Found: The French Soldier Who Inspired Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers

Skeleton of the man who inspired The Three Musketeers hero d’Artagnan has almost certainly been found in the Netherlands.

Statue of d'Artagnan on the Dumas monument in Paris | r/europe

The real-life d’Artagnan was a spy and musketeer for King Louis XIV who died during the siege of Maastricht in 1673. Now, more than three-and-a-half centuries after a musket ball put an end to decades of exemplary swashbuckling, the French soldier who inspired Alexandre Dumas and went on to be immortalised on the stage and screen may rise again after workers repairing a collapsed floor in a church in the Dutch city of Maastricht discovered a skeleton. All the signs are that they belong to the 17th-century Gascon nobleman Charles de Batz-Castelmore - better known as d’Artagnan - whose exploits led Dumas to make him the hero of Les Trois Mousquetaires, first published in 1844.

Wim Dijkman, a retired archaeologist from Maastricht who has spent 28 years searching for the musketeer’s final resting place, was called to the church after the deacon told him a skeleton had turned up.

The church deacon said several clues pointed to the skeleton belonging to the famous musketeer. “He lay buried under the altar in consecrated ground. There was a French coin from that time in the grave. And the bullet that killed him was lying at chest level, exactly as described in the history books. The indications are very strong.”

The skeleton has been removed from the church and is now in a nearby archaeological institute. A DNA sample taken from the skeleton earlier this month is being analysed in a laboratory in Munich. It will then be tested alongside DNA samples provided by descendants of d’Artagnan’s father to determine whether there is a match.

OGN will let you know as and when (or not) conclusive proof is announced.

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