Louis XIV
We don't know if this habit was learning from ancient Egypt, but before the 18th century, dead kings and nobles had their hearts gouged out, soaked in alcohol bottles, added cinnamon, myrrh, benzoin, and then packed in sealed lead boxes. Finally, the heart is placed in the grave.
The History of Private Life records that the removal of the heart for preservation has a strict legal system, and not all people can do this after death. In 1667, after the death of count Marsh, who was only three years and three months old, the heart was taken out and sealed in a heart-shaped lead box. In 1680, when a 14-month-old aristocratic girl died, her heart was not taken out because she had not yet been officially baptized.
Many French people at that time believed that keeping the relics of the deceased could alleviate the grief in their hearts and continue to "communicate" with the deceased. A 17th-century lady named Deira Gate, deeply saddened by the death of her mother, said: "Nothing can comfort me... I wanted to cut off her head, put it in a cupboard, and look at it at my leisure to comfort me. But I couldn't do it, and the pastor who handled her dying affairs told me they would never agree. ”
Therefore, most ordinary people can only leave the hair or portrait of the deceased to express their nostalgia.
French kings could naturally preserve their hearts, their royal necropolis in the northern suburbs of France at the Basilica of Saint-Denis.
For a long time from the 10th century to the 18th century, almost all the kings of France were buried here, and their hearts were naturally in the catacombs. Normally, it was the safest place until the arrival of the French Revolution.
The angry masses united and captured the Cathedral of St. Denis, and in order to vent their anger, they smashed the king's sarcophagus, dragged the bones out and destroyed them, and then threw them into the nearby wilderness... However, the carefully preserved heart of the king in lead boxes, perhaps easily portable, was stolen in the confusion.
The heart of King Louis XIV of France also fell to the people. The 72-year reign of Louis XIV, the "Sun King", made France the most powerful country in Western Europe at that time, and it was also a very great king. At the time of the French Revolution, he had been dead for more than seventy years, and he never expected that his heart had been stolen.
French Revolution
The first legend goes that the man who stole the heart of Yi Xiv realized that it was a treasure, so he sold it to a nobleman in England. The nobleman did not collect it for long, and then sold it.
And so, somehow it passed into the hands of William Barranque. This Mr. Buckland, a very famous zoologist of the 19th century, loved to study magical animals around the world – and more importantly, he was a complete "foodie".
Buckland likes to try a wide variety of foods, especially meat. He had eaten ostriches, kangaroos, crocodiles, hedgehogs, and was said to have tried flies. After developing a strong stomach, things on Buckland's table became more and more strange. Finally one day he thought of the king's heart sealed in a lead box.
Such an important event, Buckland hopes that someone will witness it together. So he found some "like-minded" friends and held a dinner party at home. The heart of Louis XIV was taken out and brought to the table after some cooking. A group of people served whiskey and ate the king's heart...
Unfortunately, there is no record of their evaluation after eating. As for the veracity of this story, it is difficult to say. Heart-eating, which now seems exaggerated, was easily accepted at the time. 19th-century Europeans, under the "seduction" of adventurers and Arab merchants, believed that mummies were a panacea for all diseases, grinded and mixed in wine and drank, and became popular.
Therefore, a crazy foodie like Buckland is really possible to do such a thing.
At the same time as Buckland, Augustus Hale, who was a good storyteller, wrote another version of his book. He said he and Buckland had visited the estate of count alcour, and that the heart of Louis XIV had been brought out in a tray for them to see. Buckland seemed to have a sudden idea, and suddenly said, "I have eaten many strange things, but I have never eaten the heart of the king." "After saying that, Buckland ignored the resistance of others, picked it up and ate it...
Another legend holds that the heart of Louis XIV was ground by the artist and used as paint for painting.
The artists of the time used pigments, all of which were all natural. They think that using mummies as paint, the paintings painted have special effects, very realistic, in the end there is no such statement, there are friends who understand painting can popularize science. But there were all kinds of homemade pigments in that era, and it was true.
It is said that the heart of Louis XIV was caught by a painter and ground some of it as paint. A Parisian gentleman named Philippe, who happened to learn at the auction house that someone owned some "antiques" from the tomb of the king, was driven by curiosity to find the painter and get the half of the heart left by Louis XIV...
In the chaotic situation of the French Revolution, where the heart of Louis XIV went is really difficult to verify.
The heart of Louis XVII
Louis XVII, imprisoned during the French Revolution, died of illness at the age of 10. The doctor in charge of the autopsy stole the heart and took it home. After the doctor's death, the heart was given to the Archbishop of Paris. As a result, when the Revolution broke out in Paris in 1830, a printing worker took advantage of the chaos and snatched the heart away, and as a result, when he was fighting with others, the glass bottle was broken, and the heart was ignored in the chaos, so it was lost...
After the situation had calmed down, the son of the previous doctor came to the Archbishop's Palace and found the heart of Louis XVII in the sand mound. After several turns, the heart was finally buried in the royal cemetery. So, will this heart be fake? Even historians have been arguing. No way, it was too chaotic to be guaranteed by anyone.
In 2000, scientists took samples and tested dna with Queen Mary's hair, and confirmed that this was indeed the heart of Louis XVII.