The British Museum has just announced (Feburary 10) it has raised £3.5 million to keep the Tudor Heart in London, a move made possible with the help of British jeweller Boodles – check the details below.
A rare, heart-shaped pendant crafted from 24K yellow gold, the Tudor Heart was unearthed in 2019 by an amateur metal detectorist in a Warwickshire field, and it has been linked to King Henry VIII’s marriage to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon.
Delicately engraved and enamelled on its surface is Henry’s Tudor rose, entwined with a pomegranate bush (Katherine Aragon’s emblem), symbolising both her Spanish heritage and her fertility.
On the back of the pendant, the enamelled initials ‘h’ and ‘k’ are similarly linked, and below each image is the Old French word ‘tousiors‘, meaning ‘always’ – a poignant declaration of their connection.
Researchers have suggested that the locket may have been made to celebrate the engagement of the royal couple’s two-year-old daughter, Mary, to the infant French Dauphin (the heir apparent), which took place in 1518 and was part of a peace treaty between England and France.
Though the engagement was broken off just three years later, the jewel has endured – a glimpse into the intense political aspirations of the early Tudor court and a precursor to Mary’s ultimate place as the first British queen to rule in her own right.
What makes the Tudor Heart rarer still is its link to Henry VIII’s first wife. Though Katherine of Aragon was married to the king for 24 years, far longer than any of his later wives, hardly any artefacts that commemorate their marriage have survived – either lost to time, or deliberately destroyed as Henry sought to erase Katherine’s image from history and to legitimise his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn.
In October 2025, the British Museum announced it was fundraising to purchase the Tudor Heart to prevent it from entering a private collection. At the time, it had hoped to raise £3.5 million by April 2026 to ensure the jewel remained on public display for future generations.
Thanks to a mixture of public funding plus donations from grants, trusts and other organisations, that target has actually been hit two months ahead of schedule.
One of the companies which helped to support the Museum’s acquisition is the British jewellery firm, Boodles, though it declined to disclose the exact amount donated to the cause.
“It felt important to support a mission which would enable such a momentous piece of history to stay in Britain, in a museum that is open to everyone,” explains Honour Wainwright, Boodles’ director of marketing. “As a family-run British business built on heritage and craftsmanship, supporting something with such deep historical roots felt especially meaningful. What was once a piece that may have been worn by a queen, can now be admired and cherished by the nation.”
Just in time for Valentines’ Day, too.
Like this? Read about the archival Cartier necklace worn by Emerald Fennell to the ‘Wuthering Heights’ premiere.
