In an age where a “Great Men of History” school was emerging, it’s no surprise Choice Notes focuses on the peculiarities of the reigns of British monarchs. Areas of interest range from the pedantic — pinpointing when various reigns actually began — to the morbid, such as the finer details of a well-known king or queen’s demise. A detailed account is offered of the chair (in Conington Church in Huntingdonshire) which was “traditionally said” to be where Mary, Queen of Scots sat prior to her execution, followed by an earnest discussion on the whereabouts of Mary’s severed head. Other sepulchral debates include the location of the decapitated Anne Boleyn, to the resting place of James II. One correspondent, offering evidence that his body was actually in France, suggested it would be restored to Westminster Abbey after the return of a Catholic to the British throne. Unsurprisingly, given the journal’s love of the macabre, the only executed British monarch (so far), Charles I, features too, though it’s not the whereabouts of his corporeal remains under discussion, but the identity of the hooded executioner who wielded the axe.
