Is Anne Boleyn’s heart buried in a Suffolk or Norfolk church?


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Behind Erwarton's gothic gatehouse, lies a Tudor Hall forever linked to the most famous of King Henry VIII's wives.
Anne was a regular visitor to Erwarton Hall, where her aunt Amy and uncle Philip lived.

Just three years after the couple married, Queen Anne Boleyn was b~headed within the confines of the Tower of London after being found guilty of high treason.
Her body was taken by her distressed ladies in waiting and carried to the nearby Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.
Placed in an old elm chest which had once contained bow staves from the Tower, her head and body were reunited and she was buried in the chancel close to the remains of her brother, Lord Rochford.
And that was the end of Anne Bolyen.
Or was it?

It was reburied beneath the organ with a small plaque marking the spot which made the claim that the former queen's heart had been brought to the church by her uncle, Sir Philip Parker following her death on 19th May 1536.
Whether the heart was indeed buried at the church or not, the Philip in question is incorrect.
Sir Philip Parker was a later owner of Erwarton Hall, Anne's uncle was Sir Philip Calthorpe, who had married her aunt Amy.

Author Agnes Strickland in her book 'Lives of the Queens of England', written in the 1840s, wrote of the lore that said Anne's remains had been removed from the Tower, and interred at midnight with the full rites of Christian burial.
Marked with a plain black stone with no inscription, the queen is said to have asked to be returned to her ancestral home of Salle, near Reepham.

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