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| '''Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard ''' (], ] – ], ]) was a ] ] best known for being the principal perpetrator of the hoax of the ], which he |
'''Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard ''' (], ] – ], ]) was a ] ] best known for being the principal perpetrator of the hoax of the ], which he developed to manufacture evidence that he had a legitimate claim to the French throne. This deception later inspired a series of ] documentaries, the 1982 ] book '']'' and the 2003 novel '']'', among others. | ||
| He used an altered surname, ''Plantard de Saint-Clair'', from 1975 onwards. The surname Saint-Clair was added to his own surname on the basis that this was the family name associated with the area of Gisors (in ]), a part of ] associated with his hoax. | He used an altered surname, ''Plantard de Saint-Clair'', from 1975 onwards. The surname Saint-Clair was added to his own surname on the basis that this was the family name associated with the area of Gisors (in ]), a part of ] associated with his hoax.{{facts}} | ||
| ==Early life== | ==Early life== | ||
| Plantard was born in 1920, in ], the son of a ]. Starting in 1937, he began forming |
Plantard was born in 1920, in ], the son of a ] and a ].<ref name=Introvigne>Introvigne, Massimo. ''''</ref> Starting in 1937, he began forming ] and ] associations with the aim of "purifying and renewing France".<ref name=Richardson>Richardson, Robert. in '']'' (No. 51, Spring 1999), pp. 49-55</ref> On ], ] Plantard wrote a letter to ] offering his services to the collaborationist government. His offer was investigated by both the French and German police, which found that Plantard's organization had at most 100 members.<ref name=Introvigne /> | ||
| Plantard's |
Plantard's small associations included the French Union (1937), the French National Renewal (1941) and the Alpha Galates (1942).<ref name=Introvigne /> The German authorities refused permission for Plantard to form the French National Renewal.<ref name=Introvigne /> Alpha Galates published a periodical called ''Vaincre'' (Conquer),<ref name=Introvigne /> which was frequently laced with anti-semitic, anti-Masonic, and mystical nationalist views. | ||
| Police reports relating to Plantard's pre-war and wartime activities are contained in the Paris ], and from this early stage on in Plantard's life it was observed about him that: "Plantard, who boasts of having links with numerous politicians, seems to be one of those dotty, pretentious young men who run more or less fictitious groups in an effort to look important and who are taking advantage of the present trend towards taking a greater interest in young people in order to attract the Government's attention" (Police Report on Plantard's French National Renewal dated ] ]). A Secret Service investigation of him during ] concluded that his mind was "cloudy", and that he was a fantasist who enjoyed creating right-wing anti-semitic organizations, that were set up like medieval orders of chivalry. | |||
| ⚫ | In 1951, Plantard married Anne Léa Hisler (1930-1970). They moved to the town of ] in south-east France, near the border with Switzerland.<ref name=Introvigne /> In 1953, Plantard was accused of selling degrees of esoteric orders for exorbitant sums<ref name=Introvigne /> and was given a six-month sentence for fraud.<ref name =CBS>] ], Presented by CBS Correspondent Ed Bradley, Produced By Jeanne Langley]</ref> | ||
| In 1953, Plantard was charged and convicted, and served a six-month sentence for fraud. | |||
| == |
==Priory of Sion== | ||
| {{details|Priory of Sion}} | {{details|Priory of Sion}} | ||
| On ], ], Plantard and others legally incorporated in the town of ] a new group called the ''Priory of Sion''. The Priory was devoted to the support of politicians working to build low-cost housing in Annemasse.<ref name=Introvigne /> It published a magazine named ''Circuit''.<ref name=Richardson /> The "Sion" in the name did not refer to ] but rather to a local mountain, Montagne de Sion, where the order intended to establish a retreat center.<ref name=Introvigne /> | |||
| In 1956, Pierre Plantard was working as a ] for a company in the town of ] in south-east ], near the border with ]. It was there that he founded the Priory with Andre Bonhomme, both of them being signatories to the ] ] Priory of Sion Statutes and Registration Documents that had to be deposited at the ] of ]. This action was required by the ] French Law of Associations, which stated that all French associations, groups and clubs must register with the authorities. According to Article III (section c) of the 1956 Statutes of the Priory of Sion, Plantard named the Priory of Sion after a local mountain, "Montagne de Sion". | |||
