In 2022, repairs and restoration of the Notre-Dame Cathedral were well underway. But before reconstruction could take place, the floor and the ground beneath needed to be inspected, to be certain it was stable enough to support rebuilding. When workers looked under the floor, however, they found several things they didn't quite expect.
The workers and researchers knew there were many years of history buried under the cathedral, but not all of that history has been well-documented. The first big surprise they found were fragments, incredibly well-preserved, of statues. Then they came across other unexpected objects. Two of them. Both were made of lead, and each was the size and shape of a human. Coffins, they realized.
Lead has long been a prized coffin-making material of the wealthy. There have been over 400 burials in Notre-Dame, many documented, some mysterious. Many burials were found during the repairs of Notre-Dame, but no others had lead coffins. Of the coffins they found, one had a plaque with a name, but the other did not.
The two lead coffins couldn't stay in the cathedral as reconstruction began; there was too much of a risk that they would be damaged. They were instead taken to a hospital in Toulouse where they could be fully investigated and researched.
The High Priest
The coffin with a name plaque labeled its occupant as Antoine de la Porte. While his coffin wasn't exactly where it was supposed to be, there is record of him having been buried there in 1710, in the location called the transept crossing. This location is close to the choir, in the heart of the cathedral, and for that reason, is a very honorable place to be buried.
La Porte died at age 83, in remarkably good health. Based on the study of his remains, researchers concluded that he had arthritis, but few other ailments.
He was a canon, a member of an elite group of priests. This was the reason for his burial in such a place of honor.
He was buried among the fragmented statues also found under the floor. Researchers determined those statues were part of Notre-Dame's choir screen. That was a typical part of church cathedrals in the medieval period, but Notre-Dame's, along with most others, was destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. The screen added a layer of secrecy and distance between the clergy and those who came to worship. During the Reformation, the church was held accountable for all of its secrets, and down came the screens.
It was Antoine de la Porte who had paid for the renovation of Notre-Dame without the screen, and it feels fitting that his remains would be found amongst the fragments.
The Horseman
The identity of the man in the second coffin isn't so clear. His coffin is older, and has no plaque and no name. Archaeologists analyzed his bones, and made several discoveries. One of the first things they noticed was that his skull had been sawed open, presumably in an autopsy.
His bones also show that he spent much of his life riding horses, and that he suffered from several health conditions, likely meningitis and tuberculosis, and that he was about 30 years old when he died.
His coffin was better preserved than de la Porte's, and also had more plants within it. This man was buried in a shroud as well, which researchers believe to have been made of flax.
One theory about the horseman's identity is that he was Edouard de la Madeleine. La Madeleine lived in the 16th century, the same time the skeleton is dated to. He was a squire, which would explain the evidence of horsemanship on his bones. A squire would also be someone that could be expected to be buried in a lead coffin in such an honorable place.
If the body in the coffin is really La Madeleine, that could also explain why there is no record of his burial. A squire would have been in service to the king. Due to the political upheaval of the time, it is possible his funeral record was destroyed, and that's why there is no documentation of his burial in the transept crossing.
Others believe the horseman was well-known poet Joachim du Bellay. He also lived at the right time, and was known for his love of horses. He rode all the way from Paris to Rome, which is no easy feat, especially for a man in ill health such as du Bellay. He suffered from the same ailments which scarred the bones of the man in the lead coffin, which he alluded to in many of his poems.
Du Bellay is also known to have been buried in the cathedral, though he is supposed to have been buried near relatives in the chapel, outside the choir.
However, renovations in 1758 couldn't find his coffin there. Scholars at the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research suspect that du Bellay's remains were moved to the transept crossing in the 1560s, possibly in a temporary change. It is also possible that this was intended to be a permanent change, following the publication of his complete works.
Researchers believed they could finish this debate by chemically analyzing the composition of his bones to determine where the skeleton grew up. The test indicated that the skeleton grew up in Eastern France, which matched de la Madeleine, who grew up in Burgundy. However, many argue that these test results do not rule out the possibility of du Bellay. Du Bellay, while he was born in Angers, spent much of his childhood with an older relative in Paris.
We may never know the identity of the horseman for certain, but archaeologists and scientists are still working hard examining his remains and combing through records to find his true name.
Written by Jasmine Grace, University Intern
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