Medieval relic hunters: the quest for Notre-Dame's crown of thorns

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. Five years ago, in April 2019, the holy crown of thorns was heroically saved from destruction in the Notre Dame fire in Paris. Following the cathedral's recent reopening, the religious relic is set to return there in a special ceremony today. So for this episode, Emily Gerry tells David Musgrove the remarkable story of how the Crown of Thorns was brought to Paris in the first place, in the 13th century by King Louis IX. Its arrival was accompanied by a fabulous procession, in probably the greatest unboxing episode that history has ever seen.

Can you kick us off by just telling us a little bit about the crown of thorns in the biblical story? What's the backstory here? Yes, well, the the crown of thorns might be familiar to anyone who looks at pictures of Christ and knows his passion. And out of the four Gospels, three of the authors talk about how Christ was mocked as part of that passion. His mockery occurred before he's crucified.

And in the Gospel of John, it's a sort of longer narrative. So we're told in Matthew, Mark, and John that some Roman soldiers were sort of making fun of Christ and they twisted a band of thorns together and pressed that into his head to make fun of him. And they said, oh, look, all hail the king of the Jews. And in the Gospel of John, that sort of humiliation is extended. And he's then wrapped in a sort of imperial-looking robe and presented before people as this sort of sad king.

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