| Plantard was influenced by the story of hotelier ], who claimed in 1956 that a treasure had been discovered in the area of ] by a previous occupant of his property, Father ], whilst renovating his church in 1891. Plantard met Corbu in the early ] and embellished the story with the claim that Saunière had discovered medieval parchments along with the treasure that made Plantard the last surviving ] claimant to the throne of ], descended from King ].<ref name=Introvigne /> | |||
| Devoted to the "defence and liberty of low-cost housing," the Priory association attacked the property developers of Annemasse through its journal ''Circuit''. | |||
| Plantard, together with his friend ], produced a number of apocryphal documents,<ref name=Introvigne /> including one which attached Plantard's family tree to an actual genealogy from an article by Louis Saurel in the French magazine ''Les Cahiers de l'Histoire'' No. 1 (1960).<ref name=Richardson /> Between 1965 and 1967 these documents, known as the ] (''Secret Files''), were planted in the ] in Paris.<ref name=Introvigne /> A third co-conspirator, French author ] (1921–2004), based his 1967 book ''L'Or de Rennes'' on these documents, "revealing" the Priory of Sion Rennes story to the world.<ref name=Introvigne /> | |||
| ==Development of the Priory story== | |||
| During the early 1960s, Plantard put himself forward as a ] claimant to the throne of ], descended from King ]. This position was apparently influenced by an article by Louis Saurel that he had read in the French magazine ''Les Cahiers de l'Histoire'' Number 1 (1960). Louis Saurel's article had argued that Dagobert II was the last effective independent Merovingian King before the "]" began taking control. There is no prior evidence that Plantard or his family claimed descent from the Merovingian dynasty, and the format of Louis Saurel's 1960 article in ''Les Cahiers de l'Histoire'' was later copied in a 1964 Priory Document ascribed to "Anne Lea Hisler" entitled "Rois et Gouvernants de la France". Plantard in reality was the son of a butler and a cook, who had no recorded links to the Merovingians. | |||
| Massimo Intovigne states that Plantard, de Chérisey and de Sède later confessed in writing that the documents had been planted in the Bibliothèque nationale between 1965 and 1967 and were a "brilliant" hoax.<ref name=Introvigne /> Bill Putnam and John Edwin Wood, authors of ''The Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau: A Mystery Solved'', agree. When asked where to rank the Priory of Sion hoax among other hoaxes throughout history, both placed it "at the top."<ref name=CBS /> | |||
| This period of Plantard's activities coincided with his meeting French author ], who with the collaboration of Plantard published in 1962 the book ''Les Templiers sont parmi nous'', which related to the Gisors story that was begun by Roger Lhomoy (Lhomoy was de Sède's pig-farmer during this time). The book seems to have been the genesis of what was soon to become the popular version of the Priory of Sion, with the well-known ingredients – ], the ], and so on. All of this can be easily proved to be historical fiction because the various claims as found in the Priory Documents never existed before the early 1960s in any shape or form, and cannot be substantiated from the known historical records. | |||
| French writer ] inherited many of the papers of Plantard and de Chérisey.<ref name=CBS /> Among these papers were the Saunière parchments, which Chaumeil had analyzed by two experts, who found them to be around 40 years old.<ref name=CBS /> He also says that he has a handwritten document signed by | |||
| ]Furthermore, letters in existence dating from the 1960s written by Pierre Plantard, ] and ] to each other confirm that the three were engaging in an out-and-out confidence trick. The letters describe schemes on how to combat criticisms of their various allegations, and how they would make up new allegations to try and keep the whole thing going. These letters (totalling over 100) are in the possession of French researcher Jean-Luc Chaumeil, who has also retained the original envelopes, and the originals of the forged medieval documents that were reproduced in the book ''Le Tresor Maudit de Rennes-le-Chateau'', a collaboration of Plantard and Gerard de Sede. Jean-Luc Chaumeil during the 1970s was part of the Priory of Sion cabal and wrote books and articles about Plantard and the Priory of Sion before splitting from it during the late 1970s and exposing Pierre Plantard's past in French books. The Priory, Plantard claimed during the mid-1960s (but not before, and certainly not in 1956), was a secret inner circle of the Templars: It had survived the extinction of the original order, and had been manipulating events in Europe over centuries to keep alive the "rightful" Merovingian royalty. | |||
