Skeleton found in Netherlands may belong to Three Musketeers hero d’Artagnan

ISTANBUL

More than 350 years after the death of the French soldier who inspired Alexandre Dumas’ classic “The Three Musketeers,” his remains may have been found beneath the floor of a church in the Dutch city of Maastricht, according to the British daily The Guardian on Wednesday.

Workers restoring a church in Maastricht uncovered a skeleton believed to belong to 17th-century nobleman d’Artagnan, whose exploits inspired Dumas’ celebrated 1844 novel.

The burial site of d’Artagnan, a musketeer and spy for King Louis XIV who was killed during the 1673 siege of Maastricht, may have been identified 353 years later after bones were found beneath a collapsed church floor.

A skeleton discovered at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Maastricht prompted retired archaeologist Wim Dijkman, who spent 28 years searching for the musketeer’s grave, to investigate the find.

Clues including the burial site beneath the altar, a period French coin and a bullet found at chest level matching historical accounts suggest the skeleton may be d’Artagnan, with the remains now transferred to an archaeological institute in Deventer.

A DNA sample taken from the skeleton on March 13 is being analyzed in Munich and will be compared with samples from d’Artagnan’s paternal descendants to confirm a potential match.