Fully clothed body of 17th Century noblewoman buried with the heart of her husband unearthed in France

The well-preserved and fully clothed body of a French noblewoman, thought to be Louise de Quengo, has been discovered among 800 other graves in the city of Rennes in Brittany, North West France.

The lead coffin was hermetically sealed and placed in a stone tomb in the chapel of St Joseph Convent. The woman died 350 years ago, but her clothes, including her cap and shoes, have been remarkably well preserved. Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventative Archaeological Research have identified her as Louise de Quengo, an aristocrat from Brittany, on the basis that the body of her husband, Toussaint de Perrein, was discovered nearby and that a reliquary buried with her contained de Perrein’s heart. There were also inscriptions carved on the reliquary itself.