ou wait years for the chance to go poking around with the mortal remains of a medieval king, then two come along at once. Last month Richard III's skeleton was paraded in front of the world. Now it's Richard the Lionheart's turn.
French scientists this week announced the results of tests they had been running on the Lionheart's embalmed heart, which has been kept since the king's death in 1199 in a lead box at the church of Notre Dame in Rouen, France. They were not able, alas, to examine it for actual lion DNA, or indeed any DNA, since the heart has long since decayed into a pile of rusty colored dust. All the same, they found a couple of pretty interesting things.
The heart, which was buried separately from Richard's body (which lies with his father, Henry II, and mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in Fontevraud Abbey) and entrails (which were buried near the place of his death in Chalus), had been preserved with a concoction of plants and vegetable extracts. Some of them were very expensive: Richard's heart was originally wrapped in linen and had been treated with frankincense, myrtle, daisy, mint, creosote, mercury, and possibly lime. It must have cost a fortune, and smelled rather delicious.
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