In June 2020, the statue of King Louis IX of France in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri was surrounded by protesters demanding its removal. They urged the Vatican to remove Louis from the list of saints, accusing him of Islamophobia, antisemitism, and mishandling the Seventh and Eighth Crusades, which resulted in death and suffering for both Christians and Muslims.
Even more than 150 years after its final dissolution, the French monarchy continues to spark passionate discussions among historians and the general public. Emerging from the obscure past, it achieved its peak under the Sun King Louis XIV, suffered a near-fatal blow during the Revolution, experienced a brief restoration, and persisted until the fall of Napoleon III’s Second Empire in 1870.
Throughout their reigns, some monarchs left behind a legacy of mysteries and secrets that remain controversial. Here are ten of the most fascinating ones.
Mystery of the Merovingians
France’s history as a nation began when the Frankish tribes came together under Clovis I (481–511). His dynasty, the Merovingians, was named after his grandfather Merovech, a mysterious figure who fought alongside the Romans against the Huns in 451. Aside from being a Salian Frank, little is known of Merovech’s origins, sparking myths about him.
According to the 7th-century Chronicle of Fredegar, a man named Chlodio was with his wife by the sea one summer. One day, his wife was swimming when a sea beast called Quinotaur raped her, and she gave birth to Merovech. The most famous myth was created by pseudohistorians Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln in the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, popularized by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code.
These books suggest that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife and was pregnant when she fled Palestine for Marseille. The Holy Grail is her womb carrying Jesus’ bloodline. Mary’s relics are said to be in the abbey of Vezelay or the convent of St. Maximin. This modern myth claims the Merovingians were descendants of Jesus Christ.
Some people propose even stranger lineages, connecting them to the Nephilim, or fallen angels. The sea beast that spawned Merovech is linked to the Beast and Antichrist of Revelation 13.
The truth is that Merovech was illegitimate, and the sea monster tale was created to cover up his parentage and give him a heroic, divine origin to legitimize Merovingian power. [1]
The Death of St. Louis
Louis IX (1214–1270), the only French king to become a saint, led the disastrous Seventh and Eighth Crusades but gained a reputation as a model Christian warrior. Captured in Egypt during his first campaign, he was held for ransom. In the second, he and most of his men suffered terrible deaths in Tunis. Historically, Louis’s death was ascribed to the plague, but this may need to be revisited.
In 2019, researchers analyzed a jawbone believed to be the king’s and found signs of scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency. This supports the idea that in his final days, Louis was spitting out bits of gum and teeth, indicative of scurvy’s late stages.
Jean de Joinville wrote that one-sixth of Louis’s troops had similar symptoms: “Our army suffered from gum necrosis, and the doctors had to cut the necrotizing tissue to allow the men to chew and swallow. It was a pity to hear the soldiers crying like women in labor when their gums were cut.”
Why did Louis and his army suffer when there were fruits and vegetables in Tunisia? It was due to ignorance, as vitamin C deficiency wasn’t discovered until 1927. The Crusaders relied on meat, and poor planning meant they didn’t bring enough water, fruit, and vegetables.
Louis also undertook penances and fasts, harming his health. He also suffered from dysentery before the end. Researchers think scurvy wasn’t the primary cause of death, but it made Louis more vulnerable to the infection that killed him. [2]
Charles VI’s Glass Delusion
A strange psychological disorder appeared in the Middle Ages, affecting the nobility for centuries before disappearing in the 19th. Victims thought their bodies were made of glass.
One of the first recorded cases was King Charles VI (1368–1422), who reformed the royal bureaucracy. But in 1392, he had symptoms of schizophrenia. Once called “the Beloved,” Charles was now called “the Mad.”
Charles believed he was made of glass. To avoid breaking, he wrapped himself in blankets and stayed still. When he moved, he wore a garment with iron rods for protection. He didn’t recognize his wife and children and refused to wash for five months. In 2018, psychiatrists said the king may have had bipolar disorder.
