A beautifully illustrated history of the fascinating word of ritual, design and meaning behind medieval royal burials. To the medieval mind the manner of burial and intombment was a central part of the fate of the soul. Each burial and tomb has its own story, shrouded in ritual and mysticism, such as the practice of heart burial, most famously that of the murdered king, Edward II, whose heart was interred in a silver casket beside his wife's body thirty years later. This book is a comprehensively guide from the origins of such a royal rituals to the Dissolution of the Monasteries when many of the tombs were stripped or destroyed - a 'metaphor for the mortality of the great'. Ultimately Mark Duffy asks and answers the question: what do medieval tombs show the status and thoughts of the people buried in them. He brings to the life the passion and individuality behind medieval death rites for a modern-day audience.