In the beautiful Gardens of Tuileries outside of the Louvre in Paris there is sometimes spotted a Red Man. This is thought to be the ghost of Jean l’Ecorcheur, an assassin to Catherine de Medici who ended up being assassinated himself.
The Tuileries Palace was a royal palace directly in front of the Louvre Palace before it was burnt down in 1871 by the Paris Commune, a French revolutionary government that seized power between March to May that year.
It was built by Queen of France, Catherine de Medici in the 1500s after her husband died to have space for a large garden. Today, the only thing that remains of it is the Tuileries gardens that covers the ground around the Louvre until the Seine and the Place de la Concorde, and if we are to believe the legend, the ghost of the The Red Man.
It is in this stately garden that reports that go over centuries tell about the ghost of a red clothed man appearing throughout history to the visitors. And if we are to believe the legend, the ghost belongs to one of the assassins to the Queen of France.
Queen of France Catherine de Medici
One of the people who are supposedly haunting the Louvre was one of the henchmen belonging to Queen Catherine de Medicis who ruled as queen in France from 1547 to 1559 at a time when the country was at constant edge because of brewing civil and religious wars.
Although her husband, Henry allowed her almost no political power or influence as his queen, she found her own way and is regarded as one of the most powerful and influential women in Europe.
She was also known for being interested in the occult, especially because she had problems conceiving in the start, something people attributed to witches among other things people found “unnatural” in a woman. She was also linked to being the creator of the Satanic Black Mass, teaching her son in the Dark Arts as well as being Italian.
The Butcher Jean the Skinner
Who can this The Red Man be? What we know is true however, was that Catherine had a political agenda and needed people to put that agenda into life. But to act on the Queen’s behest came with great danger.
The most famed legend of the identity of the The Red Man is about a man named Jean. Jean l’Ecorcheur was a butcher living in the palace and Catherine de Medici’s hired assassin to kill on her demand, both for political as well as various occult reasons according to the legends. Through his work as a butcher as well as assassin, Jean l’Ecorcheur earned his charming nickname, Jean the Skinner or the Flayer.
Acting as the Queen’s henchmen, he also knew about her and the royal family’s secrets, which were plentiful and the Medici family was known to be a scheming family as well and Catherine de Medici had more enemies than most. Because she feared he would spill these dark secrets, she had him murdered before it happened. There are also rumors that she did it because he tried to quit or make her pay up. Nevertheless, he died a bloody death, but it wasn’t the end of him.
He was according to legend killed by a man named Neuville in the Tuileries garden where he lived in a hut. Neuville left the corpse in the garden, but when he returned, he was gone.
The Curse on the Royals of The Tuileries Palace
Catherine de Medici was according to popular belief a spiritual woman with a strong belief in the occult and she went to her astrologist Cosme Ruggieri who had a vision. In the vision the astrologist claimed that Jean would haunt the garden and had cursed all those living there.
Legend has it that The Red Man rose from the dead and cursed all the French Royals who lived in the palace that were the cause of his death. After this they say many of them died under mysterious circumstances they blamed on Jack the Skinner’s ghost and curse and he was reportedly seen before many deaths almost like a dark omen.
After this he became known as the Red Man, or the L’Homme Rouge of the Tuileries and if we are to believe the legends, he is still dressed in red and haunts the Tuileries Garden.
Many claimed to have seen the Red Man before King Henry IV was assassinated on 14th of May in 1610, when Louis XIV died of gangrene in 1715.
The Red Man was also seen before Louis XVI was executed by the guillotine as a traitor in 1739 during the French Revolution.
The Lady in waiting for Marie Antoinette supposedly saw The Red Man a few days before the Tuileries Palace was stormed in 1792 in the Salle des Gardes and there is even a written account of it:
“Marie Antoinette’s women were sitting in the Salle des Gardes, when they became suddenly aware of the presence of a small man clothed from crown to heel in scarlet, who looked at them with such unearthly eyes that they were frozen with terror. They rushed to the apartments of the Madame la Dauphine and related their adventure.”
Even Napoleon Bonaparte claimed to have seen what could have been him several times during his reign as the head of the state in France, before the battle of the Pyramids, the Battle of Wagram at his coronation and lastly at the battle of Waterloo. And although he wasn’t really a part of the royal family, he did reside in the palace as the king of some sort.
However, in many sources they claim that The Red Man was acting more like a warning omen about danger to come than a vengeful spirit after his revenge.
The Last Sightings of the Red Man
Written accounts went on for ages until the Tuileries Palace burned to the ground in 1971. Twelve men were ordered by Jules Bergeret to pour petroleum, tar and turpentine and light the palace on fire, burning it to the ground. And with tearing the once royal palace, did they perhaps succeed in breaking the curse of Jean the Skinner?
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References
Red Man: The Tuileries Palace Ghost – Geri Walton
Paranormal Paris: The Legend of the Red Man of Tuileries Palace
Phantom of the Queen’s Assassin
