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Title details for The Lost King of France by Deborah Cadbury - Wait list

The Lost King of France

How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

by Deborah Cadbury
Jennifer M. Dixon
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Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie, enjoyed a charmed early childhood in the gilded palace of Versailles. At the age of four, he became the dauphin, heir to the most powerful throne in Europe. Yet within five years he was to lose everything. Drawn into the horror of the French Revolution, his family was incarcerated and their fate thrust into the hands of the revolutionaries who wished to destroy the monarchy.
In 1793, when Marie Antoinette was beheaded at the guillotine, she left her adored eight-year-old son imprisoned in the Temple Tower. Far from inheriting a throne, the orphaned boy-king had to endure the hostility and abuse of a nation. Two years later, the revolutionary leaders declared Louis XVII dead. No grave was dug, no monument built to mark his passing.
Immediately, rumors spread that the prince had, in fact, escaped from prison and was still alive. Others believed that he had been murdered, his heart cut out and preserved as a relic. As with the tragedies of England's princes in the Tower and the Romanov archduchess Anastasia, countless "brothers" soon approached Louis-Charles's older sister, Marie-Therese, who survived the revolution. They claimed not only the dauphin's name, but also his inheritance. Several "princes" were plausible, but which, if any, was the real heir to the French throne?

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 3, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781618037060
      • File size: 372602 KB
      • Duration: 12:56:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 2, 2002
      British writer Cadbury (Terrible Lizard) sets out to unravel a historical mystery in this winning, highly readable account of the French Revolution and the fate of the dauphin, the son of the executed King Louis XVI. Cadbury dramatically relates how the French monarchy moved inexorably toward the abyss of 1789; she describes the seizure of the Bastille, the royal family's imprisonment in the Temple and the execution of the king and queen. But what became of their son? According to the official account, Louis XVII remained in solitary confinement in a filthy, vermin-infested prison cell, where he contracted tuberculosis and died at age 10 in June 1795; bizarrely, the physician who performed the autopsy literally, and fortuitously, stole the boy's heart. Yet millions believed that the prince had escaped, and over the years, hundreds came forward claiming to be the dauphin. Not until two centuries later, with advances in forensic science, was the mystery of Louis XVII's fate finally solved. In 2000, the boy's preserved heart was found in Paris, and its mitochondrial DNA was compared to that retrieved from Marie Antoinette's hair. The result? An exact genetic match. Cadbury does an exemplary job describing the history, the mystery and the tragic fate of Louis XVII. 8 pages of b&w photos. (Oct.)Forecast:This will appeal to the same readers who followed the recent genetic unraveling of the fate of another executed royal family, recounted in
      The Romanovs: The Last Chapter by Robert K. Massie.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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