The Heart comes from the Plantagenet burial ground located in the old Abbey of Fontevrault, near Saumur. The cemetery was disturbed during the 1793 French Revolution when the tombs were destroyed and the graves dug up in search of treasure. The heart was known at this time as that of Henry II.
In 1857, M Desnoyers, Vicar General and the Director of the Historical Museum at Orleans wrote:
that the heart was removed from the tomb at Fontevrault in 1793 when the church [was] profaned by the impiety of the revolution. He believed the heart had fallen into the hands of a local resident who saved it in his case as a curiosity. It was later purchased from him by a native of Orleans, M. Cretie, who had formed a collection of curiosities. After his death, part of [the] Cretie collection was given to the Museum in Orleans in 1825.
The heart was displayed in the museum until 1857 when Monseigneur Gillis (Bishop of Lymira) came to Orleans to preach the panegyric of Joan of Arc. When he was giving a tour of the museum, he expressed a desire to take the heart back to England. Gillis intended to have it interred with Henry II’s body in Westminster Abbey with full Catholic Rights. He approached Lord Palmerston who was the then Prime Minister, but he was refused.
The archive commissioned radiocarbon dating and lead isotope analysis to be carried out on the heart in the hope that it could be better identified, as little is known about its provenance prior to 1825. The results obtained dated the heart to the pre-modern period, as early as 1670. Beyond this, however, radiocarbon dating was inconclusive. The lead isotope analysis, carried out to determine the source of the lead used to encase the heart, was similarly inconclusive, placing the lead between both British and French lead (Pb) ore.
The results of the analysis mean that the archive is still no nearer in finding out where the heart came from. We now know that the heart was created between 1670 and 1793, prior to the French Revolution. It is possible that the heart is from one of the Abbesses after 1670 as this was a common practice in France at the time.
Further research along these lines will be required before a final resting place for the heart can be made.
The finding aid can be found here.
Contact
Donna Maguire
Archivist
37 Blackburn Road
West Caulder, EH55 8NF
Scotland
+44 0774 8818275
Website: scottishcatholicarchives.org.uk
Twitter: @ScotCathArch