King Henri IV's head is genuine

[Loki]

Tests show head of France's King Henri IV 'genuine' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11996981)

Scientists say they have identified an embalmed head as belonging to King Henri IV of France, who was assassinated in 1610 at the age of 57.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50430000/jpg/_50430752_henriiv_getty.jpg

The head was lost after revolutionaries ransacked the royal chapel at Saint Denis, near Paris, in 1793.

A head, presumed to be that of Henri IV, has passed between private collectors since then.

A team of scientists used the latest forensic techniques to identify features seen in portraits of the king.

A lesion near his nose, a pierced ear and a healed facial wound - from a previous assassination attempt - were among the marks that identified the head.

The methods used to embalm the head also matched techniques in use at the time of his death, said the scientists in a report published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

[Electronic God-Man]

We need pics!

[Loddfafner]

Somebody let me know if it shows up on Ebay.

[Germanicus]

I'll swap one of my damascus knives for it?

[Osweo]

Are they putting it back in his grave now?!

I want casts made and facial reconstructions, a sample sent to 23&Me , and subracial classifications! :p

[MagnaLaurentia]

4h5M78YVN8M



Implantation française en Amérique (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_IV_de_France#Implantation_fran.C3.A7aise_en_ Am.C3.A9rique)

Dans la continuité de ses prédécesseurs, Henri soutient les expéditions navales en Amérique du Sud et favorise le projet d'une implantation au Brésil[32]. Mais c'est en Nouvelle-France que les Français parviennent à se fixer durablement. Dès 1599, le roi accorde le monopole du commerce des fourrures à Tadoussac, en Nouvelle-France, à François Dupont-Gravé et à Pierre Chauvin. Par la suite, Henri IV donne le monopole du commerce des fourrures et charge Pierre Dugua de Mons (un protestant) de monter une expédition, sous les ordres de Samuel de Champlain, d'établir un poste français en Acadie. Ce sera en premier sur l'île Sainte-Croix (maintenant Dochet Island au Maine), en 1604 et par la suite à Port-Royal, en Nouvelle-France au printemps 1605. Mais le monopole est révoqué en 1607, ce qui mettra fin à la tentative de peuplement. Le roi charge Samuel de Champlain de lui faire rapport de ses découvertes. En 1608, le monopole est rétabli pour un an seulement. Champlain est envoyé, avec François Dupont-Gravé, pour fonder Québec, qui est le départ de la colonisation française en Amérique, pendant que de Mons reste en France pour faire prolonger le monopole.

[Wyn]

and subracial classifications! :p

Bad news - from the pictures on the BBC website, he doesn't look Nordish. :(

[Osweo]

4h5M78YVN8M
That was an official anthem up to the Revolution? (I know things were never quite 'official' as such in those times, but was it as good as?)

My French isn't very good any more but a few phrases piqued my curiosite; 'Teeth of the Moon' and so on... :p

I looked it up, and might as well post it here for others to see. From Wikipaedia;

Vive Henri quatre....................Long live Henry IV
Vive ce Roi vaillant..................Long live this valiant king
Ce diable à quatre..................This fourfold devil
A le triple talent.....................With the three talents
chorus
De boire de battre...................Of drinking, fighting
Et d'être un vers galant............And womanising

Au diable guerres....................To hell with wars
Rancunes et partis...................And enmity, and spouses
Commes nos pères...................Let us all together
Chantons en vrais amis.............Sing as true friends
chorus
Au choc des verres..................Clink the glasses
Les roses et les lys..................The roses and the lilies

Chantons l'antienne..................Let us sing the refrain
Qu'on chant'ra dans mille ans.....That we will sing in a thousand years:
Que Dieu maintienne.................May God maintain
En paix ses descendants...........His descendants in peace
chorus
Jusqu'à c'e qu'on prenne...........Until we take
La lune avec les dents..............the moon with our teeth
............................................(i.e. achieve the impossible)

Vive la France.........................Long live France
Vive le roi Henri.......................Long live king Henry
Qu'à Reims on danse................To Reims we dance
Disant comme à Paris...............Singing as they do in Paris


"Marche Henri IV," alternatively "Vive Henri IV" or "Vive le roi Henri" was the nominal national anthem of the Kingdom of France up until the French revolution in 1789, then again by the restored monarchy after 1815. However, the revolutionaries adapted the song for the revolution because it was obviously banned. This modified version is rarely sung due to its paradoxical ending which was added by the royalists. Marche Henri IV was composed around 1590 and refers to the first Bourbon King of France, Henry IV (Henry III of Navarre), who had ended the wars of religion and restored peace to France.




Bad news - from the pictures on the BBC website, he doesn't look Nordish. :(

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/50435000/jpg/_50435885_50435882.jpg

'Course he does! Quite emphatically so, I'd say. :shrug:

[Lenny]

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7583/5043588550435882.jpg

This is the face of a man who had dozens of mistresses, dozens of illegitimate children?

Whatever he looks like, he deserves his reputation as among France's greatest

(I say that not just because he was the best Huguenot general and I am a shameless pro-Protestant partisan. :D He finally agreed to convert, "Paris is worth a mass", but for some reason still fell to the Jesuit dagger years later.)