| de Chérisey calling the parchments "a good hoax."<ref name=CBS /> | |||
| Robert Richardson considers the ideas of ] (1898–1974) to be one of the possible sources for some of Pierre Plantard's claims.<ref name=Richardson /> | |||
| Influenced by the hotelier ] who claimed in 1956 that a treasure had been previously discovered in the area by the 19th century occupant of his property, Father ], Plantard further embellished the story by claiming that this treasure included parchments that substantiated Plantard's descent from Dagobert. Plantard began writing manuscripts, and produced forged medieval "parchments" (created by his friend, ]) with the claim that Saunière had supposedly discovered these documents whilst renovating his church in 1891. These documents purportedly showed the survival of the Merovingian line of ] kings. Plantard manipulated the story of Saunière's activities at ] in order to "prove" his claims relating to the Priory of Sion. In 1966, he also planted arcane home-made documents in the ] in Paris. These documents, the so-called ] (''Secret Files''), purported to corroborate the Priory's version of history. They were a remarkable collection of genealogies going back over a thousand years, all painstakingly created by hand over a period of months, with nothing more than a cheap stencil kit to produce the family trees and crests. | |||
| Some scholars of esoteric history consider the controversial Sicilian Traditionalist ]'s (1898-1974) ideas as sources for Pierre Plantard's claims (). | |||
| ==Later life== | ==Later life== | ||
| ⚫ | In 1982, authors ], ] and ] published '']''. It became a bestseller and publicized Plantard's Priory of Sion story. The book added a new element to the story, the claim (based on the theories of French esoterist ]) that the Merovingian line of kings had actually been descended from ] and ], and that the purpose of the Priory (and its military arm, the ]) was to protect the secret of the holy bloodline.<ref name=Introvigne /> | ||
| In 1979, Plantard met with Henry Lincoln and others, and claimed that he was the current Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. | |||
| Plantard played along with this story for a while, but in 1986 parted ways with Lincoln, dismissing ''Holy Blood, Holy Grail'' and even the 1960s documents as false and irrelevant.<ref name=Introvigne /> He revised his Priory of Sion story, dropping his earlier Merovingian claims and instead basing his main secret on the miraculous energy and powers of Rocco Negro, a mountain near Rennes-le-Chateau where he owned substantial property.<ref name=Introvigne /> Lincoln maintains that the story about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the Merovingians might still be true even if Plantard's story was a fraud.<ref name=Introvigne /> | |||
| ⚫ | In 1982, authors ], ] and ] published '']''. It became a bestseller |
||
| In a 1989 issue of ''Vaincre'', ] was named as a grandmaster of the Priory of Sion. Pelat was a friend of the then-] ] and center of a scandal involving French Prime Minister ]. In October 1993, the judge investigating the Pelat scandal visited Plantard's home to question him and have his house searched. The search failed to find any documents related to Pelat. After also interviewing Plantard's son Thomas, the investigation of Plantard's connection with Pelat was closed.<ref>Pickett, Lynn; Prince, Clive (2006). ''The Sion Revelation: The Truth About the Guardians of Christ's Sacred Bloodline'', p. 401. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0743263030</ref> | |||
| Plantard was reportedly horrified by this embellishment, saying that it was sacrilegious. He rejected the claims during the late 1980s when he revised the mythological pedigree of the Priory of Sion, claiming it had nothing to do with the Knights Templar, that the "Dossiers Secrets" were written under the influence of ], and that the Priory of Sion had in fact been founded in ] at Rennes-le-Château by the grandfather of Marie de Negri d'Ables. This revised version of the Priory of Sion had been influenced by the opening of the "Sauniere Museum" in Rennes-le-Chateau in May ]. | |||
| After this, Plantard lived in obscurity until his death on ] ] in Paris. | |||
| In September ], Plantard claimed that ] had once been grandmaster of the Priory of Sion. Pelat was a friend of the then-] ] and center of a scandal involving French Prime Minister ]. A French court ordered a search of Plantard's home, turning up many documents, including some proclaiming Plantard the true king of France. Under oath, Plantard admitted that he had fabricated everything, including Pelat's involvement with the Priory of Sion.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} | |||
