Can DNA testing help solve the mystery of the Fourth Musketeer?

The discovery earlier this year of skeletal remains that could be those of the musketeer d'Artagnan has captivated France—where he is a heroic icon—and the Netherlands, where the bones were found.  

“Should this discovery be confirmed, it would represent a major historical event,” says Alina Goebel, the conservator of the d'Artagnan Museum at Lupiac in France.

Outside of France, d'Artagnan is best known from films as the fabled “fourth musketeer.” But the character from the 1844 novel “The Three Musketeers” (“Les Trois Mousquetaires”) is central in French national myths as a swashbuckling romantic hero who combined bravery with panache.

However, much is still unknown about the real d’Artagnan, including his physical appearance, says Goebel: “Thanks to advances in modern science, we may have a unique opportunity to lift part of the veil on these long-standing questions.”

The skeleton, which some presumed to be his, was uncovered beneath the floor of St. Peter and Paul's Church in the Wolder district of Maastricht, though it dates to an earlier church at the same site. The remains were discovered during repairs to the tiled floor, part of which had fallen in. When it was found, a deacon with the city's Catholic diocese, Jos Valke, first alerted a retired city archaeologist named Wim Dijkman, who then notified other experts of the find. Dijkman has long believed that the real-life French musketeer d'Artagnan was buried at the church after he was killed near there in 1673.

Now, genetic verification to prove whether the skeleton is that of d’Artagnan has run into bureaucratic troubles—including what may have been an improper excavation—and scientific obstacles that cast doubt on whether the bones' identity will ever be known.

But if the remains can be verified as those of d'Artagnan, it may be “the first time in history that a fictional hero has somehow become real,” says Julien Wilmart, a historian with the Paris historical institution Centre Roland Mousnier. “This discovery would finally allow us to highlight the real d'Artagnan—in contrast to his fictional counterpart—and to return to the true story.”

All for one, one for all 

There are two d'Artagnans. One is the literary character created by the novelist Alexandre Dumas and his collaborator Auguste Maquet, and the other is the historical d'Artagnan on whom the character is based.

“Dumas's d'Artagnan has almost completely eclipsed the real d'Artagnan,” says Wilmart. Dumas compared him to Don Quixote, and critics saw him as an embodiment of loyalty, chivalry, and camaraderie: "All for one, one for all" ("Tous pour un, un pour tous.")

The d'Artagnan of Dumas, however, was inspired in part by a real French soldier: Charles de Batz de Castelmore, Sieur d'Artagnan (sieur means minor lord). He'd borrowed that title, “Sieur d'Artagnan,” from his mother's family, which had higher nobility. Some of his descendants styled themselves as Comte, or Count, d'Artagnan.

De Batz de Castelmore had been a distinguished musketeer of the royal guard, which was comprised of cavalry soldiers trained in firearms and adept at swordplay. But De Batz de Castelmore was a musketeer under the French king Louis XIV and not his father Louis XIII, as Dumas had it. He also served at the time of Cardinal Mazarin, a devoted friend, rather than Cardinal Richelieu, his literary enemy.

Obstacles to identification

Dumas wrote that d'Artagnan was born in Gascony, near France's border with Spain, a "hillbilly" region that gave his character an appealing provincial naiveté. That mirrors Charles de Batz de Castelmore, who was born in about 1611 in the Gascon village of Lupiac, about 90 miles southeast of Bordeaux. Today it is a picturesque medieval hill village that celebrates d'Artagnan's historical reality and his literary heritage.

Both the literary and real d'Artagnans died on June 25, 1673, during the French siege of Maastricht—Dumas used the historical event to give strength to his fiction. The newly discovered skeletal remains match history: the real d'Artagnan was killed when a musket ball struck him in the throat, and the grave contained fragments of a musket ball near the skeleton's chest. The theory, which Dijkman champions, is that the French buried d'Artagnan at the church, which was then under their control, so that Louis XIV—who was directing the siege—could attend the funeral.

But while the archaeology aligns with what's known about the real d'Artagnan, there's been no scientific verification so far.

News reports indicated that scientists were analyzing DNA from the remains at a laboratory in Germany and planned to compare it with DNA from two of d'Artagnan's living relatives in France. The names of the living relatives have not yet been publicly released. It is likely they are males in the direct line of descent from d'Artagnan, his father, or his many brothers, because they would share the same Y chromosome, which is inherited by sons from their fathers.  

There are also reports, however, that the first samples collected from the skeleton were too degraded to be used. Further complicating matters is that the Municipality of Maastricht has taken over the project from Dijkman and his colleagues. The municipality alleges that the initial excavations were improper. Under Dutch law, the church is a heritage site. “The municipality, in its role as competent authority, intervened to ensure that the situation was handled in accordance with applicable archaeological standards,” says spokesperson Leentje Sourbron.

According to De Limburger, a Dutch regional newspaper, the Municipality of Maastricht has indicated that any work by the German laboratory will now have to be validated by a Dutch laboratory. And even if some DNA can be extracted, it may be so badly damaged that an accurate match could be impossible. Another potential problem is that the living descendants whose DNA will be tested to identify the skeleton may not be related to the 350-year-old hero in the way that they think.

Valke, the deacon who saw the remains in the church and alerted Dijkman, fears the DNA analysis may fail but thinks other tests could help verify the remains as those of d'Artagnan. Radiocarbon dating, for example, could confirm their age, and strontium isotopes could pinpoint where the individual grew up.

Despite no longer being involved with the project, Dijkman says he is proud of the discovery: "If it wasn't for me, nobody would have been found in the church at Wolder."