mysteries surrounding French royalty
controversies French monarchy.
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In June 2020, a group of demonstrators gathered around the statue of King Louis IX of France in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, demanding its removal. They called on the Vatican to drop Louis from its roll of saints, accusing the king of Islamophobia, antisemitism, and mishandling the Seventh and Eighth Crusades, causing death and suffering to Christians and Muslims alike.
More than 150 years after its final dissolution, the French monarchy still stirs up passionate debates like this one among historians and ordinary people. Born in the misty past, it reached its zenith in the reign of the Sun King Louis XIV, received a seeming death blow in the Revolution, was restored for a while, and plodded along until the fall of the Second Empire of Napoleon III in 1870.
Along the way, some monarchs left a trail of mysteries and secrets that are still controversial to this day. Below are ten of the most intriguing.
The Enigma of the Merovingians
The history of France as a nation began when the various Frankish tribes were united under Clovis I (481–511). His dynasty, the Merovingians, took its name from his grandfather Merovech, a mysterious and shadowy figure who fought with the Romans against the Huns in 451. Aside from the fact that he was a Salian Frank, we know little of Merovech’s origins, which gave rise to fantastic myths about him.
According to the 7th-century Chronicle of Fredegar, a man named Chlodio was staying by the sea with his wife one summer. His wife was out swimming one day when she was raped by a sea beast called Quinotaur, giving birth to Merovech. But the most famous myth of all may be the one concocted by pseudohistorians Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln in the 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and popularized by Dan Brown in The Da Vinci Code.
Both books suggest that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife and was pregnant with his child when she fled Palestine for Marseille. The Holy Grail is actually her womb carrying Jesus’ bloodline. Mary’s relics are purported to be either in the abbey of Vezelay in Burgundy or the convent of St. Maximin in Provence, whichever you prefer. This modern myth claims (without evidence) that the Merovingians were descendants of Jesus Christ.
Some who disagree propose even more bizarre lineages for the Merovingians, linking them to the Nephilim, or fallen angels of ancient lore. The sea beast that spawned Merovech is connected to the Beast and Antichrist of Revelation 13.
Conspiracy theories aside, the prosaic truth may be that Merovech was illegitimate, and the sea monster tale was made to cover up his parentage and give him a heroic, divine origin to legitimize Merovingian power.[1]
The Mystery of St. Louis’ Death
Louis IX (1214–1270), the only French king to be made a saint, led the disastrous Seventh and Eighth Crusades but nevertheless earned a reputation as a model Christian warrior. In Louis’s first expedition, he was captured in Egypt and held for ransom; in the second, he and most of his men suffered excruciating deaths in Tunis. History attributes Louis’s demise to the plague. Now, it appears the history books need revisiting.
In 2019, researchers examined a jawbone believed to be the king’s and found indications that he suffered from scurvy, a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C. It supports the account that in his final days, Louis was spitting out bits of gum and teeth, indicative of the last stages of scurvy.
Not only Louis but also one-sixth of his troops exhibited similar symptoms, as documented by Jean de Joinville: “Our army suffered from gum necrosis [dead gums], and the barbers [doctors] had to cut the necrotizing tissue to allow the men to chew the meat and swallow. And it was a pity to hear the soldiers shouting and crying like women in labor when their gums were cut.”
But why did Louis and his army suffer so terribly when there was an abundance of fruits and vegetables available for picking in the Tunisian countryside? Pure ignorance. Vitamin C deficiency as the cause of scurvy wasn’t established until 1927. The Crusaders relied on a meat-heavy diet, and poor planning and logistics meant they failed to bring enough water, fruit, and vegetables with them.
In addition, the pious Louis undertook various penances and fasts, which undermined his health. He also suffered from dysentery before the end. Researchers believe scurvy was not the primary cause of death, but it did weaken Louis’s body, making him susceptible to the infection that ultimately killed him.[2]
Charles VI’s Peculiar Delusion
A mysterious psychological disorder first emerged in the Middle Ages and afflicted the nobility in the subsequent centuries before disappearing in the 19th century. This strange malady made victims believe that their bodies, or parts of it, were made of glass.
