Archaeologist may have uncovered the remains of D’Artagnan, the famed French musketeer | CNN

An archaeologist has found remains he believes belong to the famed French musketeer D’Artagnan at a church in the Netherlands, potentially solving the mystery of the hero’s final resting place more than three centuries after he died. The skeleton was found buried in a tomb in front of the altar at the St. Peter and Paul Church in the southern Dutch town of Maastricht, alongside a musket bullet and a small bronze coin minted in 1660, local independent archaeologist Wim Dijkman told CNN on Thursday. This physical evidence matches historical records that report that D’Artagnan, whose full name was Charles de Batz de Castelmore, died after being shot in the throat by a musket ball during the French siege of Maastricht in 1673. The siege was part of the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678), a French war of conquest that aimed to seize control of the Spanish Netherlands. D’Artagnan was later immortalized in the 1844 novel “The Three Musketeers,” by French author Alexandre Dumas, and, in modern times, in films and TV series. Dijkman, the former Maastricht city archaeologist, told CNN that he had been petitioning church officials to let him carry out excavations at the property since m