1. HENRY I
Henry I (d. 1135), body buried in Reading Abbey heart (along with his bowels, brains, eyes and tongue) Rouen Cathedral, Normandy.
2. RICHARD I
Richard I, “Richard the Lion-Heart,” (d 1199) Ddied after being struck by a crossbow while campaigning in Chalus, France. Most of his body buried at Fontevraud Abbey, heart in a lead box Rouen Cathedral, Normandy.
3. ROBERT THE BRUCE
Robert the Bruce (d 1329) asked for his heart to be buried in Jerusalem. The knight he entrusted it to, Sir James Douglas, was killed in battle with the Moors while wearing the heart in a silver case around his neck. Other knights recovered it and brought it back to Melrose Abbey, Scotland, for burial.
4. ANNE BOLEYN
According to legend, after Anne Boleyn’s beheading in 1536, her heart was removed from her body and taken to a rural church in Erwarton, Suffolk, where the queen is said to have spent some happy days during her youth.
5. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Poet PShelley died sailing the Mediterranean in 1822. Local quarantine regulations dictated that his body had to be cremated on the beach. His heart allegedly refused to burn, and a friend, adventurer Edward Trelawny, supposedly plucked it out of the flames. After a custody battle among Shelley’s friends, the heart was given to Percy’s wife Mary, who kept it until she died. Her children found it in a silk bag inside her desk, and it is now said to be buried with her at the family vault in Bournemouth.
6. LORD BYRON
Byron's body was embalmed but the Greeks wanted some part of their hero to stay with them. According to some sources, his heart remained at Missolonghi and his other remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey. The Abbey refused for reason of "questionable morality". His body is buried at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.
7. FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
Romantic composer Chopin died (1849) and most of him is buried in Pere Lachaise but he asked for his heart to be buried in his native Poland. His sister carried it back to Poland, where it is preserved in alcohol (some say cognac) within a crystal urn inside a pillar at the Church of the Holy Cross. Warsaw.
8. THOMAS HARDY
Poet and novelist Hardy wanted to be buried in his hometown, Stinsford, Dorset, but friends insisted that a burial in Westminster Abbey was the only appropriate choice. A compromise was reached - most of Hardy went to Westminster but his heart was buried in Stinsford churchyard.
9. DAVID LIVINGSTONE
Livingstone died May 1873 in Chief Chitambo's village at Chipundu, southeast of Lake Bangweulu, present day Zambia. Led by his loyal attendants Chuma and Susi, his expedition arranged funeral ceremonies. They removed his heart and buried it under a tree near the spot where he died, which has been identified variously as a mvula or a baobab tree but is more likely to be a mpundu tree. That site, now known as the Livingstone Memorial lists his date of death as 4 May, the date reported (and carved into the tree's trunk) by Chuma and Susi but most sources consider 1 May - the date of his final journal entry - correct. The expedition led by Chuma and Susi then carried the rest of his remains, together with his last journal and belongings, on a 63 day journey to the coastal town of Bagamoyo, a distance exceeding 1,000 miles. Seventy-nine followers completed the journey, the men were paid their due wages and Livingstone's remains were returned to Britain for interment Westminster Abbey.
10. I JAN PADEREWSKI (d 1941), pianist, composer and third Prime Minister of Poland, his heart is encased in a bronze sculpture in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa near Doylestown, Pennsylvania. His body was also interred in America, near Wahington DC but in 1992, after the end of communist rule in Poland, his remains were transferred to Warsaw and placed in St. John's Archcathedral.
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