Louis XVII King of france Date of Birth: 27.03.1785 Country: France

Biography of Louis XVII

Louis XVII was the King of France and the heir to the French throne from 1789 to 1792. After the execution of his father, Louis XVI, in January 1793, he was recognized as the King of France by French monarchists, as well as by almost all European powers and the United States. Although he never actually ruled, he is known in history as Louis XVII.

Early Life and Family
Louis-Charles, who was given the title of Duke of Normandy at birth, was the second son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. The title of Duke of Normandy was a rare one, last used in the royal family in the 15th century. There were speculations about his paternity, with some suggesting that he might have been the result of an affair between Marie-Antoinette and Hans Axel von Fersen, a close friend of the royal family. However, modern researchers have dismissed this theory based on chronological evidence. There were also physical resemblances between Louis-Charles and his younger brother, the Count of Artois (later known as Charles X), suggesting that Louis XVI was his father.

Reign as the Dauphin and Prince Royal of France
After the death of his elder brother in 1789, four-year-old Louis-Charles became the heir to the throne and was given the title of Dauphin. In 1791, when Louis XVI became the constitutional "King of the French," his son's title was changed to "Prince Royal of France." However, the monarchy in France was abolished on August 10, 1792, and the entire royal family, known as the Capets, was imprisoned in the Temple.

Recognized as King and Imprisonment
Upon learning of Louis XVI's execution on January 22, 1793, Marie-Antoinette knelt before her son and swore allegiance to him as her king. A week later, on January 28, 1793, Louis-Charles's uncle, the Count of Provence, who was in exile in Germany, declared him King Louis XVII. This declaration was supported by most of the royal houses of Europe, as well as the republican government of the United States, which did not recognize the French Revolution. Royalists minted coins and medals with his image, issued documents in his name, and issued passports with his signature. There were monarchist conspiracies aimed at freeing the rightful king.

However, instead of physically killing the dangerous child, the Jacobins, who were leading the revolutionary government at the time, wanted to raise him as a true sans-culotte and use him for their own purposes. They wanted Louis-Charles Capet to provide evidence against his own mother, accusing her of various crimes, including incest. Separated from his mother, sisters, and aunts, the members of the Revolutionary Tribunal easily manipulated him, forcing him to sign the required "testimonies." Even though there were a few incoherent accounts in Marie-Antoinette's case about how she supposedly took him into her bed in the Temple, these accounts bore the signature of an unskilled child's hand: Louis Charles Capet.

Ill-treatment and Death
After Marie-Antoinette's execution in October 1793, the Convention entrusted the "revolutionary education" of the Dauphin to a cobbler named Simon and his wife, who settled in the Temple. Their task was to make Louis renounce the memory of his parents, insult their memory, and embrace revolutionary ideals, as well as to teach him physical labor. The treatment of the child worsened as he was frequently subjected to physical abuse, although it was not more than what was common for the children of cobblers at the time. In January 1794, Simon and his wife left the Temple, leaving the child to fend for himself. Until the Ninth Thermidor and the fall of Robespierre, Louis XVII lived in the Temple under the supervision of the guards, who only provided him with food. His physical, mental, and emotional well-being was neglected.

Attempts at Restoration and Death
In the post-revolutionary period, there were attempts to restore constitutional monarchy with Louis XVII as the king. The leaders of the Thermidorian regime sought to establish a peaceful order in the country and revise the radical constitution of 1793. The main challenge was the issue of regency, as a sole regent could concentrate unlimited power and be influenced by the emigres. However, these plans were thwarted by the death of Louis-Charles, who unofficially began to be called "king." According to official records, Louis XVII died in the Temple on June 8, 1795, at the age of ten years and two months. An autopsy revealed that he died of tuberculosis, the same disease that claimed the lives of his grandfather, grandmother, uncle, and older brother. His body was secretly buried in a mass grave.

Legacy and Controversy
Following Louis XVII's death, his uncle, the Count of Provence, proclaimed himself King Louis XVIII. He assumed the French throne de facto in 1814 but considered his reign to have begun in 1795. The remaining members of the royal family, including Louis XVII's sister, Marie-Thérèse, were uncertain about his fate. Rumors circulated in Paris at the time that the body of the child, autopsied in the Temple in 1795, did not belong to him. Several impostors claiming to be Louis XVII emerged, particularly in 1814 after the Bourbon Restoration. Attempts to locate the exact burial site of Louis XVII and identify his remains have been unsuccessful. In 2000, DNA analysis of the heart preserved by the descendants of the royal family's physician confirmed the genetic connection to Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVII's sister, providing evidence that he did indeed die in the Temple in 1795. However, there are still differing opinions on this matter. In 2004, the heart was buried in the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris, the burial place of French monarchs. Louis XVII remains a symbol of the innocent victim of the French Revolution and the dark, cruel aspects of that era.