Glass delusion may have been a response to new materials. Transparent glass had just been invented in Venice, amazing people. Before Glass Men, there were Earthenware Men, and the 19th century saw Concrete Men when concrete became popular. [3]
The Murder of Agnes Sorel
Agnes Sorel met King Charles VII when she was 20. Charles was captivated, and she became his mistress, the first in French history. Charles gave her gifts, including the first cut diamond and estates, and she was extravagant. She had fur-lined dresses and wore a gown with one breast exposed.
Agnes had political influence, and she urged Charles to take Normandy from England. The king legitimized the three children Agnes bore him. She made enemies in the court.
On February 4, 1450, after delivering her fourth child, Agnes died at 28. Her death seemed suspicious, and rumors of poison spread. In 2005, toxicology found mercury in her remains. But who killed Agnes remains a mystery.
Jacques Coeur, the financier, was accused but exonerated. Then, there was Charles’s wife, Queen Marie, or Agnes’s cousin, Antoinette de Maignelay. The queen’s doctor, Poitevin, had access to poison.
The most likely suspect was Charles’s son, the future Louis XI, who hated Agnes. He had spies posing as Agnes’s servants who could have done the murder.
The murder of Agnes Sorel is one cold case historians will revisit. [4]
The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
Catherine de Medici is often called “The Serpent Queen” for her intrigues as the power behind her three sons and her attempts to navigate the French Wars of Religion.
Catherine knew that peace between the Huguenots and the Catholics was crucial. She negotiated with Jeanne d’Albret for marriage between Jeanne’s son Henry and her own daughter, Margaret. Jeanne was hesitant, aware of Catherine’s devious streak.
Jeanne wrote, “I have spoken to the Queen three or four times. She only mocks me, and reports the contrary of what I have said to her…” Jeanne agreed to the union, but when she died in Paris, rumors spread that Catherine had poisoned her, an accusation that has never been proven.
Henry and Margaret married on August 18, 1572. Thousands of Huguenots came to Paris for the celebration. On the 22nd, Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny was wounded in an assassination attempt. The Catholics, fearing retaliation, launched a preemptive strike on St. Bartholomew’s Day, resulting in the massacre of 3,000 Protestants in Paris.
History blames Catherine. But did she really plot the massacre? She knew Coligny would be assassinated and may have wanted a few Huguenot leaders dead to protect her son, King Charles IX. But premeditated slaughter? There is no real evidence.
Catherine visited Coligny after the attack and promised to catch the assassin. She sent the royal doctor to treat Coligny and offered shelter to fleeing Protestants. Why would she instigate a massacre when the point of Henry and Margaret’s marriage was to promote peace?
Catherine’s words suggest she was surprised: “I have never before… been in a situation where I had so great a reason for feeling terrified and from which I have escaped with greater gratitude.”
“Kill them all!” Charles IX had cried. At worst, Catherine colluded with her son to deal with a situation that spiraled out of control. [5]
Henri IV’s Missing Head
Henry of Navarre became Henry IV after the assassination of Henry III in 1587. He converted to Catholicism to end religious chaos. The first Bourbon on the throne was known as “Good King Henry” for bringing peace and prosperity to France.
By 1793, the Bourbons were hated. A mob sacked Henry’s tomb in the Basilica of St. Denis and threw his remains into a mass grave. When the grave was reopened in 1817, Henry’s head was missing.
In 1946, a photographer offered the Louvre a head he claimed to be the king’s, but the Louvre declined. In 2008, a mummified head was found in the attic of Jacques Bellanger. Facial reconstruction matched portraits of the king, and investigators identified a mole and a scar.
But the brain wasn’t removed by embalmers, as was customary. DNA matched blood from Louis XVI, but that blood was of dubious provenance. DNA comparison with living descendants indicated that both the head and the blood were not authentic.
Where is Henry IV’s head? Was the body uncovered in 1817 even Henry’s? The revolutionaries might have treated Henry with respect and buried him separately. Henry may be resting peacefully in his own grave. [6]
The Mistress and the Witch
Catherine Monvoisin, known as La Voisin, was a clairvoyant in 17th-century Paris. She knew medicine and physiology, used in palmistry, face-reading, and abortions. Her aphrodisiacs were popular. Her intelligence impressed professors at Sorbonne University.
La Voisin added the Black Mass, where she used her body as an altar. Nobles came to her for help, and she set up a network of witches.
