Of the many barbarous acts committed during the orgy of destruction that was the French revolution, the desecration of the Royal Sepulchre in the Basilica of Saint Denis was one of the most heinous (after, perhaps, the mass murder of a fair portion of the populace). Dozens of tombs were opened, their occupents removed and transferred to two nearby mass graves where they were covered with lime in an attempt to dissolve them.
Now, thanks to the miracles of modern science, a full reinterment of the Bourbon and Valois kings may be possible:
19 November 2010
Multidisciplinary medical identification of a French king’s head (Henri IV)
Philippe Charlier and a multidisciplinary team explain how they confirmed an embalmed head to be that of the French king Henry IV using a combination of anthropological, paleopathological, radiological, forensic, and genetic techniques
Since the desecration of the French kings’ graves in the basilica of Saint-Denis by the revolutionaries in 1793, few remains of these mummified bodies have been preserved and identified. After a multidisciplinary analysis, we confirmed that an embalmed head reputed to be that of the French king Henri IV and conserved in successive private collections did indeed belong to that monarch.
...
Conclusion:
Now positively identified according to the most rigorous arguments of any forensic anthropology examination, the French king’s head will be reinterred in the royal basilica of Saint-Denis after a solemn funeral ceremony. Similar methods could be used to identify all the other kings’ and queens’ skeletons lying in the mass grave of the basilica, so that they can be returned to their original tombs
Henri IVVive le Roi!
As a child of New France, I am very pleased to see that you have posted this. To relate it to the British Commonwealth, it is perhaps fair to say that Henri IV was the first king of Canada, Québec City being settled by Champlain's expedition under his reign, and Canada has never ceased to be a kingdom since.
ReplyDeleteJe me souviens
Que né sous la lys
Je croîs sous la rose.
Vive le Roi.
Vive le Roi !!!
ReplyDeleteVive la Reine du Canada!
ReplyDeleteLong live Queen Elizabeth!
The Paris Press Corps have put their foot in it, once more. If one factors in the autopsy in 1795, of the purported Louis XVII, with the recent DNA fingerprint of his pickled heart, in it's crystal vase, a glaring mistake becomes evident.
ReplyDeleteYes, the heart belongs to the titular Louis XVII, but those leg bones make it too long for any ten year old child's. So, you have to factor in a surviving twin brother of Louis Joseph, who would have been 14&1/2 years old. This hypothesis makes everything fit, including King Louis' creation of Louis Charles, as Duke of Normandy. The King knew there was a sickly, but still senior claimant to the French Throne, hidden out in a convent outside of Paris. So a healthy ten year old prince became titular Louis XVIII, at the date of the Autopsy in 1795. But he was never out of the hands of the revolutionaries. He could have lived a long and fruitful life, throughout the Nineteenth Century. He would have been 100 years old in 1885, but he may just have outlived the Second Empire, and into the dawn of the Third Republic. Feel free to explore this for yourselves and to light up the French Press.
Hi
ReplyDeleteNice blog i like it
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