• British Museum raised $4.8 million to acquire rare pendant linked to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
• The 24-carat pendant, found by a metal detectorist, illuminates love, chivalry, and England’s religious rupture under Tudor rule.
• Discovered in 2019, the pendant will enter the museum’s permanent collection and likely tour the U.K.

The British Museum has successfully raised £3.5 million ($4.8 million) to acquire a golden “Tudor Heart” pendant that offers rare insights into King Henry VIII’s ill-fated first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The treasure, which speaks to chivalric love and courtly splendor, will enter the London museum’s permanent collection and is also expected to tour the U.K.

“This beautiful survivor tells us about a piece of English history few of us knew, but in which we can all now share,” said the British Museum’s director Nicholas Cullinan.

The 24-carat treasure was discovered in buried in the rural English countryside in 2019 by a metal detectorist. The astonishingly rare find was handed over to the British Museum in accordance with the U.K.’s Treasure Act 1996, and was quickly identified as one of the most significant 16th-century pieces to have ever been unearthed in Britain.

The British Museum launched its campaign to buy the pendant last fall, in an effort to prevent it from disappearing into private hands. It had set the target or raising the money by April, but was able to announce its success in time for Valentine’s Day.

“Tudor Heart” pendant opened. Photo courtesy The Trustees of the British Museum.

Researchers at the museum connected the dazzling piece of jewelry to Henry VII and Catherine of Aragon’s marriage thanks to the initials “H” and “K” which adorn the reverse side. The front of the pendant is also decorated with the Tudor Rose and a pomegranate bush. The fruit was a personal emblem of Catherine of Aragon’s, representing fertility at her homeland of Spain.

Sadly, a banner reading tousiors—Old French for “always”—would prove too optimistic about the marriage’s prospects. In 1533, the king had their marriage annulled, so breaking with the Catholic Church in an event that would forever change the course of English history.

Though Catherine’s marriage was long, there is little surviving material evidence of her reign and her influence on the Tudor court. This pendant is thought to have been a piece of costume jewelry commissioned for a tournament in October 1518, which had been organized to celebrate the betrothal of Henry and Catherine’s infant daughter Mary, future Queen of England, and the Dauphin, the French heir apparent. The pendant therefore also marks an important event in Mary’s story.

We cannot know for sure who commissioned the piece, but it is typical of the kind of festive jewelry worn by high-ranking members of court at important state celebrations.

Among the most prominent donors to the British Museum’s campaign were the Julia Rausing Trust, which gave £500,000 ($683,545); Art Fund, which gave £400,000 ($546,830); and the American Friends of the British Museum, who gave £300,000 ($410,120).  Members of the public also donated via an online portal.