A History of Mourning

In Short

This cultural history traces the evolution of funeral rites, grief attire, and burial customs across human civilization, moving from ancient Egyptian embalming methods to Victorian court protocols. Author Richard Davey catalogs how different societies express bereavement through specific colors, garments, and public ceremonies. By examining religious practices, legal mandates, and royal obsequies throughout Europe and the Americas, the work demonstrates how mourning functions as both a personal display of sorrow and a strictly regulated social institution. Its detailed focus on historical material culture ensures its lasting value as a reference on human mortality rituals.

The Story

The narrative begins in the deep past, examining the foundational mourning practices of ancient civilizations. In Egypt, death served as a central religious focus, giving rise to elaborate embalming procedures designed to preserve the physical shell for the soul's eventual return. The text details the precise anatomical and chemical methods used by ancient undertakers, from high-cost resin treatments to cheaper natron solutions, alongside the social rituals of public wailing and ritualistic shaving. Moving outward, the focus shifts to ancient Greece and Rome, where modern Western customs took root. The Greeks introduced black attire for mourners, sacrificial offerings for the underworld, and the public exposure of the deceased, while the Romans codified imperial public mourning periods and specific textile choices, such as blue-black serge.

As Christianity spread, these pagan traditions merged with new theological views on martyrdom and resurrection. Early believers gathered the remains of saints into the Catacombs, establishing a precedent for sacred burial spaces. By the Middle Ages, mourning had transformed into a grand, highly structured public pageant. Civic life incorporated specialized figures like the "Death Crier," who paraded through towns ringing bells to announce a passing and request prayers for the departed soul. Royal funerals became massive political spectacles; the text chronicles the elaborate, sometimes chaotic interments of monarchs like William the Conqueror, whose burial was interrupted by a property dispute, and Eleanor of Castile, whose grieving husband marked her funeral route with monumental crosses.

The narrative then traces how mourning practices adapted to political upheavals, religious shifts, and technological changes through the Early Modern and modern eras. Royal courts across England and France established rigid etiquette governing who could wear white, black, or scarlet weeds, while local laws began regulating practical details, such as mandatory burial in woollen cloth to bolster domestic textile trades. The text examines historical turning points, showing how the French Revolution abolished dangerous churchyard interments in favor of garden cemeteries like Père la Chaise, and how mass public grief manifested in the monumental state funerals of figures like Voltaire, the Duke of Wellington, Abraham Lincoln, and the Old Pretender. The work concludes by outlining the precise nineteenth-century official regulations issued by the Earl Marshal, Lord Chamberlain, and military branches, showing how ancient instincts to mark death ultimately transformed into modern bureaucratic decorum.

How It Unfolds

Ancient Foundations The chronicle opens with the elaborate preservation techniques and religious mummeries of ancient Egypt, establishing how early human societies tied spiritual survival to the physical treatment of the dead.

Classical Precedents The narrative moves through Greek and Roman traditions, identifying the origins of black mourning garments, public funeral processions, paid mourners, and state-mandated periods of public grief.

The Christian Catacombs Early Christian practices emerge through the reverent collection of martyrs' remains, transforming burial sites into places of worship and setting the stage for medieval relic veneration.

Medieval Pageantry and Criers The focus shifts to the Middle Ages, detailing the rise of burial guilds and civic "Death Criers" who paraded through towns with bells to request community prayers for the deceased.

Royal Obsequies and Monuments The text examines the lavish, highly political funerals of European sovereigns, tracing the creation of commemorative monuments like the Eleanor crosses and the shifting etiquette of royal mourning attire.

Sanitary Reform and Revolution The narrative explores the transition into the modern era, highlighting how the French Revolution ended hazardous intramural church burials and established sprawling, landscaped public cemeteries.

The Age of State Funerals Mass civic mourning reaches its height in detailed accounts of grand nineteenth-century processions for military heroes and statesmen, including the Duke of Wellington and Abraham Lincoln.

Modern Bureaucracy and Regulation The chronicle concludes with an overview of formalized modern court orders, military dress codes, and trade-driven burial laws that governed grief in the late Victorian period.

The People

The Egyptian Paraschistes and Taricheutes These specialized ancient technicians were tasked with the physical preparation of the deceased. The paraschistes made the necessary incision in the flank and was ritually chased away with stones, while the taricheutes applied the salts, spices, and resins required for embalming. They represent the earliest formalization of the undertaking profession.

The Civic Death Crier A uniformed official in medieval towns, dressed in dark robes adorned with skull motifs. Armed with a handbell, he walked the streets announcing deaths and soliciting prayers from passersby, serving as the primary vehicle for public news before the invention of newspapers.

Queen Eleanor of Castile and King Edward I Queen Eleanor’s death in 1290 prompted one of the most celebrated displays of royal grief in English history. Her grieving husband, Edward I, accompanied her thirteen-day funeral cortege to London, ordering a magnificent stone cross erected at every town where her bier rested overnight.

Mary, Queen of Scots A tragic royal figure whose sartorial choices in grief and death influenced European mourning culture. Known for wearing white "weeds" as a young widow, she later faced her execution in dramatic crimson undergarments, leaving behind precise historical records of her funeral attire.

In Its Own Voice

"The relations of the deceased went through the city chanting a wail for the dead."

Context: Describing the immediate public response of an ancient Egyptian family following the death of a relative before the body was surrendered to undertakers.

"Upon this the windows and doors of the houses were opened, and the 'good people' said an ave or a pater for the 'rest' of the dead, and at the same time the passing bell was tolled."

Context: Detailing how medieval villagers responded to the bell and shouts of the official Death Crier as he paraded through the streets.

"Scarce a house in it but was not draped in the deepest mourning, long festoons of black and white muslin drooped sadly everywhere, and even the gay show-cases outside the shop doors were dressed with funereal rosettes."

Context: Recounting the visual transformation of New York City during the nationwide public mourning for President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

What It's Really About

At its core, the book argues that mourning is less an unmediated emotional outburst than a structured cultural performance. Across every era, human beings have used physical items—fabrics, colors, herbs, and stone monuments—to translate private loss into a legible public language. The text demonstrates how grief intersects continuously with political power, religious authority, and economic regulation. By tracing how rules around widowhood attire, embalming costs, and burial materials evolved, the work reveals that society inevitably seeks to manage, standardize, and even monetize mortality. Ultimately, it shows that the way a civilization treats its dead reflects its deepest values regarding class hierarchy, public hygiene, and historical memory.

Why Read It Today

This work will appeal to readers fascinated by cultural history, material fashion, historical anthropology, and the origins of modern social etiquette. Rather than offering a gloomy reflection on mortality, the text reads like an engaging historical catalog, filled with curious anecdotes, legal oddities, and vivid descriptions of long-forgotten civic traditions. Readers who enjoy learning about the hidden mechanics of past societies will appreciate how seamlessly the narrative connects ancient religious rites to nineteenth-century court mandates.

The primary challenge for a contemporary reader lies in the book's episodic structure and period framing. Because it was published in the late nineteenth century, it reflects the antiquarian style of its era, presenting an array of historical highlights rather than a single continuous narrative arc. The prose assumes a comfortable familiarity with European royal lines and Christian church history. However, its straightforward, observational tone keeps the material accessible, offering an enlightening look at how humanity has striven to give form, order, and dignity to the universal experience of loss.