HONOURED HEARTS.
"I will ye charge, after that I depart
To holy grave, and thair bury my heart,
Let it remaine ever bothe tyme and hour,
To ye last day I see my Saviour."
--Old ballad quoted in Sir Walter Scott's notes
to "Marmion."
A curious and remarkable custom which prevailed more or less down to
the present century was that of heart burial. In connection with this
strange practice numerous romantic stories are told, the supreme
regard for the heart as the source of the affections, having caused it
to be bequeathed by a relative or friend, in times past, as the most
tender and valuable legacy. In many cases, too, the heart, being more
easy to transport, was removed from some distant land to the home of
the deceased, and hence it found a resting place, apart from the body,
in a locality endeared by past associations.
Westminster Abbey, it may be remembered, contains the hearts of many
illustrious personages. The heart of Queen Elizabeth was buried there,
and it is related how a prying Westminster boy one day, discovering
the depositories of the hearts of Elizabeth and her sister, Queen
Mary, subsequently boasted how he had grasped in his hand those once
haughty hearts. Prince Henry of Wales, son of James I., who died at
the early age of eighteen, was interred in Westminster Abbey, his
heart being enclosed in lead and placed upon his breast, and among
further royal personages whose hearts were buried in a similar manner
may be mentioned Charles II., William and Mary, George, Prince of
Denmark, and Queen Anne.
The heart of Edward, Lord Bruce, was enclosed in a silver case, and
deposited in the abbey church of Culross, near the family seat. In the
year 1808, this sad relic was discovered by Sir Robert Preston, the
lid of the silver case bearing on the exterior the name of the
unfortunate duellist; and, after drawings had been taken of it, the
whole was carefully replaced in the vault; and in St. Nicholas's
Chapel, Westminster, was enshrined the heart of Esme Stuart, Duke of
Richmond, where a monument to his memory is still to be seen with this
fact inscribed upon it.
Many interesting instances of heart burial are to be found in our
parish churches. In the church of Horndon-on-the-Hill, Essex, which
was once the seat of Sir Thomas Boleyn, a nameless black marble
monument is pointed out as that of Anne Boleyn. According to a popular
tradition long current in the neighbourhood, this is said to have
contained the head, or heart. "It is within a narrow seat," writes
Miss Strickland, "and may have contained her head, or her heart, for
it is too short to contain a body. The oldest people in the
neighbourhood all declare that they have heard the tradition in their
youth from a previous generation of aged persons, who all affirm it to
be Anne Boleyn's monument." But, it would seem, there has always been
a mysterious uncertainty about Anne Boleyn's burial place, and a
correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (October, 1815), speaks of
"the headless remains of the departed queen, as deposited in the arrow
chest and buried in the Tower Chapel before the high altar. Where that
stood, the most sagacious antiquary, after a lapse of more than 300
years, cannot now determine; nor is the circumstance, though related
by eminent writers, clearly ascertained. In a cellar, the body of a
person of short stature, without a head, not many years since, was
found, and supposed to be the reliques of poor Anne, but soon after it
was reinterred in the same place and covered with earth."[51]
By her testament, Eleanor, Duchess of Buckingham, wife of Edward, Duke
of Buckingham, who was beheaded on May 17th, 1521, appointed her heart
to be buried in the church of the Grey Friars, within the City of
London; and in the Sackville Vault, in Withyam Church, Sussex, is a
curiously shaped leaden box in the form of a heart, on a brass plate
attached to which is this inscription: "The heart of Isabella,
Countess of Northampton, died on October 14th, 1661." A leaden drum
deposited in a vault in the church of Brington is generally supposed
to contain the head of Henry Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who received
his death wound at the battle of Newbury; and at Wells Cathedral, in a
box of copper, a heart was accidentally discovered, supposed to be
that of one of the bishops; and in the family vault of the
Hungerfords, at Farley Castle, a heart was one day found in a glazed
earthenware pot, covered with white leather. The widow of John Baliol,
father of Bruce's rival, showed her affection for her dead lord in a
strange way, for she embalmed his heart, placed it in an ivory casket,
and during her twenty years of widowhood she never sat down to meals
without this silent reminder of happier days. On her death, she left
instructions for her husband's heart to be laid on her bosom, and from
that day "New Abbey" was known as Sweet Heart Abbey, and "never," it
is said, "did abbey walls shelter a sweeter, truer heart than that of
the lady of Barnard Castle."
