King of hearts: Richard the Lionheart’s organ analyzed in detail
Baku, March 4 (AZERTAC). When King Richard I of England died in 1199 his heart was embalmed separately of his body, wrapped in linen and buried in a small lead box. The man who was more famously known as Richard the Lionheart because of his courageousness as a military leader spent most of his Kinghood in France at battle. In fact it was in battle when he was struck down by a crossbow during a castle siege, later dying from his injury.
After his death, as was a customary practice of aristocracy during the Middle Ages, Lionheart’s entrails were removed and buried in Chalus, his body was entombed in Frontevraud Abbey, and his heart was embalmed and buried in the cathedral of Notre Dame in Rouen, France. The box containing then-leader of the Third Crusade’s heart was rediscovered in 1838 during an excavation.
Now, 175 years later, the remains of the heart have been analyzed in greater detail by Philippe Charlier, a forensic scientist from Raymond Poincare University Hospital in France, and his colleagues. The heart, which is now a grayish-brown powder, was too poor to reveal an actual cause of death, but Charlier and colleagues did rule out one theory that a poisoned arrow was the reason for Lionheart’s demise.
While the team could not pinpoint an actual cause of death, most historians believe he succumbed to gangrene or septicemia from a wound in battle. However, through biological analysis, Charlier and his team were able to find out more about the methods used to preserve the organ. The results of their work have been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“We carried out exactly the same kind of analysis that we would perform on an exhumed body for forensic purposes,” Charlier said in an interview with the BBC. “We did a microscopic examination, toxicological analysis and also a pollen analysis.”
“I’m a historian of medicine,” Charlier said, but noted that his main aim is to develop autopsy techniques. He said he devotes his studies to analyzing historical cadavers because it’s more “complex and interesting” than analysis of modern ones donated to science.
Charlier, who in France has become to be known as the “Indiana Jones of the graveyards,” is somewhat of a celebrity because of his work. He said in a New York Times interview that he got interested in historical autopsy after taking part in an archeological excavation as a child.
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