When Charles II was restored to the throne the House of Commons voted on 4th December 1660 that the coffins of regicides Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw should be dug up from the Abbey, drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn and the bodies hung up on the gallows there.

The most famous individual "dug up" from Westminster Abbey was Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England. Following the "Restoration" of the monarchy under King Charles II in 1660, Cromwell’s body—along with those of fellow regicides Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw—was exhumed in January 1661. This was an act of posthumous execution; their corpses were dragged through the streets of London to Tyburn, where they were ritually hanged. Cromwell’s head was then cut off and displayed on a spike outside Westminster Hall for over 20 years. In 2026, visitors to the Abbey can still see the floor stone in the Henry VII Chapel marking where his vault once was, though it is now empty. This macabre event served as a powerful political message during the 17th century, signaling the end of the republican era. Several other individuals associated with the Commonwealth were also removed from the Abbey and reburied in a common pit in the nearby St. Margaret’s churchyard.