Where is the body of Louis XIV?

1715 : seventy-two years of reign, one night of procession

Louis XIV dies of gangrene in his leg after a reign that lasted longer than the lives of most of his subjects. He is taken to Saint-Denis and laid to rest in the Bourbon vaults, where kings had been interred for centuries. For seventy-eight years, his place does not move. Then comes 1793, and the logic changes completely : it is no longer a dynastic cemetery, but a stockpile of lead.

What happened in 1793

By decree of the Convention, the tombs are opened, the coffins stripped of their lead for the war effort, and the remains thrown into two mass graves north of the church, with lime. The embalmed bodies of the Bourbons, better preserved than the others, do not survive this treatment. In 1817, Louis XVIII has what remains recovered; nothing can be reattributed. The full account is on the desecration of 1793.

The legend of the heart

It is said that the heart of Louis XIV, removed and preserved separately according to custom, was sold to a painter who turned it into a brown pigment, then swallowed by an English collector. This story circulates widely, including from the mouths of visitors who are very sure of themselves. It is unverifiable, and I present it here for what it is : a persistent legend, not an established fact. Nothing in the basilica confirms it.

What remains to be seen

No tomb of Louis XIV : the Bourbons have no sculpted effigies like the medieval kings. What can be seen is the staircase to the crypt, the vaults, and the ossuary plaque bearing the list of sovereigns. The rest of the necropolis, however, is spectacular and earlier : more than 70 effigies and tombs from the 12th to the 16th century. See the effigies and who is buried here.

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