In human history, there are some tales so bizarre they surpass the wildest fiction. One such story, rooted in the grim realities of 16th century France, reveals a desperate and macabre solution to famine: the grinding of human bones into ‘flour’ for bread-making.
The background to this strange episode is set during the tumultuous Wars of Religion in France. In 1590, the city of Paris, controlled by the Catholic League, found itself under siege by the French Royal Army led by Henry of Navarre, later Henry IV of France. The siege aimed to starve the city into submission, a tactic that led to desperate measures.
In these dire times, Pierre de L’Estoile, a clerk-in-chief of the French Parliament, recorded a chilling decision made by Parisians. As food supplies dwindled, an assembly proposed a horrifying solution: to grind the bones from the Cemetery of the Innocents’ charnel house into flour and bake bread from it. Driven by extreme hunger, the plan was executed, but with tragic outcomes. L’Estoile notes that those who ate this ‘bone bread’ met their death, not from starvation, but from the very solution they hoped would save them.
Why did those who ate the ‘bone bread’ die? This question has puzzled historians and scientists alike. Some speculate that toxic substances like arsenic, or psychological trauma from consuming human remains, contributed to the deaths. However, a more likely explanation lies in the nutritional inadequacy and inorganic nature of human bones.
Hellbound and Down 