Grave of musketeer D'Artagnan found?
It could be one of the most spectacular historical discoveries ever in the Netherlands: a skeleton has been discovered in a church in Maastricht that possibly belongs to the famous French musketeer d'Artagnan. What happened to the remains of the French folk hero has been a mystery for hundreds of years. Do you know the story of The Three Musketeers, d'Artagnan, Alexandre Dumas, and King Louis XIV?
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas père (Villers-Cotterêt, July 24, 1802 – Puys, December 5, 1870) was a well-known French writer of primarily historical novels and articles. The name Alexandre Dumas is often used on books, but the correct name is Alexandre Dumas père. This is to prevent confusion with his son, Alexandre Dumas fils, who was also a writer.
Dumas often made use of ghostwriters who helped him with his books, but they could not have done so without Dumas's enormous imagination. Dumas was and is loved for the abundance of action in his books, but also for the plot twists and his sense of historical accuracy. Many of his books were published both as novels and in newspapers (serials). Dumas managed to bring recognizable characters in French literature to life, but there was also criticism. According to many critics, the literary value was lacking (although opinions on this differ now), and the use of ghostwriters was criticized. His greatest rival was Victor Hugo, and he consequently worked against him.
The most famous works of Alexandre Dumas are The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. In addition, he wrote other books, such as The Black Tulip, Twenty Years Later, and The Viscount of Bragelonne.
The Three Musketeers
The Three Musketeers (French: Les trois mousquetaires) is a novel written by the French author Alexandre Dumas. The book was first published in 1844. Before that, Dumas regularly wrote snippets of the story for a Parisian newspaper.
Dumas drew inspiration from existing stories, largely true, that were collected in a book in the Marseille library. He borrowed the book there, took it to Paris, and never returned it. This book described the heroic deeds of various legendary musketeers from the seventeenth century.
The novel is set around 1627, during the time of Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XIII. The Three Musketeers (a type of honor guard for the French king in the 17th century) are Aramis, Athos, and Porthos. Although they are known as the Three Musketeers, their adventures involve four people. The fourth musketeer is probably even the most famous: D'Artagnan. Their famous motto was: “One for all and all for one.” In Latin: “Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno.” This saying is the national motto of Switzerland and of the fictional Three Musketeers, based on the story by Alexandre Dumas.
D'artagnan
Charles de Batz de Castelmore, Count of Artagnan (Lupiac, 1611 – Maastricht, June 25, 1673) was 'First Musketeer' in the army of the French King Louis XIV. He was romanticized in the books of Alexandre Dumas under the name D'Artagnan, a name he also used himself. He died during the Siege of Maastricht (1673).
In June 1673, the 62-year-old D'Artagnan, serving as a guard officer for Louis XIV, led the siege of Maastricht together with fortifications engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. When the French musketeers stormed the city, he was killed in the fortifications outside the Tongersepoort by a musket ball through his throat. Four musketeers died attempting to pull D'Artagnan's body out of the line of fire. Louis XIV, who was present at the siege, was deeply distressed and wrote to his wife, Queen Maria Theresa, that same evening: “Madame, I have lost D'Artagnan, in whom I had the greatest trust and who was always good to me.” Five days later, on June 30, 1673, Maastricht fell, and the French marched into the city victoriously.
D'Artagnan's grave is unknown. The French historian Odile Bordaz, director of the Vincennes Museum and Military Archives and author of a biography of D'Artagnan, believes that he is likely buried in or near the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Wolder, a village in the municipality of Maastricht. Wolder was the site of Louis XIV's royal tent during the siege of 1673. The king had a Holy Mass celebrated daily in the village church, and for that reason, it would not be surprising if D'Artagnan were buried in the predecessor of the church built in the late nineteenth century. Bordaz reportedly submitted an application for an excavation permit in 2008, but this was not granted. A second attempt in 2019 to search for D'Artagnan's grave in or around the church also failed.
Following a floor collapse, a skeleton was discovered by chance in the church in early 2026. A French coin from 1660 and a musket ball were found in the grave. Researchers collected DNA samples to determine whether the remains could be those of D'Artagnan. The skeleton was found at the location where the main altar had stood during D'Artagnan's lifetime. This gave the researchers the impression that the remains belonged to a prominent person. The initial investigation in Munich failed because the samples turned out to contain insufficient DNA material. Two teeth were ground up for this study. The skeleton itself was transferred to Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Deventer for examination.
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Visit Maastricht and D'Artagnan:
https://www.visitmaastricht.com/nl/blog/ontdek-de-geschiedenis-van-dartagnan-in-maastricht
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