Credit: Wikimedia
PARIS: The head of one of France's most adored kings, Henri IV, has been declared genuine by a panel of forensic scientists, opening the door for him and other desecrated royals to return to the crypt after more than two centuries.
Known as 'le bon roi Henri' (good king Henri), Henri IV promoted religious tolerance, was a hit with the ladies and was the first to dream of putting a chicken in every pot.
Alas for Henri IV: on May 14 1610, at the age of 57, his life was cut brutally short by a Catholic fanatic who waylaid him during a procession and slashed him twice in the throat. Then, during the French Revolution, came a second ignominy.
No rest for a severed head
In 1793, a mob of revolutionaries ransacked the royal chapel at Saint-Denis, north of Paris, hauled the ancient kings from their tombs and mutilated their remains, which were then tossed into a pit.
For the next couple of centuries, a severed head, presumed to be that of Henri IV, led a peripatetic existence, bought and sold at auctions or kept in secretive private collections.
Reporting in the British Medical Journal this week, the panel of experts harnessed 21st-century detective techniques to probe the exceptionally preserved find.
Soft tissues and organs preserved
"The human head had a light brown colour, open mouth, and partially closed eyes," says the study, led by Philippe Charlier, a forensic pathologist at the University Hospital Raymond Poincare in Garches.
"The preservation was excellent, with all soft tissues and internal organs well conserved." The head had two telltale features that were seen in 16th-century portraits of the king.
One was a dark, mushroom-like lesion, 11mm long, just above the right nostril. There was also a large hole in the right ear lobe, with a sheen indicating long use, that came from an earring - again, something frequently seen in Henri's portraits.
3D scanners and X-rays reveal attacks
So-called mitochondrial matching - looking for DNA handed down through the maternal line - was impossible because the mummified head had been handled so much that it was impossible to guarantee a sample that was uncontaminated.
Radiocarbon-dating yielded a broad-ranging date of between 1450 and 1650, which fitted neatly with the king's own lifespan, from 1553 to 1610. More accurate information came from 3D scanners and X-rays. They found a 5mm bone lesion in the upper left jawbone, corresponding to a stab wound inflicted in 1594 in a previous assassination attempt.
