Pierre Plantard - Later Life, Revised Claims and Downfall

Later Life, Revised Claims and Downfall

A new revived series of Vaincre appeared during the late 1980s, containing a "good luck message from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing", proponent of the United States of Europe.

Plantard revised his Priory of Sion story, claiming the order was founded on 17 January 1681 in Rennes-le-Château, based upon documents discovered in Barcelona, relating to a secret involving the mystical power of ley lines and sunrise lines, and Rocco Negro (Black Rock), a promontory near Rennes-le-Château where he owned substantial property. The alleged contents of the "parchments" allegedly discovered by Saunière were revised and altered (see above). The genealogies contained in Jean Delaude's Priory document Le Cercle d'Ulysse were also revised. The previous claims found in the notarised documents published in Vazart's book in 1983 were made out of "errors of decipherment" and were falsified because of "political pressures of 1956".

In a letter dated 4 April 1989, Plantard wrote that Victor Hugo "drew up the constitutions of the Priory of Sion on 14 July 1870, on the same day that he planted the oak-tree of the United States of Europe".

In 1990, Plantard revised himself by claiming he was only descended from a cadet branch of the line of Dagobert II, while arguing that the direct descendant was really Otto von Habsburg, actually descended from Sigebert I (nicknamed "Plant-Ard"), different to Sigebert IV, who was the son of Bera II and the grandson of Wamba, the founding father of the House of Habsburg and also the builder of Habsburg Castle, drawing on content found in a 1979 book by Jean-Luc Chaumeil.