18 Ventôse
An CCXXXIV
Louis XVII
When the head of his father, Louis XVI, fell, the imprisoned seven-year-old Louis Charles — the Dauphin — became the rightful king in the eyes of the royalists. The republicans then separated him from his mother, Marie Antoinette, and compelled him to accuse her of sexual abuse. With that, Louis had served his purpose. He was left to waste away in his prison cell. That much is certain. Yet most of what happened during this child’s solitary confinement remains unclear. The cause of death was most likely tuberculosis. The heart that a royalist physician removed and preserved after the Dauphin’s death found its final resting place in the Basilica of Saint-Denis only in 2004. Before that, genetic analyses had provided proof that it was indeed the last remaining relic of what was arguably the most unfortunate of all French kings.
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1785 - 1795
- March 27, 1785 · Louis Charles de Bourbon is born in Versailles.
- June 4, 1789 · His elder brother dies. As a result, Louis Charles becomes dauphin (heir to the throne).
- August 13, 1792 · He is imprisoned in the Temple with his family.
- January 21, 1793 · After his father's execution, he is considered by the royalists to be King of France, Louis XVII.
- July 3, 1793 · He is separated from his mother, first placed in a nearby cell, then handed over to the Jacobin cobbler Antoine Simon.
- October 6, 1793 · Antoine Simon and Jacques-René Hébert force him to sign a statement accusing his mother and aunt of sexual abuse.
- October 15, 1793 · This statement is used by the witness Hébert in the trial against Marie Antoinette.
- January 1794 · Simon later returns the Dauphin to the Temple.
- July 28, 1794 · On the day of Robespierre’s execution (the same day as Simon's execution), the deputy Barras finds the boy in a state of severe neglect. He is placed in the care of Jean-Jacques Laurant but remains in captivity.
- May 1795 · The Dauphin becomes seriously ill.
- June 1, 1795 · His physician, Desault, dies suddenly under unclear circumstances.
- June 8, 1795 · Louis Charles dies in captivity, probably from scrofula (a form of tuberculosis).
- June 9, 1795 · The pharmacist Choppard, a confidant of Desault, also dies shortly afterwards under mysterious circumstances.
Quotes
I advise my son, if he should have the misfortune of becoming king, […] to forget all hatred and resentment, and especially everything that relates to the misfortune and suffering I have endured.
Excerpt from the will of Louis XVI, January 1793
Forgive him, dear sister, think of his tender age and how easy it is to make a child say what one wants — even what he does not understand himself.
Marie Antoinette in her farewell letter to her sister-in-law, shortly before her execution, October 1793
At a quarter to three in the afternoon, we received the news of the death of the son of Capet. The Committee of General Security has instructed us to inform you.
Report by Joseph Marie François Sevestre, member of the Committee of General Security, to the Convention, 9 June 1795
Le Moniteur
Duodi, 22 Prairial, l'an 3 de la République une et indivisible
(June 10, 1795)
On 28 July 1794, the deputy Barras visits the Dauphin in his cell.
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