King Henri IV of France's severed head 'should be reunited with body'
The severed head of King Henri IV of France, lost during the Revolution and formally identified last year, should be reunited with his body, the pretender to the throne of France has demanded.
Louis de Bourbon said the embalmed head, identified by forensic scientists in December, should now be reinterred with his body so that one of France's best-loved monarchs can "rest in peace".
Henri IV was 57-years-old when he was assassinated by a Catholic militant in 1610.
He was buried alongside France's other kings in the Basilica of Saint Denis, outside Paris. French revolutionaries dug up his body in 1793 but a mystery admirer of "Good King Henri" managed to make off with his head.
Over the next 200 years, it was lost from view until a private collector finally handed it over to Louis de Bourbon, 37, the Duke of Anjou, a banker and King Henri's direct descendant....