In 1667, La Voisin said that Madame de Montespan, the king’s mistress, asked her to perform a Black Mass to secure her hold on Louis. Mme. de Montespan was given an aphrodisiac, but when Louis had an affair with Mademoiselle de Fontanges, she asked La Voisin for poison.
The police were investigating poisonings and learned of a plot to kill the king. The police investigated La Voisin’s gang, who provided clients with concoctions to dispatch enemies.
The investigation uncovered La Voisin’s complicity in the murders of between 1,000 and 2,500 people. Louis didn’t believe de Montespan had plotted against him. The charges against her were never proven. Louis didn’t prosecute nobles who used La Voisin’s services, fearing rebellion.
La Voisin was burned at the stake with 36 accomplices in 1680. [7]
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Man in the Iron Mask was a prisoner in the Bastille during the reign of Louis XIV. No one saw his face, which was covered by a black velvet mask. Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas wrote about the story, turning the mask into iron.
Most historians say the prisoner’s name was Eustache Dauger, a valet. His identity remains a mystery. What crime did he commit?
In 1669, a lettre de cachet ordered Dauger’s arrest for displeasing Louis. Dauger was given to Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, who was his jailer for 34 years. Saint-Mars was to “threaten him with death if he speaks one word except about his actual needs.” He was to be kept behind three doors where no one could hear him.
Voltaire and Dumas said the prisoner was a brother of Louis. Another theory says he was Louis’s real father, hidden to cover up the Sun King’s true paternity. Others suggest he was a general, an English nobleman, or Count Antonio Mattioli. Some say Dauger was a woman—the daughter of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, replaced with a boy who became Louis XIV.
Historians have dismissed the notion that Dauger had royal blood. He was a valet. 17th century protocol wouldn’t allow royalty to take on such a position, even in prison. Dauger must have been a valet.
Why the precautions? Was he privy to important information? Dauger died in 1703 at the Bastille, taking his secrets to the grave. [8]
The Great Cipher
The Great Cipher of Louis XIV took 200 years to crack. Created by Antoine and Bonaventure Rossignol, it protected Louis’s secret messages throughout his reign. The Rossignols worked in a room next to the King’s study at Versailles, giving them great power.
The monoalphabetic nature of the cipher was deceiving. It wasn’t just a substitution cipher. It included 587 numbers, representing syllables. The Rossignols were encrypting vocal sounds. Some numbers were traps, included to confuse codebreakers.
The Great Cipher was used until 1811, when the last Rossignol died. In 1893, Etienne Bazeries deciphered some codes. But much correspondence has yet to yield its secrets. That is 150 years of French history waiting to be uncovered. [9]
The Lost Dauphin
In January 1793, the seven-year-old Dauphin Louis Charles was proclaimed King Louis XVII. The child was separated from his mother, Marie Antoinette, and placed under the care of Antoine Simon. Louis was manipulated into accusing his mother of molestation, which led to Marie Antoinette’s execution.
In 1794, Louis was sent to Temple prison in Paris, where harsh conditions caused his health to decline. On June 8, 1795, it was announced that Louis Charles was dead, later determined to be from tuberculosis. The doctor, Philippe-Jean Pelletan, removed and preserved the heart. The secrecy around the Dauphin’s final days raised suspicions that he was spirited away and was still alive.
Many individuals claimed to be Louis. Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, a German clockmaker, appeared in Paris in 1833 and was convincing. He had a deformed ear and a scar on the lip, and he resembled the Bourbons. Naundorff was recognized by the Dutch government as Louis XVII, and his tombstone bore the name Louis Charles de Bourbon.
In 1999, Pelletan’s mummified heart was analyzed, and in 2004, its DNA was genetically similar to Marie Antoinette’s. Naundorff’s supporters say that DNA from Naundorff’s humerus bone showed similarities to Marie Antoinette’s descendants in 2014.
What about the heart? King Louis XVIII refused it, saying it wasn’t his nephew’s. The organ had been hidden, stolen, or lost until it found its way to the royal crypt in St. Denis in 1975. It may have belonged to another royal family member.
Most of France believes the Dauphin did not survive Temple prison, but some doubts remain. [10]
What do you think about these mysteries and controversies? Leave your comment below!
