The Head of a King

Antiques Roadshow would love this one. Imagine finding a centuries-old mummified head in your attic and learning that it was the head of a king... and priceless. This story has made news all over the world, and there are many articles in English. Below is the version from Le Figaro, followed by a video of Prince Louis de Bourbon, explaining his role in the conservation and burial of the head. He speaks French fluently, but with a noticeable Spanish accent.

We now know more about the incredible medical-legal inquiry that permitted the authentication of a mummified head as being that of king Henri IV. Seated together behind the platform in the auditorium of the Grand Palais in Paris. Prince Louis de Bourbon, historian Jean-Pierre Babelon, Jacques Perot, president of the Société Henri IV, journalists Stéphane Gabet and Pierre Belet, and forensic doctor Philippe Charlier told with great passion their incredible adventure.

The fate of this head is a veritable saga with unexpected twists. After his assassination by François Ravaillac in 1610, the good king was buried in the Saint-Denis basilica. But in 1793, his remains were desecrated by the revolutionaries and his head cut off. From then on, it was sold to various individuals until it turned up in 1919 in Drouot, where it was acquired by photographer Joseph Emile Bourdais. Upon his death, in 1947, the Louvre Museum refused to buy the relic from his sister. After that, the relic disappeared.

"We found it sixty years later, in 2008, thanks to a series of very strange coincidences," Jean-Pierre Babelon relates mischievously. "In my house in Montmartre I've accumulated all sorts of letters on Henri IV. Fortunately, I have never given in to my dear wife who, from time to time, would gladly throw out a few of them! In 2008, Stéphane Gabet and Pierre Belet came to see me about the filming of a documentary. As they were going through the letters, they came upon a letter from an elderly couple, the Bellangers, who made some vague requests, and left only their address."

Even though the letter did not mention the head of the king, the journalists contacted them. "We weren't sure of anything. The reporter's intuition saved the day. After a year of exchanges, this extremely courteous couple finally admitted that for half a century they had kept a mummified head in a wooden box lined with purple velvet in the back of a closet! They had bought it in 1955 for 5000 francs from the sister of Bourdais. It was a well guarded secret: they hadn't even told their children. They wanted to solve the mystery themselves," smiles Stéphane Gabet.

Finally, in January 2010, with encroaching age, and on the condition that the head be returned to the direct descendant of Henri IV, the couple agreed to have their relic examined by experts. "The reporters then contacted me," confides Prince Louis de Bourbon. "I lent my moral support and consulted my address book for museums that might be interested. The twenty scientists worked for free. I helped finance the tests, the bailiffs who certified the results and the travel (to Pau, Florence...), amounting to about 10,000 euro."

The article then tells how forensic doctor Philippe Charlier, who had also worked on the cases of Jeanne d'Arc, Diane de Poitiers and Agnes Sorel employed the best experts from the perfume industry, and how they used scanners, toxology, facial reconstitution, genetics, dating... and six months later the head was declared authentic.

"Temporarily it is in a bank vault in the Paris region," revealed Prince Louis de Bourbon. "I'm going to contact President Nicolas Sarkozy in order to see to it that my ancestor rest in the royal necropolis of Saint-Denis basilica. As for the body of Henri IV, it is scattered among different museums such as the one in Pontoise that has the thumb (!), private collectors and the ossuary of Saint-Denis. It would be best if, when the head is returned, the remains of the king were restituted..."

And he added: "I hope that this reburial is an opportunity for a national reconciliation among Frenchmen. The trauma of the desecration perpetrated by the Revolution did great harm. This head is a family inheritance, but above all our national inheritance."

The video recapitulates the facts given above. But he does add near the end that he feels that the French should become better acquainted with the Saint-Denis basilica, because it is unique in Europe. And he stresses that as heir and direct descendant it is his duty to contact the French government about the reburial. The anchor addresses him as "Monseigneur."