Dudley Carleton and Lord Cottington, two men who held important offices under the Stuarts, are buried in St. Paul’s Chapel. Dudley Carleton was educated at Westminster School, and became first Secretary of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was actually with the Duke of Buckingham when he was assassinated, and saw the murder. It was Carleton who saved the murderer, Felton, from being torn in pieces by the angry soldiers.
Lord Cottington was an able and accomplished man. He was ambassador in Spain under James I, Charles I, and again under Charles II.
Another well-known name of that time is that of Sir Thomas Richardson, who was Lord Chief Justice in the time of Charles I. It was Sir Thomas Richardson who had to tell Charles I that torture was illegal, when the King wished to use it after the death of Buckingham. Sir Thomas used to be called the “jeering Lord Chief Justice,” because of the sarcastic things he used to say. For example, when he condemned Prynne, he said that “he might have the Book of Martyrs to amuse him in prison.”
We have already spoken about the burials of the great men of the Commonwealth, and must speak of some of the famous people of the later Stuart times after the Restoration.
The great Lord Clarendon, father of James II’s first wife, and therefore grandfather of Queen Mary and Queen Anne, is buried near the steps of Henry VII’s Chapel. Every one will remember the name of his famous book, The History of the Great Rebellion.
In Henry VII’s Chapel, not far from the tomb of Queen Elizabeth, is buried General Monck, the man who had so much to do with the Restoration of the Stuart Kings. He was made Duke of Albemarle by Charles II. His funeral was very stately, and a large monument was put up to him close to the graves of the Stuart sovereigns, whom he had helped to bring back to England.
There are several graves and monuments in the Abbey which remind us of the great sea-fights with the Dutch that were going on just at this time.
One of these is the monument to Edward Montague, Earl of Sandwich, who took such a great part in the victory over De Ruyter off Sole Bay in 1672. Lord Sandwich’s ship was somehow set on fire; it blew up, and he perished with it. He was buried in General Monck’s vault in Henry VII’s Chapel. Two young lieutenants, Sir Charles Harbord and Clement Cottrell, who died with Lord Sandwich, are commemorated in the Nave.
Another distinguished sailor, Sir Freschville Holles, was also killed in the engagement off Sole Bay, and is buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel. Sir Freschville Holles had been knighted by Charles II after the naval victory over the Dutch off Lowestoft in 1665. Five other officers, who were all killed in this battle off Lowestoft, are buried in the North Ambulatory.
Admiral Sir Edward Spragge and a young lieutenant called Richard Le Neve, who were killed in a sea-fight with Van Tromp in the year 1673, are also buried in the Abbey.