Rub Shoulders With French Kings and History
1,500 years of history under one roof at Saint-Denis Basilica, the Royal Necropolis.
Meet French Kings and wonder at 1,400 years of history in Saint-Denis Basilica
In previous stories, we used a 'time machine' to travel into the past. There is no need this time, as we are visiting an actual monument where one can time-travel through almost 1,500 years of history and meet ancient Kings.
No, it is not the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, nor Westminster Abbey in London. We are going to the only place on earth where one rubs shoulders with 43 Kings.
That place, Saint-Denis Basilica, is so amazing that two stories are not enough to explain the monument. Nevertheless, we will try with this story, in which we meet the people, the Saint, and the Kings.
And second, we will discuss a jewel of architecture, where the so-called 'Gothic' was born.
Shining a light into the Dark Ages
Our story starts at the junction between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. History is, by definition, what is written.
The monument we are about to admire is named after a Saint called Denis, the bishop who converted the Parisians, which is why our story begins at the dawn of Christianity in France.
Before discussing the Saint's life, we need to shine a light on the catastrophic loss of knowledge that led to the Dark Ages.
We first travel to Rome at about the time of Constantine, when Rome had 28 public libraries. Around 100 years after Constantine, Pope Leo the Great decreed that:
The tenets of philosophy must be crushed, the follies of earthly wisdom must be dispelled, the cult of demons must be refuted.
Two hundred years or so after Constantine, one of the first libraries of the Middle Ages, in a monastery, contained 120 books.
At about the same time, the School of Athens, the last surviving school of philosophy, was closed on the orders of Byzantine Emperor Justinian:
The emperor issued a decree and sent it to Athens ordering that no one should teach philosophy.
It is said that the Library of Alexandria did contain 700,000 papyrus rolls. If that is true, we need to compare that with the total amount of ancient Greek knowledge that survived from Antiquity: around 300 papyrus rolls.
That would mean that 99% of Greek knowledge was lost during the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
That is the context to understand the fogginess and confusion at the start of our story.
Who was Saint-Denis?
To illustrate the lack of written sources during the Dark Ages, we have the words of Bishop Gregory of Tours, who wrote in the 580s:
In the towns of Gaul the writing of literature has declined to the point where it has virtually disappeared altogether.
Yet he also said:
It is not proper either to recall deceitful myths or to follow the wisdom of philosophers that is hostile to God.
The same author wrote that Saint-Denis's death occurred during the reign of Decius, the Emperor between 249 and 251.
The blessed Denis, bishop of Paris, after suffering divers pains in Christ's name, ended the present life by the threatening sword.
The problem with that is that the first written mention of Denis states he was killed during the time of Pope Clement, while he was alive around 100—150 years previously.
If you think it makes little sense, be warned that it will become even more confusing.
Four different Denises become one Saint-Denis
The people who wrote Saint-Denis's life lived in an age when 100 books constituted a major library. We live in an age when the largest library contains 38 million books and 70 million manuscripts.
The reality is that the Saint-Denis story merges four different 'Denis': Dionysius the Areopagite, a Denis from the time of Pope Clement, another from the time of Emperor Decius, and a fourth Denis, known as Pseudo-Denys.
Four different people separated by four centuries.
The story of Denis was then modified, first with the addition of two companions and later with the miracle of walking four miles after being decapitated.
The spot where he fell and was buried is said to be the location of the Basilica. Saint-Denis's story was written in an age when the marvelous, legendary, and factual were intertwined.
Why did Saint-Denis Basilica become the resting place for most French kings?
Beyond the legends, it is certain that a basilica existed around 475, and a previous building likely existed from the time of the edict of Constantine in 313.
The oldest tombs discovered there also prove that the elite wanted to be buried near the Saint, so it is no exaggeration to say that Saint-Denis Basilica contains 1,500 years of history.
But how did it become a Royal necropolis, the resting place of 43 Kings? When King Dagobert was buried there in 639.
As the image above shows, Dagobert's soul was on its way to hell, but Saint-Denis saved the King from eternal damnation and raised him to Heaven.
If a King does things forbidden by Scripture but gets buried next to Saint-Denis while praying to the Saint for the salvation of his soul, he will get to Heaven.
That nice 'Get Out Of Hell' card was an enticing proposal to Kings.
And the more Kings were buried in Saint-Denis Basilica, the more prestigious the place became.
Usurped throne validated by submission to the Church
The first King buried in Saint-Denis, Dagobert, was Clovis' great-grandson, the first king of France.
Clovis was a Frankish King baptized around 500—the exact date is unknown. That baptism made him the first French King.