Among the many instances of heart-bequests may be noticed that of
Edward I., who on his death-bed expressed a wish to his son that his
heart might be sent to Palestine, inasmuch as after his accession he
had promised to return to Jerusalem, and aid the crusade which was
then in a depressed condition. But, unfortunately, owing to his wars
with Scotland, he failed to fulfil his engagement, and at his death he
provided two thousand pounds of silver for an expedition to convey his
heart thither, "trusting that God would accept this fulfilment of his
vow, and grant his blessing on the undertaking"; at the same time
imprecating "eternal damnation on any who should expend the money for
any other purpose." But his injunction was not performed.
Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, the avowed foe of Edward I., also gave
directions to his trusted friend, Sir James Douglas, that his heart
should be buried in the Holy Land, because he had left unfulfilled a
vow to assist in the Crusade, but his wish was frustrated owing to the
following tragic occurrence. After the king's death, his heart was
taken from his body, and, enclosed in a silver case, was worn by Sir
James Douglas suspended to his neck, who set out for the Holy Land. On
reaching Spain, he found the King of Castile engaged in war with the
Moors, and thinking any contest with Saracens consistent with his
vows, he joined the Spaniards against the Moors. But being overpowered
by the enemy's horsemen, in desperation he took the heart from his
neck, and threw it before him, shouting aloud, "Pass on as thou wert
wont, I will follow or die." He was almost immediately struck down,
and under his body was found the heart of Bruce, which was intrusted
to the charge of Sir Simon Locard of Lee, who conveyed it back to
Scotland, and interred it beneath the high altar in Melrose Abbey, in
connection with which Mrs. Hemans wrote some spirited lines:--
Heart! thou didst press forward still
When the trumpet's note rang shrill,
Where the knightly swords were crossing
And the plumes like sea-foam tossing.
Leader of the charging spear,
Fiery heart--and liest thou here?
May this narrow spot inurn
Aught that so could heat and burn?
The heart of Richard, the Lion-hearted, has had a somewhat eventful
history. It seems that this monarch bequeathed his heart to Rouen, as
a lasting recognition of the constancy of his Norman subjects. The
honour was gratefully acknowledged, and in course of time a beautiful
shrine was erected to his memory in the cathedral. But this costly
structure did not escape being destroyed in the year 1738 with other
Plantagenet memorials. A hundred years afterwards the mutilated effigy
of Richard was discovered under the cathedral pavement, and near it
the leaden casket that had inclosed his heart, which was replaced.
Before long it was taken up again, and removed to the Museum of
Antiquities, where it remained until the year 1869, when it found a
more fitting resting-place in the choir of the cathedral.
James II. bequeathed his heart to be buried in the Church of the
Convent Dames de St. Marie, at Chaillot, whence it was afterwards
removed to the chapel of the English Benedictines in the Faubourg St.
Jacques. And the heart of Mary Beatrice, his wife, was also bequeathed
to the Monastery of Chaillot, in perpetuity, "to be placed in the
tribune beside those of her late husband, King James, and the
Princess, their daughter." Dr. Richard Rawlinson, the well known
antiquary bequeathed his heart to St. John's College, Oxford; and
Edward, Lord Windsor, of Bradenham, Bucks, who died at Spa in the year
1754, directed that his body should be buried in the "Cathedral church
of the noble city of Liege, with a convenient tomb to his memory, but
his heart to be enclosed in lead and sent to England, there to be
buried in the chapel of Bradenham, under his father's tomb, in token
of a true Englishman."
