Frog & Fog (21)
In 1199, Richard the Lionheart was struck in the shoulder by a crossbow bolt from a castle while suppressing a rebellion. The wound itself was not fatal, but it became infected, and Richard ultimately died in his mother Eleanor's arms.
There had long been territorial disputes between western France and England. Rouen, which belonged to France today, had been part of England in the Middle Ages, so there was nothing inappropriate about placing Richard's heart in Rouen Cathedral.
But according to Napoleon's own wishes, his heart was meant to be given to the Austrian princess Marie-Louise. The princess had just remarried at the time, so how could she possibly have accepted a bloody heart as a gift?
After entering her new marriage, Marie-Louise barely cared even for the son she had borne Napoleon. Yet this seemingly promising crown prince never fully grew up, dying at the age of twenty-one. Most of House of Habsburg felt nothing about it, and might even have breathed a sigh of relief. His heart was sealed in a silver box and placed in the Habsburg Imperial Crypt along with his other organs. It was not moved near Napoleon I's tomb until 1969.
Louis XVII's heart also went through many twists and turns before returning to Paris. Shortly after his death, a doctor's assistant stole it away. It passed through many hands for over a hundred years before being placed in the royal burial ground at the Basilica of Saint-Denis in 1975. In 1999, the government of France conducted DNA testing on the heart and confirmed that it did indeed belong to Louis XVII.
If one wanted to kill someone, the best way was to stab them in the heart. Yet the heart was protected by the ribs, and an untrained person