| After this, Plantard lived in obscurity until his death on ] ] in Paris. He thus did not live to see the publication of ]'s novel '']'' in ], an international best-seller drawing heavily on the Priory mythology originally invented by Plantard (and elaborated by various conspiracy theorists). The novel itself can be said to carry on the hoax, since Brown in a preface asserts that the Priory of Sion is an actual secret society that really was founded centuries ago (see ]). By a strange twist of fate, Dan Brown would derive enormous amounts of money from the Priory myth, something Pierre Plantard himself never achieved during decades of deception. | |||
| ==Family== | ==Family== | ||
| Line 43: | Line 38: | ||
| '''Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair''' (born 1970) is the son of Pierre Plantard, the principal figure behind the creation of the Priory of Sion. Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair was alleged to have taken over as Grand Master of the Priory from his father, according to a proclamation made by Pierre in 1989. At the time he was managing editor of the Priory's journal ''Vaincre''. He has kept a very low profile since his father's death.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} | '''Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair''' (born 1970) is the son of Pierre Plantard, the principal figure behind the creation of the Priory of Sion. Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair was alleged to have taken over as Grand Master of the Priory from his father, according to a proclamation made by Pierre in 1989. At the time he was managing editor of the Priory's journal ''Vaincre''. He has kept a very low profile since his father's death.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} | ||
| ==References== | |||
| ⚫ | ==External links |
||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| ⚫ | * |
||
| * Massimo Introvigne. '''' | |||
| ⚫ | ==External links== | ||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | * , second part of an interview of Jean-Luc Chaumeil where he mentions his discovery of the bewitched hill and the owner of the abbé's estate, Henri Buthion, as well as his tumultuous relations with Pierre Plantard, Gérard de Sède and Mathieu Paoli | ||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Plantard, Pierre}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Plantard, Pierre}} | ||
Revision as of 18:32, 13 February 2008
Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard (March 18, 1920 – February 3, 2000) was a French draughtsman best known for being the principal perpetrator of the hoax of the Priory of Sion, which he developed to manufacture evidence that he had a legitimate claim to the French throne. This deception later inspired a series of BBC Two documentaries, the 1982 pseudohistory book Holy Blood, Holy Grail and the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, among others.
He used an altered surname, Plantard de Saint-Clair, from 1975 onwards. The surname Saint-Clair was added to his own surname on the basis that this was the family name associated with the area of Gisors (in Normandy), a part of France associated with his hoax.
Early life
Plantard was born in 1920, in Paris, the son of a butler and a concierge. Starting in 1937, he began forming anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic associations with the aim of "purifying and renewing France". On December 16, 1940 Plantard wrote a letter to Marshal Pétain offering his services to the collaborationist government. His offer was investigated by both the French and German police, which found that Plantard's organization had at most 100 members.
Plantard's small associations included the French Union (1937), the French National Renewal (1941) and the Alpha Galates (1942). The German authorities refused permission for Plantard to form the French National Renewal. Alpha Galates published a periodical called Vaincre (Conquer), which was frequently laced with anti-semitic, anti-Masonic, and mystical nationalist views.
In 1951, Plantard married Anne Léa Hisler (1930-1970). They moved to the town of Annemasse in south-east France, near the border with Switzerland. In 1953, Plantard was accused of selling degrees of esoteric orders for exorbitant sums and was given a six-month sentence for fraud.
Priory of Sion
Further information: Priory of SionOn May 7, 1956, Plantard and others legally incorporated in the town of Annemasse a new group called the Priory of Sion. The Priory was devoted to the support of politicians working to build low-cost housing in Annemasse. It published a magazine named Circuit. The "Sion" in the name did not refer to Jerusalem but rather to a local mountain, Montagne de Sion, where the order intended to establish a retreat center.
