[Pageheading: DEATH OF THE DUKE OF SUSSEX]

_Extract from the Will of his late Royal Highness the Duke of
Sussex, dated the 11th August 1840[33] (sent at the Queen's
request by Sir Robert Peel to the Duke of Wellington for his
advice.)_

"I desire that on my death my body may be opened, and should the
examination present anything useful or interesting to science, I
empower my executors to make it public. And I desire to be buried in
the public cemetery at Kensal Green in the Parish of Harrow, in the
County of Middlesex, and not at Windsor."

[Footnote 33: The Duke of Sussex died on 21st April of
erysipelas. His first marriage in 1793 to Lady Augusta Murray,
daughter of the fourth Earl of Dunmore, was declared void
under the Royal Marriage Act. Lady Augusta died in 1830; her
daughter married Sir Thomas Wilde, afterwards Lord Truro. The
Duke contracted a second marriage with Lady Cecilia Underwood,
daughter of the Earl of Arran and widow of Sir George Buggin:
she was created Duchess of Inverness in 1840, with remainder
to her heirs-male.]

_The Duke of Wellington to Sir Robert Peel._

STRATHFIELDSAYE, _21st April 1843._

MY DEAR PEEL,--I have just now received your letter of this day, and I
return the enclosure in the box. It appears to me that the whole case
must be considered as hanging together; that is, the desire to be
buried at Kensal Green, that of Freemasons to pay Masonic Honours,[34]
that the body of the Duchess of Inverness should be interred near to
his when she dies.

Parties still alive have an interest in the attainment of the two last
objects, which are quite incompatible with the interment of a Prince
of the Blood, a Knight of the Garter, in St George's Chapel at
Windsor.

The Queen's Royal Command might overrule the Duke's desire to be
buried at Kensal Green.[35] Nobody would complain of or contend
against it.

But there will be no end of the complaints of interference by
authority on the part of Freemasons, and of those who will take part
with the Duchess of Inverness: and it is a curious fact that there
are persons in Society who are interested in making out that she was
really married to the Duke.[36] Against this we must observe that it
will be urged that the omission to insist that the interment should
take place in the Collegiate Chapel of St George's, Windsor, and thus
to set aside the will, lowers the Royal