ABSTRACT
The most frequently cited monuments linked with the crusades are of course the crossed-legs effigies to be found in many parish churches in Britain. The argument that this pose reflected participation in the crusades can be found in a numerous histories from the late sixteenth century onwards and was reinforced by the thirteenth-century effigies in the Temple Church in London. The practice of dividing the body, with the heart and entrails buried separately, was an unusual and this is the only example of a heart burial associated with the crusades. Arms and armour associated with the crusades may indeed have been an essential requirement for an antiquarian collection, with visitors familiar with the novels of Scott; popular histories of medieval heroes, such as Richard the Lionheart; and the dramatic depictions of crusade battles staged at Astley's amphitheatre in a London.
