This Day in History: 1399-03-15

On 15th March 1399, John of Gaunt, lord of Pontefract, was interred ‘in the Cathedral Church of St Paul, of London, near the principal altar, beside my most dear late wife Blanch, who is there interred’ (from his will of 1397). His will had stipulated that his body be laid out for forty days – ten times the customary period – with ‘no cering or embalming’.