Tudor Heart Pendant
24 carat heart-shaped gold jewel
The Tudor Heart Pendant is an early 16th century gold jewel associated with the marriage of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The pendant, decorated with the Tudor rose and Catherine’s pomegranate emblem, was discovered in Warwickshire in 2019 by a metal detectorist and declared treasure under the Treasure Act 1996. After a public fundraising campaign, it was acquired by the British Museum in 2026.
Description
The pendant is a heart-shaped gold jewel dating to the early 16th century and associated with King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. The pendant is made of 24-carat gold and is suspended from a chain of 75 links.
The front of the pendant is decorated with a red and white Tudor rose alongside a pomegranate bush, the personal emblem of Catherine of Aragon. The reverse bears the initials “H” and “K,” referring to Henry and Catherine. A banner across the pendant carries the inscription “TOVS IORS,” a stylized form of the French word toujours (“always”), interpreted as a pun meaning “always” or “all yours.”
The pendant was found with an enamelled hand connecting it to a gold curb chain. The hand also functions as the chain's clasp. Inventories of the jewels of Henry VIII made by William Compton mention a carcanet collar with hands suspending balas rubies, and another list includes a carcanet with hands holding a hearts with a hanging pearl.
The public source identifies “Tudor Heart Pendant” as 24 carat heart-shaped gold jewel. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tudor, Heart and Pendant.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q138577580. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2019, 1996 and 2026.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tudor Heart Pendant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.