Paul Whitehead, who died in the year 1774, left his heart to his
friend Lord le Despencer, to be deposited in his mausoleum at West
Wycombe. Lord le Despencer accepted the bequest, and on the 16th May,
1775, the heart, after being wrapped in lead and placed in a marble
urn, was carried with much ceremony to its resting place. Preceding
the bier bearing the urn, "a grenadier marched in full uniform, nine
grenadiers two deep, the odd one last; two German flute players, two
surpliced choristers with notes pinned to their backs, two more flute
players, eleven singing men in surplices, two French horn players, two
bassoon players, six fifers, and four drummers with muffled drums.
Lord le Despencer, as chief mourner, followed the bier, in his uniform
as Colonel of the Bucks Militia, and was succeeded by nine officers of
the same corps, two fifers, two drummers, and twenty soldiers with
their firelocks reversed. The Dead March in "Saul" was played, the
church bell tolled, and cannons were discharged every three and a half
minutes." On arriving at the mausoleum, another hour was spent by the
procession in going round and round it, singing funeral dirges, after
which the urn containing the heart was carried inside, and placed upon
a pedestal bearing the name of Paul Whitehead, and these lines:
Unhallowed hands, this urn forbear;
No gems, no Orient spoil,
Lie here concealed; but what's more rare,
A heart that knew no guile.
But in the year 1829 some unhallowed hand stole the urn, and the
whereabouts of Whitehead's heart remains a mystery to the present day.
In recent times an interesting case of heart burial was that of Lord
Byron, whose heart was enclosed in a silver urn and placed at Newstead
Abbey in the family vault; and another was that of the poet, Shelley,
whose body, according to Italian custom after drowning, was burnt to
ashes. But the heart would not consume, and so was deposited in the
English burying ground at Rome.
It is worthy, too, of note that heart burial prevailed to a very large
extent on the Continent. To mention a few cases, the heart of Philip,
King of Navarre, was buried in the Jacobin's Church, Paris, and that
of Philip, King of France, at the convent of the Carthusians at
Bourgfontaines, in Valois. The heart of Henri II., King of France, was
enshrined in an urn of gilt bronze in the Celestins, Paris; that of
Henri III., according to Camden, was enclosed in a small tomb, and
Henri IV.'s heart was buried in the College of the Jesuits at La
Fleche. Heart burial, again, was practised at the deaths of Louis IX.,
XII., XIII., and XIV., and in the last instance was the occasion of an
imposing ceremony. "The heart of this great monarch," writes Miss
Hartshorne, "was carried to the Convent of the Jesuits. A procession
was arranged by the Cardinal de Rohan, and, surrounded by flaming
torches and escorted by a company of the Royal Guards, the heart
arrived at the convent, where it was received by the rector, who
pronounced over it an eloquent and striking discourse."
The heart of Marie de Medicis, who built the magnificent palace of the
Luxembourg, was interred at the Church of the Jesuits, in Paris; and
that of Maria Theresa, wife of Louis XIV., was deposited in a silver
case in the monastery of Val de Grace. The body of Gustavus Adolphus,
the illustrious monarch who fell in the field of Lutzen, was embalmed,
and his heart received sepulchre at Stockholm; and, as is well known,
the heart of Cardinal Mazarin was, by his own desire, sent to the
Church of the Theatins. And Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV.,
directed in her will that her body should be buried at St. Denis near
to her husband, "of glorious memory," but her heart she bequeathed to
Val de Grace; and she also decreed that it should be drawn out through
her side without making any further opening than was absolutely
necessary. Instances such as these show the prevalence of the custom
of heart burial in bygone times, a further proof of which may be
gathered from the innumerable effigies or brasses in which a heart
holds a prominent place.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] See Timbs' "Abbeys, Castles, and Ancient Halls of England," i., p.
300; and "Enshrined Hearts of Warriors and Illustrious People," by
Emily Sophia Hartshorne, 1861.