Philippe Delorme

Youth

Philippe Delorme grew up in the working-class suburbs of Paris, where he followed the traditional education of public school. In college, a teacher develops his taste for history.^[2]

After the baccalaureate, he studied in literary preparatory class at the lycée Janson-de-Sailly, in Paris, then he obtained a Licence and a master's degree in demographic history under the direction of Professor Jean Ganiage [fr], at the University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)^[3] followed by a DEA in 2002.^[4][5]

Journalist

In 1989, he joined Point de Vue [fr]. He collaborated there, as a grand reporter until 2015,^[6] then he continued to collaborate there occasionally as an editor. Soon, he is considered by the media as an "historian specialist of royal families".^[7]

In March 2016, he joins Valeurs actuelles, where he regularly publishes a chronicle and historical papers.^[8]

Works on the history of dynasties

In 2000, he was one of the promoters of genetic studies carried out on the heart of Louis XVII, kept at the Saint-Denis basilica. This investigation, of which he is responsible for the historical part, concludes that the relic is authentic,^[9][10] without really convincing some people of the end a those two-century-old dispute.^[11]

In 2013, he challenged the alleged rediscovery of the mummified head of Henry IV. All of his objections are published in the book La Mauvaise Tête de Henri IV, prefaced by Professor Joël Cornette [fr], of the Paris 8 University.^[12][13] He cosigned also a genetic study on the Y DNA of the Bourbons, confirming the inauthenticity of the head presented as that of Henri IV.^[14]

The same year, with Nicolas Doyen and Julien Morvan, he created the association "For the return to Saint-Denis of Charles X and the last of the Bourbons", buried in Slovenia since the 19th century.^[15][16][5]

Awards

• Officier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres (November 2nd, 2023)^[17]