with the passage of time.
Charlemagne (748 – 814) ruled over a huge empire in the 8th century, uniting most of Western and Central Europe, and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Roman Empire, making him the first Holy Roman Emperor. He died in 814 but was re-buried in the karlsschrein (Charles's shrine) at Aachen Cathedral in 1215.
The shrine was last opened in 1988 when photos were taken of the silk fabric of the burial shroud. It is these pictures studied by the experts which have helped prove a match with the silk from the Abbey’s seal bag.
The Abbey’s seal bag encloses a wax seal, the Great Seal of King Henry III, which was attached to an inventory of all the jewels and precious items on Edward the Confessor's shrine in the Abbey. It was drawn up in 1267 when Henry III was in financial difficulties and forced to remove valuable items from the nearly-completed new shrine to Edward the Confessor, and pawn them to Italian merchants. In the inventory, he promised to return them all to the Abbey within eighteen months. A promise which he kept as far as is known.
The silk used for Charlemagne’s shroud, formerly believed to have originated in Sicily, is now thought to have been spun in the 12th century, either in Spain or, more likely, the eastern Mediterranean. As it is a complete piece of cloth, the small piece at the Abbey originates from a separate silk but would have been produced by the same weavers on the same loom.
It remains a mystery about how the Abbey received such a piece of high value silk but a possible theory offered by Matthew Payne, Keeper of the Muniments, who oversees the Abbey’s archives, is that the silk could have been a gift from Henry III's brother, Richard Earl of Cornwall who is known to have given precious cloths to the Abbey. Richard was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1257 which was over 400 years after his predecessor Charlemagne.
The silk seal bag will be on display in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey until Easter 2025. Book your ticket to view it today.
Veiled in precious cloth: A seal bag from Westminster Abbey and its connections with the Shrine of Charlemagne in Aachen, by Corinne Muehlemann, Matthew Payne, Helen Wyld and Elizabeth A New is published in the December issue of The Burlington magazine.
