Used in Hotel for 15 Years.. Bed Turns Out to Be Henry VII’s Marriage One

By: ِ Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO,

Feb. 12 (SEE) – A surprise was disclosed

when experts said that an ornately carved oak bed that spent 15 years in the

honeymoon suite of a hotel in Chester, in the United Kingdom, had a remarkable

hidden history as it is likely to be a long-lost royal marriage bed dating to

the 15th century.

In it, the nuptial frolics of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York celebrated the end of the Wars of the Roses (during which King Richard III died) and birthed England's famed Tudor dynasty.

According to media reports, the bed's former identity came to light after it was retired from the hotel and discarded in a parking lot. It was rescued by an antiques dealer who listed it as "a profusely carved Victorian four poster bed with armorial shields," according to a description from a symposium about the bed's history, held on Jan. 21 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

When Ian Coulson, a restorer and dealer of

antique beds, purchased the bed online, he discovered that the wood was far

older than the seller suspected. What's more, the bed's embellishments hinted

at royal origins, National Geographic reported.

The restored bed stands 9 feet tall (3 meters) and measures 6 feet long and 5 feet wide (2 by 1.7 m), according to representatives of The Langley Collection, to which the bed belongs.

Its four posts are tipped with carved lions, one of which is missing a tail. Carvings of crests, vines and heraldic shields cover the frame, and the headboard includes a triptych with a central panel of Adam and Eve, Coulson wrote in a blog post.

Clues in the varnished wood and in the quality

and content of the carvings suggested to Coulson that this was a royal bridal

bed, and that it belonged to Henry VII, Nat Geo reported. While the claim

initially seemed far-fetched, Coulson spent the next few years accumulating

evidence of the bed's lofty origins; he and other experts presented their

findings at the symposium.

When Coulson initially examined the bed, he found more damage to the sturdy oak than would reasonably be expected for a bed that had been made during the Victorian era, and the amount of oxidation in the bedposts would have taken centuries to accumulate, he wrote.

The faces in the Adam and Eve headboard carving resemble early portraits of Henry VII and his queen; and the figures are surrounded by fertility symbols — acorns, grapes and strawberries, historian Jonathan Foyle wrote in a leaflet describing the bed.

Meanwhile, emblems such as stars, shields, lions and roses carved into the bed frame were frequently associated with Tudor royalty; together, they matched the style of surviving Tudor beds from the 15th and 16th centuries.

"The self-evident age of the timber, the royal devices with the lack of other family insignia and the exquisite design and execution of the carving convinced me that this was a royal bed of Henry VII," Coulson wrote.

DNA analysis of the wood confirmed that it was oak from central Europe of the genetic variety known as Haplotype-7, found from southern France through Belarus, and all of it came from the same tree, according to the online news outlet Hexham-Courant. Samples of paint under the headboard varnish revealed flecks of ultramarine; this vivid blue medieval pigment was more precious than gold and likely would have been used only to decorate beds belonging to royalty, Coulson said.

The marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York was a turning point in British history. The event united the rival houses of York and Lancaster and ended the 30-year conflict known as the Wars of the Roses, launching the British dynasty known as the house of Tudor.