Notes on the Royal Heart preserved at St Margaret's Convent, Whitehouse Loan, Edinburgh

Abstract

The embalmed heart of a Platagenet king is preserved in a lead casket. It came from the old Abbey of Fontevrault, near Saumur. There were six members of the Plantagenet line buried in the so-called Cemetery of the English Kings at Fontevrault. They were Henry II, Richard Coeur de Lion, Jeanne (or Johanna) of England, sister of Richard, and wife of Raymond VI, Eleanor of Aquitaine, widow of Henry II, Isabella of Angouleme, widow of John (Lackland), Raymond VII of Toulouse, son of Jeanne of England and of Raymond VI. The heart is traditionally believed to be that of Henry II although there is evidence to suggest that it may be the heart of Henry III.