One of the earliest recorded instances of “glass delusion” was that of King Charles VI (1368–1422), who reformed the royal bureaucracy and showed much promise as an enlightened ruler. That was until everything crumbled in 1392 when he first exhibited symptoms of schizophrenia. From being hailed as “the Beloved,” Charles was now called “the Mad.”
Charles believed he was entirely made of glass. To prevent himself from shattering, he wrapped his body in layers of thick blankets and remained motionless for hours. When movement became necessary, he donned a special garment with iron rods to safeguard his fragile innards. He failed to recognise his wife and children and, for five months, refused to wash himself. In 2018, a group of French psychiatrists assessed the king’s condition as suggestive of bipolar disorder.
It has been theorised that glass delusion was an unconscious response to new materials and substances. When glass delusion was first documented in the 15th century, a Venetian glassmaker had just invented transparent, colourless glass, which amazed many. Before Glass Men like Charles VI, there were Earthenware Men who believed they were pieces of pottery, and the 19th century saw a rise in Concrete Men at a time when concrete was becoming popular as a building material.[3]
The Murder of Agnes Sorel
A ravishing and witty intellect, Agnes Sorel was only 20 when she first encountered King Charles VII, 20 years her senior. Charles was immediately captivated, and soon, she was introduced as the king’s mistress, the first in French history to be officially acknowledged as such. Charles spared no expense to shower her with gifts, including what is believed to be the first cut diamond and extensive estates. And Agnes was extravagant. She had fur-lined dresses with trains up to 26 feet (8 meters) long, and she sported the controversial off-the-shoulder gown with one breast exposed—her own invention.
Agnes wielded significant political influence over Charles, and his decision to reclaim Normandy from England was undoubtedly at her behest. The king legitimised the three illegitimate children Agnes bore him. Along the way, the mistress amassed a host of enemies in the court.
On February 4, 1450, after giving birth to her fourth child, who later perished, Agnes fell ill with incessant diarrhoea. After two or three days, she succumbed, at just 28 years old. Fatal dysentery following childbirth raised suspicions, and rumours of poisoning circulated. The veracity of the rumours was confirmed in 2005 when forensic toxicology revealed high levels of mercury in her remains. But the identity of Agnes’s killer remains a mystery.
Jacques Coeur, the royal financier, was the first to be accused, but the extravagant Agnes was his best client, and he was quickly exonerated. What about Charles’s wife, Queen Marie? Or Agnes’s manipulative cousin, Antoinette de Maignelay? Then, there was the queen’s loyal doctor, Poitevin, who had the most immediate access to the murder weapon.
However, the most probable suspect appears to be Charles’s son, the future Louis XI, who did not hide his disdain for Agnes, even once pursuing her with a dagger. He had threatened to remove Agnes from his father’s life and had numerous spies posing as Agnes’s servants who could have carried out the murder.
We may never be certain, and the murder of Agnes Sorel is one cold case that historians will continue to revisit.[4]
The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
Catherine de Medici may be the most reviled woman in French history. Her epithet, “The Serpent Queen”—someone who would strike from behind and in the dark when the victim least expected it—is how many describe her intrigues as the power behind her three sons and her deft manoeuvres to navigate the labyrinth of the French Wars of Religion.
Catherine understood that the stability of France depended on peace between the Protestant Huguenots and the Catholics. To that end, she negotiated with Jeanne d’Albret, the Protestant queen of Navarre and widow of Huguenot leader Antoine de Bourbon, for a marriage between Jeanne’s son Henry and her own daughter, Margaret. Jeanne was cautious, aware of Catherine’s deceitful nature.
She wrote to Henry, “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 consented to the union, but when she suddenl…
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1. Mysteries surrounding French royalty
2. Controversies surrounding French royalty.
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