The publication of “The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail” on 17 January 1982 spawned a new breed of crazy amongst the mystery buffs: The Jesus Bloodline. It has also kick-started a New Age Spiritual version of Mary Magdalene (often misrepresented as “Gnostic”). Variations of “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” have also appeared in the form of novels.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation did an item in 1982 about Rennes-le-Château and “The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail”.

Here's a transcript of what Henry Lincoln said on that television programme:

“Jesus was rightful claimant to the throne of Palestine. As the Gospels tell us he was of the House of David and Pilate labelled him as the King of the Jews. He was, in our contention, indeed the rightful claimant to the throne: he married, and we suggest that his wife was that figure who is known as the Mary – Mary Magdalene – that there was issue of that marriage, that after the crucifixion, the widow – and children – went to the South of France – where there were well-established Jewish communities. That the family continued itself there, eventually inter-married with the Frankish kings, generating the Merovingian dynasty.”

“It's not a question of belief – it's a question of a balance of probabilities – we did not set-out with a thesis that this the story that we want to write. We set out from a very small local mystery – on which I made several films concerning a priest in a French village. As we began to research that local mystery, the evidence began to assemble itself of its own accord and we were led to this hypothesis – we did not in any way create it first – we were as surprised by the evidence that presented itself at the time as the reader will be when he reads the book.”

“The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail” suggested that Pierre Plantard was the direct descendant of Jesus Christ and the Jesus Bloodline was Bérenger Saunière's secret – however, Pierre Plantard distanced himself from the Jesus Bloodline on the Jacques Pradel Frances-Inter Radio programme on 18 February 1982 – and by 1988 Plantard was beginning to form a different history of the Priory of Sion in contrast to what was claimed in “Les Dossiers Secrets” – and thus distancing himself further from Henry Lincoln and his two co-authors in the process.

Henry Lincoln continues to live in a time-warp where the subject matter of Rennes-le-Château exists in his own (limited) image – and ignoring anything that does not conform to his (distorted) version of the story of Rennes-le-Château.

Pierre Plantard rubbishing the Jesus Bloodline
(The Real Da Vinci Code, Wildfire Television for Channel Four, 2005)