Posted on 12/15/2010 2:19:47 PM PST by billorites
After nine months of tests, researchers in France have identified the head of France's King Henry IV, who was assassinated in 1610 aged 57.
The scientific tests helped identify the late monarch's embalmed head, which was shuffled between private collections ever since it disappeared during the French Revolution in 1793.
The results of the research identifying Henry IV's head were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, BMJ.
Henry IV was buried in the Basilica of Saint Denis near Paris, but during the frenzy of the French Revolution, the royal graves were dug up and revolutionaries chopped off Henry's head, which was then snatched.
"This case was considered with the same (level of severity) as if it were a recent forensic case," said Philippe Charlier, a forensic medical examiner of University Hospital R Poincare in Garches, France, who led the team.
Charlier and 19 colleagues ran a battery of forensic tests on King Henry IV's head this year.
As one of France's best-loved monarchs, Henry IV was credited with brokering peace between Catholics and Protestants, kick-starting the French economy and building Parisian landmarks including the Pont Neuf bridge and Place des Vosges square. He was the first of the Bourbon monarchs and grandfather of the Sun King Louis XIV.
In the scientists' examinations of the monarch's head, they found features often seen in the king's portraits, including a dark lesion above his right nostril. They also found a healed bone fracture above his upper left jaw, which matched a stab wound the king suffered during an assassination attempt in 1594.
Radiocarbon testing confirmed the head dated from the 17th-century. Charlier and colleagues also compared the embalmed head to an autopsy report describing the particular embalming process used for French kings, written by the king's surgeon. Perfumers on the team used their professionally trained noses to identify specific embalming substances in the mouth used to hide nasty odors.
The French researchers also created a digital facial reconstruction and ran computer tomography scans which showed the skull was consistent with all known portraits of Henry IV and the plaster mold made of his face just after his death.
Frank Ruehli, of the University of Zurich and the Swiss Mummy project said the research was credible but that it would been more persuasive if the French scientists had found DNA evidence.
"They've narrowed it down considerably and it probably is Henry IV," he said. "But without the final DNA proof it is hard to say absolutely who it is." Ruehli was not linked to the research.
Still, Ruehli said the French scientists did the next best thing, by matching evidence of Henry IV's facial lesion and healed wounds to historical documentation of those traits, which were likely unique to the monarch.
The discovery comes at the end of King Henry IV year in France, which marks 400 years since the monarch, also known as the "Green Gallant," was murdered.
Next year, France will hold a national Mass and funeral for Henry IV. His head will then be reburied alongside the rest of the country's former kings and queens, in the Basilica of Saint Denis.
It sounds like the crowd was chanting “off with their heads” at the same time. I fully expect something insane to happen soon along those lines. People are absolutely losing it worldwide.
Idiot Charles
Inbreeding can do that. :’)
Looks like he’s watering his shoes.
Imagine finding that under your Xmas tree? The embalmed head of the French King?
Gross.
Regift.
Only thing you can do.
Regift.
Only thing you can do.
Thanks Sunken Civ for the Ping.
He was a Protestant turned Catholic. Nostradamus predicted his death on the jousting field, writing he would have his eye pierced by a lance in La Place des Vosges.
Henri IV, le Vert Gallant, is a very important & fascinating figure in French history, born Henri dr Navarre, a Protestant, he famously said Paris vaut une messe”
Translation: Paris is worth a mass, & converted to Catholicism as he entered Paris to marry Marguerite, later-immortalized in the great film, La Reine Margot with Isabelle Adjani. This marriage put an end to religious strife in France, & brought about a period of religious tolerance &
prosperity.
His equestrian statue on the tip of Ile de la Cite is a beloved Paris landmark. If you have pics, please post. Can’t do it from iPhone.
This one might be Henry IV, or not
This one's definitely Charlemagne:
And me with the Pont Neuf in the background:
The French Revolution and French Revolutionaries provide an intersting contrast with our own situation.
THey were vicious, murderous, Godless, iconoclasts.
In my opinion, so far, we have been the ONLY nation to get it right.
I think the attachment of our Founding Fathers to the God of the Old and New Testament is the main reason.
And the loss of that attachment is the main reason we are in the mess we are in now.
Great photos! Hope your trip was as wonderful as your pics. Henri IV is the one on horseback with
Le Pont Neuf in the background.
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