Pierre Plantard

Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair (born Pierre Athanase Marie Plantard, 18 March 1920 – 3 February 2000) was a French technical artist, best known for being the principal fabricator of the Priory of Sion hoax, by which he claimed from the 1960s onwards that he was a male-line Merovingian descendant of Dagobert II and the "Great Monarch" prophesied by Nostradamus.

Today in France, he is commonly regarded as a con artist.

Pierre Plantard was born in 1920 in Paris, the son of a butler and a concierge (described as a cook for wealthy families in police reports of the 1940s).

According to the late Robert Amadou (1924–2006), Pierre Plantard in 1953 was accused of selling degrees of esoteric orders for exorbitant sums.

Leaving school at 17, he became sacristan at the church of Saint-Louis d'Antin, in the 9th Arrondissement of Paris, and from 1937 began forming mystical ultranationalist associations like The French Union (1937) and French National Renewal (1941) to support a "National Revolution" based upon antisemitism and anti-Masonry.

Following the dissolution of Grand Orient Freemasonry in Vichy France on 13 August 1940, Plantard wrote a letter dated 16 December 1940 to Marshal Philippe Pétain offering his services to the collaborationist government, referring to a 'terrible Masonic and Jewish conspiracy'.

On 21 April 1941, Plantard wrote to the Paris Police Prefecture that his group the French National Renewal was to take possession of the unoccupied premises located at 22 place Malesherbes, 1st floor "which are currently let to an English Jew, Mr. Shapiro, who is presently fighting alongside his fellows in the British armed forces."

By 1942, Plantard wanted to form another association, the Alpha Galates, membership prohibited to Jews, but the occupying German authorities refused permission.

The statutes of the Alpha Galates were deposited on 21 September 1942, describing itself as a tripartite order composed of the Temple, la Cité and les Arches.

The Alpha Galates published a periodical called Vaincre - Pour une jeune chevalerie ("Conquer - for a young knighthood"), that lasted for six issues between September 1942 and February 1943, containing an anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic agenda; Plantard's disregard of the prohibition by the German authorities of the formation of the Alpha Galates earned him a four-month sentence in Fresnes Prison.

The Statutes of the Alpha Galates existed in the German language as well as French.

Claude Charlot of the Paris Prefecture of Police stated on a CBS News 60 Minutes documentary that the Alpha Galates "had only four regular members".

According to a police report on the Alpha Galates dated 13 February 1945, the organisation was only composed of at most 50 members, who resigned one after the other as soon as they sized up the president of the association (Pierre Plantard) and figured out that it was not a serious enterprise.

Following the Liberation, Plantard tried to transform the Alpha Galates into a resistance group and in 1947, tried to form "The Latin Academy".

On July 8, 1951, he was initiated into Freemasonry in the Grand Orient de France by the lodge L’Avenir du Chablais in Ambilly.

In 1951, Plantard married Anne-Léa Hisler (1930–1970).

They lived in the town of Annemasse in south-east France, near the border with Switzerland, until their separation in 1956.

At the same time Plantard worked as a draughtsman for the company établissements Chanovin.

According to a more reliable source, given in a letter written by Léon Guersillon the Mayor of Annemasse in 1956, contained in the folder holding the 1956 Statutes of the Priory of Sion in the subprefecture of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, Plantard was given a six-month sentence in December 1953 for abus de confiance (breach of trust), relating to other crimes.

French researchers dispute the connection between Robert Amadou and Pierre Plantard.

On 25 June 1956, Pierre Plantard and André Bonhomme legally registered in the town of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois a new association called the Priory of Sion, based in Annemasse close to the French border near Geneva.

The group was devoted to the support of building low-cost housing in Annemasse, and criticising local government through its journal Circuit.

The "Sion" in the name did not refer to the ancient Land of Israel, but to a local mountain, Mont-Sion (or Mont-de-Sion), where the order (according to its statutes) intended to establish a retreat center.

The association dissolved by December 1956.

By 1958, Plantard was back living in Paris where he was actively supporting General de Gaulle during the Algerian Crisis, establishing his own version of a Committee of Public Safety (calling it the 'Central Committee') based in Paris, using the name "Captain Way", claiming it was part of the official Committee based in Algeria founded by General Jacques Massu.

Louis Vazart referred to a letter to Plantard from de Gaulle dated 29 July 1958, also referring to another similar letter from de Gaulle dated 3 August 1958 where he allegedly thanked Plantard for his support during the Algerian crisis.

None of these alleged letters from de Gaulle have ever been produced.

In 1959, Plantard edited a second series of the journal Circuit, subtitled Publication Périodique Culturelle de la Fédération des Forces Françaises.

It never mentioned the Priory of Sion in its pages, and dealt with paranormal and mystical topics.

At the same time, Plantard was offering his services as a clairvoyant under the name of "Chyren".

It was in this second series of Circuit that Plantard allegedly claimed he received a letter from President Charles de Gaulle dated 27 June 1959.

These Priory of Sion documents contained false genealogies attaching Plantard's family tree to another genealogy found in an article by Louis Saurel in the French magazine Les Cahiers de l'Histoire Number 1 (1960).

In 1961, author Gérard de Sède had an article published in Noir et blanc about the Château de Gisors in Normandy, linked to the claims of Roger Lhomoy who since 1946, alleged it contained the treasure of the Knights Templar.

De Gaulle did not support the existence of any of the Committees of Public Safety, gave Algeria free elections and the country eventually got its independence, endorsed by de Gaulle, in 1962.

Plantard read the article and wrote to de Sède, later collaborating with him on the book Les Templiers sont parmi nous, ou, L'Enigme de Gisors ("The Templars are Amongst Us, or The Enigma of Gisors"), that was published in 1962.

The name Priory of Sion reappeared within the pages of this book.

In 1962, author Robert Charroux published his book Trésors du monde telling the story of Noël Corbu, who claimed the 19th century priest Bérenger Saunière had discovered the treasure of Blanche of Castile in the village of Rennes-le-Château.

The book adapted Corbu's story to fit-in with Plantard's claims about the survival of the line of Merovingian king Dagobert II, and Plantard began claiming to be descended from Dagobert II since 1964 when he began depositing false documents in the Bibliothèque nationale giving the secret history of the Priory of Sion.

This inspired Plantard to write his own book on the subject matter but, failing to find a publisher his manuscript was extensively rewritten by Gérard de Sède resulting in the 1967 book, L'Or de Rennes.

In 1972, he married Anne-Marie Cavaille who originated from Montauban, with Philippe de Chérisey acting as best man.