of the deceased regicides Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton. The laws of treason placed a traitor's remains at the King's disposal. Traitors' heads were often displayed on bridges, at the Tower of London and other conspicuous points in London, while the quarters were sometimes distributed for similar display in leading provincial cities. Cromwell's body, hidden in the wall of the middle aisle of Henry VII Lady Chapel, took effort to exhume because the wood and cloth were difficult to shift. On 28 January 1661, the bodies of Cromwell and Ireton were taken to the Red Lion Inn in Holborn, joined the following day by the body of John Bradshaw, before being taken to Tyburn for execution. On the morning of 30 January 1661, the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I, the shrouded bodies in open coffins were dragged on a sledge through the streets of London to the gallows, where each body was hanged in full public view until around four o'clock that afternoon. After being taken down, Cromwell's head was severed with eight blows, placed on a metal spike on a oak pole, and raised above Westminster Hall. Various conspiracy theories exist as to what happened to the body, including a rumour that Cromwell's daughter Mary had it rescued from the pit and interred at her husband's home at Newburgh Priory. A sealed stone vault was claimed to contain the remains of the headless Cromwell, but generations of the family have refused requests, including one from King Edward VII, to open it. Biographer John Morrill stated that it was more likely that Cromwell's body was thrown into the pit at Tyburn, where it remained. Journey Westminster Hall to Du Puy Cromwell's head remained on a spike above Westminster Hall until at least 1684, not counting a temporary removal for roof maintenance in 1681. Although no firm evidence has been established for the whereabouts of the head from 1684 to 1710, the circumstances in which Cromwell's head came into private ownership are rumoured to be tied with a great storm towards the end of James II's reign (1685–1689), which broke the pole bearing the head, throwing it to the ground. A sentinel guarding the Exchequer's Office came across it, after which he hid it under his cloak and stored it, hidden, in the chimney of his house. The loss of the head was still significant in