But the line of succession for the following 1,300 years was anything but smooth. Clovis and his descendants, the Merovingians, claimed legitimacy through bloodline. Being born was the only qualification needed to ascend to the throne.
But when the time came to push the Merovigians off the throne, the new dynasty that would spawn the great Charlemagne faced a complete lack of legitimacy.
As it happened, in Rome, the Pope needed help gaining the lands that would become the Papal States.
A quid pro quo meant that the Pope granted legitimacy to the illegitimate King and his sons in exchange for lands. Inside Saint-Denis Basilica, Pope Stephen II crowned Pepin King of France with his two sons, Charlemagne and Carloman.
That was the first time a Pope crowned a King.
Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours
In exchange for submission to the Catholic Church in Rome, a French King was, like King David:
Appointed King in this realm which our Lord God has given you to rule and govern.
One of Europe's most significant historical events took place inside the Saint-Denis Basilica. Religion and politics were intertwined for the next 1,000 years until the French Revolution.
Game of musical chairs repeated with the Third Dynasty
The line of Charlemagne, the Carolingians, lasted barely 250 years until Hugues Capet was elected and crowned King in 987.
Eight hundred years later, Louis Capet, also known as Louis XVI, was sent to the guillotine and later buried at Saint-Denis Basilica.
Forged documents transformed Saint-Denis into a wealthy Royal abbey
Now that you appreciate the rarity of books during the Middle Ages, the next thing is to understand their value. Whoever possesses written documents recording the words of Saints and Kings owns the truth.
And whoever knew how to forge them had power and money.
Since the third dynasty lacked legitimacy, the monks of Saint-Denis created outright forgeries, stating that Charlemagne:
Gifted the entire France to Lord Saint-Denis.
And that Charlemagne owed his crown to
God and Saint-Denis.
Which, in effect, meant the King owed to Saint-Denis and that Charlemagne recognized the Abbey as:
The head of all the churches of the realm.
While at it, the document also stated that the King must give a quantity of gold to Saint-Denis every year, as an abbey is as big as a cathedral.
The abbey was not only the resting place of most French Kings but also held the royal insignia—crown, scepter, and throne. Saint-Denis was the Saint of the King, therefore, of France itself.
Saint-Denis' Abbey reached its peak of political power when Abbot Suger was Regent of France, ruling the country on behalf of the King during the Crusade.
The reciprocal relationship between politics and religion came crashing down with the French Revolution.
French Revolution destructions
The destruction of tombs and the desecration of royal corpses were not done by a furious mob. They were made by the decision of the Convention—the Parliament—to rid the world of the traces of the ancient Regime.
The Republic badly needed cannons, so the lead roof, which held many windows, and the lead coffins of royals were reused for war.
The corpses of around 170 people, Kings, Queens, Princes, and Abbots, were thrown in a common grave, an opportunity for souvenir hunters to take morbid mementos.
For over ten years, the basilica was roofless, having been used as a weapons factory, a theatre, and a wheat depot, and slowly deteriorated into a ruin.
Napoléon wished to be buried there, as the Fourth Dynasty, as did Napoléon III. Two hundred years later, the Basilica is still undergoing restoration.
Rubbing shoulders with French Kings
Hopefully, it starts to make sense that Saint-Denis Abbey is History made visible.
The building spans centuries, from the dawn of Christianity. It contains three dynasties of Kings, genuinely nearly 1,500 years of history under one roof. There is no equivalent anywhere.
Now, as promised, it is time to rub shoulders with Kings. Here is a small selection.
Louis XII and Anne of Brittany
Note that the King and Queen are drawing their last breath while praying, above, alive, for their eternal salvation.
Francis I and Claude of France
Henri II and Catherine of Medici
Louis XIV
Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette
There is much more to say about Saint-Denis, but hopefully, this little time spent traveling and encountering French Kings was a Moment of Wonder.
The next part of the story will be about illumination, explaining the birth of the so-called ‘Gothic’ style of architecture.
Sources
Yves Sassier; Royauté et idéologie au Moyen Âge : Bas-Empire, monde franc, France IVe-XIIe siècle.
Gregory of Tours; History of the Franks.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105090110/f59.item
Private guided visit of the Royal necropolis of Saint Denis Basilica.
Wow! I never tire of this history. Thank you for taking us to St Denis back in September 2013. Very memorable.
Dear Ann, with pleasure. There's more to come; I waited for a sunny day and wrote a story to explain that 'Gothic' is, in fact, the Architecture of Light. Enjoy, and thank you for the comments. Guillaume