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Desecration of the tombs of the Saint-Denis basilica

The desecration of the tombs of the Basilica of Saint-Denis was a major event in Paris during the French Revolution in which the basilica's tombs—belonging to the necropolis of the kings of France—were opened or destroyed, and the bodies were exhumed and desecrated.

Historical context

After the abolition of the monarchy on 10 August 1792, the provisional government ordered the melting down of monuments made of bronze, silver, and metals in general. Forty-seven tombs in the Basilica of Saint-Denis were destroyed for this purpose, such as that of Charles VIII of France, made in gilded bronze, although some were saved from destruction at the request of the National Convention's Commission of Fine Arts, which in 1793 had ordered the destruction of the insignia of feudalism and of royal tombs in all buildings of the Republic.

The proposal to decide the fate of the tombs and bodies at Saint-Denis was made during the Reign of Terror at the National Convention session of 31 July 1793 by Barère, in order to commemorate the storming of the Tuileries on 10 August 1792 and to strike at the “impure ashes of tyrants” under the pretext of recovering the lead from coffins. The National Convention, after hearing the report of the Committee of Public Safety, announced in its second decree of 1 August 1793:

Dom Germain Poirier, a Benedictine scholar of the Congregation of Saint-Maur, a deputy of the Commission of Monuments and an archivist of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and of Saint-Denis, was appointed commissioner to attend the opening of the tombs, while Meigné, commissioner of the Central Administration for the extraordinary manufacture of arms, was tasked with supervising the exhumation work. The month of August was devoted to the exhumation of bodies at the official request of citizen Meignié, although this decision was not fully implemented until October because a member of the convention, Joseph Lequinio, denounced its non-application on 7 September. From 6 August, several funerary monuments (tombs, statues, columns, altars, stained glass, etc.) were dismantled or destroyed, with bodies placed on the ground.

Principal witnesses

Dom Poirier was the principal eyewitness to the exhumation and desecration of the royal tombs. He remained day and night in the basilica from 12 to 25 October, drafting several reports for the Commission of Monuments. In 1796, the Report on the exhumation of royal bodies at Saint-Denis in 1793 supplemented those reports with information provided by Dom Druon, rector of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Later testimonies, such as that of the future heritage curator Alexandre Lenoir, another eyewitness, or that of Georges d'Heylli, who republished this report in 1872 in Les tombes royales de Saint-Denis, largely reproduce the information provided by Dom Druon.

Dom Poirier recorded that the remains of some prominent individuals could not be found, such as those of Cardinal de Retz (died 1679) or those of Alfonso of Brienne. Once stone and marble funerary monuments were cut or broken, several bodies were uncovered in varying states of preservation; among those mentioned by witnesses were Louis XV—whose body had not been embalmed due to smallpox—and Louis XIV, described by witnesses as having darkened in color. The body of Henry IV was found in unusually good condition and was reportedly displayed inside the basilica for two days. Other bodies suffered various forms of damage. Some revolutionaries took nails, hair, teeth, or bones as trophies or for sale, since the manufacture of medicinal ointments from human mummy remains had been a known practice for centuries. The bodies of more than 170 people (46 kings, 32 queens, 63 princes of the blood, 10 servants of the realm, and about two dozen abbots of Saint-Denis) were thrown into two mass graves, called “Valois” and “Bourbons”, dug for this purpose along the courtyard of the monks’ cemetery, adjacent to the basilica. One was intended for the “first races” of the Valois (that is, earlier dynasties) and the other for the Bourbons. After several onlookers descended into the pits to collect “relics”, the bodies were partly covered with quicklime and earth. In the vaults, lead canisters or barrels containing the entrails of several kings were found; they were opened and their contents were thrown into the pits.

A man named Brulay, receiver of the Saint-Denis domains in 1793, is said to have stolen some of these remains. During the Bourbon Restoration, his widow unsuccessfully attempted to sell them to Louis XVIII. Later sold at auction, these remains eventually became part of the collection of the Tavet-Delacour Museum in Pontoise, though the provenance of some items has been questioned, such as the jaw of Dagobert I, two teeth and a piece of skull attributed to Louis IX, several teeth attributed to Henry III, hair attributed to Philip II, or the mummified leg attributed to Catherine de' Medici.

