Westminster Abbey discovers an unexpected link with Emperor Charlemagne

A small silk bag that has been in Westminster Abbey’s archives for centuries has gone on display to highlight a remarkable discovery about its origins.

The silk bag dates to the reign of King Henry III (1207-1272) and is attached to the bottom of an inventory of the jewels and precious items on Edward the Confessor’s shrine within the Abbey. The inventory was needed because King Henry III needed money and pawned the jewels to Italian merchants, promising to return them to the Abbey within 18 months.

Apparently, he kept the promise.

At the bottom of the document are two seals, one for the Abbey and the much larger Great Seal of King Henry III. The King’s seal is protected in a silk bag and although the King’s seal is important, it’s the fabric that the bag is made from that has excited historians.

That small silk bag is now thought to be a perfect match to the silk cloth used to wrap the remains of Emperor Charlemagne, who died in 814 but was reburied in Germany’s Aachen Cathedral in 1215, during the lifetime of King Henry III.

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 how the Abbey received such a piece of high-value silk, but Matthew Payne, Keeper of the Muniments, who oversees the Abbey’s archives, offers a possible theory 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, over 400 years after his predecessor Charlemagne.

The discovery was revealed in the December issue of The Burlington Magazine, which has published a study by academics from Westminster Abbey, the National Museums Scotland, and the Universities of Aberystwyth and Berne. The academics compared the silk fabrics and found that they both had the same design of white hares and floral patterns in gold, blue, and red, albeit faded with the passage of time.

The silk seal bag is now on display in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey and will be until Easter 2025.

The seal and document are near the entrance to the Galleries, at the end of a row of other important documents from the Abbey’s archive. It’s somewhat darker in reality than the photo from the Abbey suggests, but you can still make out the details and see the embroidery that gave away the clues to its origins.

On their own, they’re fairly modest-looking, and if you don’t know the history, they’re easy to overlook as just another document with a big wax seal attached to it. However, to know it’s from the same fabric design that was used in the reburial of the first(ish) Holy Roman Emperor is undeniably a tiny bit spine-tingling when you stand in front of it.

Note that entry to the Galleries is an additional £5 on top of the usual entry price – best to book tickets in advance.

• Adult: £30
• 1 Adult + 1 Child 6-17 years: £30
• Child 6-17 Years: £13
• Senior 65+: £27
• Student: £27

I’d actually suggest joining the Abbey Association which gives you unlimited visits for an annual membership fee of £45. Bearing in mind that a single ticket plus the Gallery will set you back £35, it’s worthwhile joining the Association, if only for the privilege of jumping the queue to go inside.