Plantard was influenced by the story of hotelier Noel Corbu, who claimed in 1956 that a treasure had been discovered in the area of Rennes-le-Chateau by a previous occupant of his property, Father Bérenger Saunière, whilst renovating his church in 1891. Plantard met Corbu in the early 1960s and embellished the story with the claim that Saunière had discovered medieval parchments along with the treasure that made Plantard the last surviving Merovingian claimant to the throne of France, descended from King Dagobert II.
Plantard, together with his friend Philippe de Chérisey, produced a number of apocryphal documents, including one which attached Plantard's family tree to an actual genealogy from an article by Louis Saurel in the French magazine Les Cahiers de l'Histoire No. 1 (1960). Between 1965 and 1967 these documents, known as the Dossiers Secrets (Secret Files), were planted in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. A third co-conspirator, French author Gérard de Sède (1921–2004), based his 1967 book L'Or de Rennes on these documents, "revealing" the Priory of Sion Rennes story to the world.
Massimo Intovigne states that Plantard, de Chérisey and de Sède later confessed in writing that the documents had been planted in the Bibliothèque nationale between 1965 and 1967 and were a "brilliant" hoax. Bill Putnam and John Edwin Wood, authors of The Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau: A Mystery Solved, agree. When asked where to rank the Priory of Sion hoax among other hoaxes throughout history, both placed it "at the top."
French writer Jean-Luc Chaumeil inherited many of the papers of Plantard and de Chérisey. Among these papers were the Saunière parchments, which Chaumeil had analyzed by two experts, who found them to be around 40 years old. He also says that he has a handwritten document signed by de Chérisey calling the parchments "a good hoax."
Robert Richardson considers the ideas of Julius Evola (1898–1974) to be one of the possible sources for some of Pierre Plantard's claims.
Later life
In 1982, authors Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln published Holy Blood Holy Grail. It became a bestseller and publicized Plantard's Priory of Sion story. The book added a new element to the story, the claim (based on the theories of French esoterist Robert Amberlain) that the Merovingian line of kings had actually been descended from Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, and that the purpose of the Priory (and its military arm, the Knights Templar) was to protect the secret of the holy bloodline.
Plantard played along with this story for a while, but in 1986 parted ways with Lincoln, dismissing Holy Blood, Holy Grail and even the 1960s documents as false and irrelevant. He revised his Priory of Sion story, dropping his earlier Merovingian claims and instead basing his main secret on the miraculous energy and powers of Rocco Negro, a mountain near Rennes-le-Chateau where he owned substantial property. Lincoln maintains that the story about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the Merovingians might still be true even if Plantard's story was a fraud.
In a 1989 issue of Vaincre, Roger-Patrice Pelat was named as a grandmaster of the Priory of Sion. Pelat was a friend of the then-President of France François Mitterrand and center of a scandal involving French Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy. In October 1993, the judge investigating the Pelat scandal visited Plantard's home to question him and have his house searched. The search failed to find any documents related to Pelat. After also interviewing Plantard's son Thomas, the investigation of Plantard's connection with Pelat was closed.
After this, Plantard lived in obscurity until his death on 3 February 2000 in Paris.
Family
Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair (born 1970) is the son of Pierre Plantard, the principal figure behind the creation of the Priory of Sion. Thomas Plantard de Saint-Clair was alleged to have taken over as Grand Master of the Priory from his father, according to a proclamation made by Pierre in 1989. At the time he was managing editor of the Priory's journal Vaincre. He has kept a very low profile since his father's death.
References
- ^ Introvigne, Massimo. Beyond The Da Vinci Code: History and Myth of the Priory of Sion
- ^ Richardson, Robert. The Priory of Sion Hoax in Gnosis (No. 51, Spring 1999), pp. 49-55
- ^ The Secret of the Priory of Sion, CBS News '60 Minutes' (CBS Worldwide Inc.), 30 April 2006, Presented by CBS Correspondent Ed Bradley, Produced By Jeanne Langley
- Pickett, Lynn; Prince, Clive (2006). The Sion Revelation: The Truth About the Guardians of Christ's Sacred Bloodline, p. 401. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0743263030
External links
- Chaumeil - Plantard, second part of an interview of Jean-Luc Chaumeil where he mentions his discovery of the bewitched hill and the owner of the abbé's estate, Henri Buthion, as well as his tumultuous relations with Pierre Plantard, Gérard de Sède and Mathieu Paoli