Desecrations

Desecrations from 6 to 8 August 1793

Dom Poirier attended the exhumations for the first time in August 1793. The following remains were exhumed:

Most activity in the basilica in August focused on melting down metal tombs, leading to the melting of, among many others, the copper slab of Margaret of Provence, the gilded bronze effigy of Charles the Bald, and the imposing gilded and enamelled bronze tomb of Charles VIII.

Desecrations of October 1793

It was during the second period of desecrations, in October 1793, that exhumations were carried out on a large scale. Dom Germain Poirier recorded in his report that workers, accompanied by “exhumation commissioners” (supervisors), the “commissioner of goldsmiths” (responsible for recovering objects made of precious metals and sending them to the National Convention), and the “commissioner of lead” (responsible for recovering coffin lead for melting), descended with lanterns and torches into the Bourbon vault, where fifty-four oak coffins rested on iron trestles corroded by rust. Air-purifying substances, such as juniper and vinegar, were placed in the vault to reduce odors. According to Poirier, the exhumations carried out in October 1793 were as follows:

12 October

  • Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne (Turenne). His good state of preservation reportedly prompted restraint, and because he was still remembered for his popularity and military victories, his body was not desecrated, though it was displayed for a time; when entrusted to a guard, that guard extracted and sold his teeth. He was taken to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, later to the Museum of French Monuments, and finally, by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, to the Church of Saint-Louis at Les Invalides, where he remains.
  • Henry IV. His oak coffin was opened with hammers and his lead coffin with a chisel. According to witnesses, his body was well preserved and facial features were recognizable (he had been embalmed “in the Italian manner”). He was reportedly left upright, leaning against one of the choir columns, inside his coffin and wrapped in a shroud that was also well preserved. He remained on display until the morning of Monday, 14 October, when he was carried to the foot of the sanctuary steps, where he remained until two o’clock in the afternoon. Before his body was placed in the Valois pit, some people reportedly took small “relics”, such as nails and hair from his beard. There was also a rumour that a delegate of the Commune made a plaster cast of his face. Likewise, there is no document or archive record stating that the king's head was cut off and stolen. Witnesses stated that Henry IV's body was deposited whole at the bottom of the mass grave and later covered with the remains of his descendants. However, when Louis XVIII sought to restore the basilica's tombs, three bodies were discovered missing their skulls, one of them attributed to Henry IV. In 2008, a head appeared in the possession of Jacques Bellanger, who had acquired it seven years after it had been refused by the Louvre due to doubts about its provenance, although Joseph Emile Bourdais, an antiques dealer who had owned it since 1919, had always maintained that the skull was Henry IV's. DNA analyses and a facial reconstruction study were reported to have confirmed its authenticity.

13 October

Because the exhumations had been hindered by the presence of onlookers, it was decided to close the basilica to all persons not involved in the work, although this decision was not ultimately enforced.

14 October

  • Louis XIII. His coffin was opened at around three o’clock in the afternoon; the body was badly deteriorated and said to be recognizable only by his black moustache. It was thrown face down into the mass grave on a bed of quicklime, intended to accelerate decomposition.
  • Louis XIV. His body was described as recognizably preserved, though darkened in color, attributed to gangrene before his death. His body was thrown into the mass grave, and the copper plaque commemorating him was removed and turned into a cooking pot. His heart, along with that of Louis XII, was used by the painter Martin Drolling in his Interior of a Kitchen (1807).
  • Marie de' Medici. When workers opened her lead coffin, they found bones in a muddy substance. Workers reportedly insulted her, accusing her of the murder of Henry IV, and some pulled the last remaining locks of hair from the skull and passed them around.
  • Anne of Austria. Her body, in an advanced state of decomposition, was wrapped in a thick red cloth, said to be the habit of the Third Order of Saint Francis.
  • Maria Theresa of Spain, wife of Louis XIV.
  • Louis, the Grand Dauphin, son of Louis XIV. His body was described as severely decomposed.

15 October

16 October (the day of the execution of Marie Antoinette in Paris)

(At this point the Bourbon vault was emptied, so the Valois vault was opened to continue the exhumations.)

17 October

18 October

(At this point the Valois vault was partially emptied, so the Capet vault was opened to continue the exhumations.)

19 October

In the tumulus containing the tombs of Marie (1326–1341) and Blanche of France (1328–1394) there was only rubble; both the bodies and coffins were missing.

