Red velvet bag found in attic could hold key to puzzle over Sir Walter Raleigh’s head

Item discovered at medieval manor ahead of 400th anniversary of adventurer’s execution

Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded 400 years ago (Granger/REX)

A red silk velvet bag discovered in the attic of a stately home in Surrey could be the one used to carry the severed head of Sir Walter Raleigh, according to a historical trust.

The artefact was found at West Horsley Place ahead of the 400th anniversary of the great explorer’s beheading at Whitechapel in London.

The Mary Roxburghe Trust, the charity which manages the medieval manor house, has asked historians to examine the item in attempt to clear up the long-running question about what happened to the royal courtier’s head following his execution.

Some historians believe Lady Raleigh kept her husband’s embalmed head in a red bag by her side wherever she went.

According to other accounts, she kept it inside a bag at West Horsley Place, where she lived with her son for four years.

Mark Wallis, co-director of the Past Pleasures historical costume company, said he had been invited to take a look at the bag at the manor house.

“It’s clearly a bag of the period,” he told The Observer. “Whether it held the mummified head, I couldn’t say. But that Lady Raleigh lived there means that it’s much more likely than it would be otherwise.

“If it did hold the head it would have been when it was mummified, and not covered in blood and gore.”

Others remain sceptical, pointing out that Lady Raleigh’s red bag was supposed to be made of leather rather than silk velvet.

“Almost every source on Raleigh’s execution has wonderful detail of the full horror of it, and that Lady Raleigh took his head away in a red leather bag,” said historian Anna Beer.

Sir Walter Raleigh was killed on 29 October, 1618, having been deemed guilty of conspiring against King James I.

In 2014, West Horsley Place was inherited by historian Bamber Gascoigne from his great aunt, the Duchess of Roxburghe.

Mr Gascoigne later established a charity to lead renovations at the ancient Surrey estate, which features in the Doomsday book.

Last year, conservation experts exploring derelict rooms at the manor house discovered an ancient executioner’s axe.

“With a long line of illustrious owners – including royalty and members of the Royal Court – it is perhaps not surprising that beheading, the punishment reserved for those of noble birth, has played its part in the history of West Horsley Place,” said Peter Pearce, director of the Mary Roxburghe Trust.