Princess of Hearts

22/01/1991

Information

This Tuesday was Princess Diana's first official visit to the city. Her prime reason for the visit was to attend the World Leprosy Day service at the cathedral. Afterwards, on her way to the Town Hall to see the Eurotunnel Exhibition, she flouted the formality of royalty and indulged in a walk down Bridge Street to chat to the crowds, many of whom had been waiting for three hours or more for her. She lunched at the Haycock at Wansford, where the guests had paid £100 or more each for the privilege, all the money going to help build a leprosy hospital in Thailand. Diana then returned to Peterborough to visit the Sue Ryder Home at Thorpe Hall, where she met Lady Ryder. She then spent some time talking to the staff as well as the people who were involved in getting the building into shape. The princess' day ended with a visit to the King's School as a part of its 450th anniversary commemoration. She made a return visit to the area in May of the same year, when she visited RAF Wittering with Prince Harry. The 7-year old was 'as pleased as punch' to be allowed to sit in the cockpit of a Harrier jump-jet. (Harper-Tee, John, 'The Peterborough Story', Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 1992)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.

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Burial of Mary, Queen of Scots

30/07/1587

Information

On 8 February 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle. There her body stayed, embalmed and sealed in a lead coffin, until this day when it was moved, in the dead of night, to Peterborough. On the instructions of Queen Elizabeth I, the burial was a formal affair fit for a queen. The coffin, followed by the royal standard of Scotland, was moved in procession from the Bishop's Palace to the cathedral. As well as the nobility, the Bishop and Dean of Peterborough and the Bishop of Lincoln, 100 poor widows dressed in black walked in procession following the coffin. Following a sermon preached by the Bishop of Lincoln, the dean oversaw Mary's interment. A magnificent funeral banquet, paid for by Queen Elizabeth, followed in the Bishop's Palace. The cost of the whole burial is said to be over £300 - a vast sum. In 1612 Mary's body was exhumed when her son, King James I of England, ordered she be re-interred in Westminster Abbey, in a chapel opposite the tomb of Elizabeth I. (Carnell, Geoffrey, The Bishops of Peterborough, RJL Smith & Associates, 1993; Gunton, Symon, The History of the Church of Peterborough, ed. Symon Patrick, 1990; People of Peterborough, Peterborough Museum Publications, 2009)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.