Duke asks to give king back his head
Sarkozy gets plea to restore mummified head of “good King Henri” to his body in the royal necropolis
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PRESIDENT Sarkozy has been asked to give “good King Henri” his head back just months after experts confirmed that a mummified head belonged to Henri IV whose body was desecrated by revolutionaries in 1793.
Louis de Bourbon, the eldest of Henri’s descendants, has written to Sarkozy saying the head should be reunited with the body, which is in the royal necropolis at Saint-Denis.
Louis, the Duke of Anjou, said: “Henri IV was an important person in the history of France and a head of state” who “was much loved by the French and spent time looking after their quality of life”.
He said a private collector had given him the head after it had been lost for 200 years. Now that it had been identified he said it “was not a museum piece or an archaeological find” but the “remains of a man, a head of state who deserves respect” and it should be buried with the king’s remains in Saint-Denis.
Henri IV was remembered for putting an end to the Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants when the Edict of Nantes established religious tolerance, for beautifying Paris and for his caring attitude to the people. He was killed by a Catholic zealot in 1610 at the age of 57.
Related story:
Henri IV: not so 'bon' after all?
