Bury My Heart Apart from Me: The History of Heart Burial

Bury My Heart Apart from Me: The History of Heart Burial

Though it may seem bizarre today, having your heart buried apart from the rest of your body wasn’t uncommon for European aristocracy of the Middle Ages, and beyond.

The idea of being able to be buried in multiple places at once, and the significance of the heart as a source of emotion, was part of the lure of heart burials.

There is something hopeful about a heart burial, where you feel that some part of you might remain with this organ, after it has long stopped beating.

There is something oddly romantic about giving such an important piece of you, to a beloved place.

You would also tend to get more prayers and venerations when your body parts were split up.

The trend of heart burial coincided with Middle Ages military campaigns like the Crusades, where people were journeying far from home, and often dying there.

Transporting a whole body back to Europe made things pretty stinky, so corpses were stripped of flesh, and ferried back to Europe as skeletons.

The inner organs, including the heart, were removed and buried where the Crusaders had died.

Sometimes just the deceased’s heart was transported back.
Preserved in lead or ivory boxes, it was often laced with spices to keep it from smelling too much.

Occasionally these hearts were even buried in miniature effigies, showing tiny knights in full armour.

By the 12th century, members of the English and French aristocracy also frequently had their hearts buried separately from the rest of them.

In Western Europe, it became common for powerful individuals, such as kings and queens, to ask that their hearts be buried in a spot they’d favoured during life.

When Henry I died in Normandy in 1135, from eating eels, his heart was sewn into the hide of a bull for preservation.

It was then transported back to England to be buried, while the rest of him was interred where it was.

The heart of England’s Richard the Lionheart, had his legendary cardiac muscle buried separately from his other remains.

While most of Richard’s body was buried at Fontevraud Abbey, his brave heart was interred in a lead box at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Rouen, France.

Inscribed on the lid was the phrase –

“Hic Iacet Cor Ricardi Regis Anglorum”

“Here is the heart of Richard, King of England.”

The heart rested there from 1199 until it was exhumed in 2012 and analyzed by scientists.

Richard’s crumbling heart was too decayed to tell them much about how Richard had died, but the scientists did learn about medieval burial rituals.

They noted the use of vegetables and spices such as frankincense, vegetables, myrtle, daisy, mint, and even some mercury.

All inspired by the ones used for the embalming of Christ…..

Elaborate, full-size effigies like Richard’s heart tomb, were not uncommon for the highest of royalty.

Queen consort Eleanor of Castile’s heart interred at Blackfriars in London, was memorialized by a huge monument topped by a metal angel.

Sadly, this was destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century.

Robert the Bruce, King of Scots asked for his heart to be buried in Jerusalem.
But it didn’t get all the way there.

The knight he entrusted it to, Sir James Douglas, was killed in battle with the Moors while wearing the heart in a silver case around his neck.

Other knights recovered the heart from the battlefield, and brought it back to Melrose Abbey in Scotland for burial.

Archeologists rediscovered what they believed to be the Bruce’s heart in 1920, and reburied it in a modern container.

It was exhumed again in 1996, and reburied beneath the abbey’s lawn in 1998.

According to legend, after Anne Boleyn’s b-heading in 1536, her heart was removed from her body and taken to a rural church in Erwarton, Suffolk.

Here, the queen is said to have spent some happy days during her youth.

In 1837, excavations at the church uncovered a small, heart-shaped lead casket inside a wall.
The only thing inside was a handful of dust, but the casket was reburied in a vault beneath the organ, where a plaque today marks the spot.

🖤 The tomb of Richard the Lionheart’s heart at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Rouen, France. Photograph by Walwyn.