20 October

(At this point the Capet vault was emptied, so the exhumations were finished in the Valois vault.)

The remains of Francis I, Louise of Savoy, Claude of France, Francis III of Brittany, Charles II of Orléans, and Charlotte of France were described as having deteriorated into a liquid state and emitting a strong odor. During the transfer of coffins to the pits, black liquid reportedly seeped through cracks in the caskets.

22 October

  • Arnault Guilhem de Barbazan, chamberlain of Charles VII.
  • Louis II of Sancerre, constable of Charles VI. His head was found with hair described as perfectly braided.

(The friars’ vault was opened to continue the exhumations.)

  • Abbot Suger. His bones were found pulverized.
  • Abbot Troon. His bones were found pulverized.
  • Sedila de Sainte-Croix, wife of Juan Pastourel, president of the Chambre des Comptes under the reign of Charles V.

24 October

(The Valois vault was emptied.)

25 October

In the following days, the workers, accompanied by the commissioner of lead, went to the cemetery of the Carmelite convent of Saint-Denis to exhume the remains of Louise of France, daughter of Louis XV, which—described as decomposed—were thrown into the mass grave alongside her relatives.

Desecrations of 18 January 1794

Restoration

During the Restoration, Louis XVIII recovered the remains of his ancestors on 19 January 1817, exhumed from the mass graves after a week of investigation and located thanks to François-Joseph Scellier. These bodies were placed together because the quicklime poured over them had degraded them to the point that identification was impossible; three bodies were also missing their heads. The remains were placed in an ossuary in the basilica crypt comprising about a dozen chests sealed by marble slabs bearing inscriptions with the monarchs’ names. The king, who also searched for the remains of his brother Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and had them placed in the basilica, held a religious service on 21 January 1815 and had a funerary monument erected in his honour in 1816.

Some bodies had been treated using the procedure known as mos Teutonicus (a funerary technique of excarnation), and were then subjected to dilaceratio corporis (division of the body) into heart, intestines, and bones before burial. Some of these relics—particularly hearts and certain bones—excluding those taken before burial and those stolen during the desecration, were placed in the Bourbon vault.

References

Bibliography

  • Reissued 2000, "Essais et documents" .
  • Serge Santos, deputy administrator of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, La profanation des tombes royales à Saint-Denis.
  • Jean-Marie Le Gall (2007). Le mythe de Saint-Denis.
  • Decrees of 1 August 1793.
  • Francine Demichel (1993). Saint-Denis ou le Jugement dernier des rois.
  • Biography of Dom Germain Poirier.
  • L'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres il y a deux cents ans.
  • La destruction et la violation des tombeaux royaux et princiers en 1792-1793.
  • Boureau (1988).
  • Le Musée des monuments français ou Description historique et chronologique des statues en marbre et en bronze, bas-reliefs et tombeaux des hommes et des femmes célèbres pour servir à l’histoire de France et à celle de l’art, Imprimerie de Guilleminet (1801).
  • Georges d'Heylli (1872). Les tombes royales de Saint-Denis : histoire et nomenclature des tombeaux, extraction des cercueils royaux en 1793, ce qu'ils contenaient, les Prussiens dans la basilique en 1871.
  • Bruno Galland, note on the exhumations (2010).
  • Revue des questions historiques (1889).
  • Anne Godfraind-De Becker (2010). L'utilisation des momies de l'Antiquité à l'aube du xxe siècle.
  • Max Billard (1907). Les tombeaux des rois sous la Terreur.
  • Clémentine Portier-Kaltenbach (2007). Histoires d'os et autres illustres abattis. ISBN 978-2709628303.
  • Joseph-François Michaud; Jean-Joseph-François Poujoulat (1838). Nouvelle collection des mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de France.
  • Pierre Legrand d'Aussy (1824). Des sépultures nationales, et particulièrement de celles des rois de France.
  • Philippe Delorme (2013). La mauvaise tête de Henri IV, contre-enquête sur une prétendue découverte.
  • Fabrice Drouzy (2010). La fin du casse-tête Henri IV.
  • Félix Faure (2003). Dictionnaire historique des rues et monuments de Paris.
  • Philippe Delorme (2000). Louis XVII, la vérité : sa mort au Temple confirmée par la science.
  • François-René de Chateaubriand (1843). The Genius of Christianity.