My crown is in my heart, not on my head; Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, Nor to be seen: my crown is called content: A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.
King Henry VI, Part 3, Act 3, Scene 1 William Shakespeare, c. 1591
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I was reading the history of Napoleon II and came across something which was bizarre and puzzling.
In December 1969, the prince's remains were moved underground to the cella of Napoleon's tomb.
While most of his remains were transferred to Paris, his heart and intestines remained in Vienna, which is traditional for members of the Habsburg house. They are in Urn 42 in the "Heart Crypt" (Herzgruft) and his viscera are in Urn 76 of the Ducal Crypt.
The above information in the Austrians have a heart grave, a gut grave and a body grave, just was strange. So searching for answers, an even more creepy thing developed these multiple crypts for people.
To shed light on what was going on, apparently when leaders died, they did not just bury them or burn them. Apparently they hauled the dead leaders around forever for never ending ceremonies. Hence you cut the heart out and gutted the corpse so they would not rot so fast.
The thing is, that this went on so long that the corpse really did rot and an effigy was put in place of the corpse so the festivities could continue.
The Habsburgs still cut hearts out and bury them. This has taken on a religion of sorts in this heart worship which only makes sense to the elite.
Heart burial is the separate interment of the heart from the body. During the ninth hrough eleventh centuries, elites employed heart burial to preserve the corpse during transport, a purely pragmatic venture. The heart and other organs were removed and stored in a leather bag
for transport, enabling the outer shell of flesh to be better preserved. The biles and acids of the corpse contributed to and accelerated the natural progression of decay. However, over the course of the medieval and early modern eras, the practice bloomed into a ritual that conveyed
political, sentimental, and deeply religious ideas. The House of Habsburg has interred three hearts within the last twenty-five years
Not really much more to elaborate on this, save the above babe was Sophie of Germany. Rumor had it that Napoleon II was romantic with her and Max of Mexico was their son. You do not see very many beautiful women in antiquity, but Sophie is gorgeous. She is what you think royalty should look like, compared to the royals now, who are really the kind of people you only end up in bed being raped by them when you drunk as they are so ugly.
Anyway, that is it, the bizarre crypt ceremonies of the elite.
Nuff Said
agtG