Page 36 - All About History - Issue 27-15

The Hated Queen: Marie Antoinette

The Dark

Destinies Of
The Children

Of France

After the execution of their parents,
the fate of the royal children was in
the hands of their captors

Louis XVII 1785-95
Aftertheexecutionofhisfather,the
royalistsregardedLouisasthetrue
king of France and hatched many
plotstofreehimfromthe
Temple in Paris. To prevent
this,hewasseparatedfrom
his mother and placed
under the supervision of
Antoine Simon, a cobbler.
Although his wife, Marie-
Jeanne, treated the child
with kindness, he was not
raisedasaprinceandhad
hiscourtmannersdrilled
outofhimandreplaced Marie refused to attempt
withthelanguageofthe any escape that did not
gutter. When the Simons left also include her husband
theTemple,Louisisreportedto
havebeencagedaloneinadark
room, his food passed through the After the execution of
bars.Sufferingfromextremeneglect,the the king, Marie became
known as ‘Widow Capet’
young boy was often abused by his jailers and refused to talk
to anyone. By May 1795, he had fallen seriously ill, and he
diedaloneon8June,agedten.Itwasdeterminedthatthe
causeofdeathwasalymphadenitis–butthisisnotwithout
controversy,asitisnotusuallyfatalandwasdeclaredtobea
long-timeillness,butinfactdevelopedveryquickly.Hewas
buried in an unmarked grave and when rumours surfaced
thatthebodywasnotthatofthedauphin,hundredscame
forward proclaiming to be the lost prince. However, DNA
testing in 2000 determined it was indeed Louis.

Marie Thérèse 1778-1851
Marie Thérèse was the only royal
prisoner in the Temple to survive
the Reign of Terror. She lived a
life of solitude and boredom in
her cell, she was denied any
news of her family and was
forced to listen to the cries
of her young brother as he
was abused. Only aware
that her father was dead,
she scratched the words
‘Marie Thérèse Charlotte
is the most unhappy
person in the world’ into
the wall of her room. When
the terror was over, she was
allowed to leave the country.
Aged just 16, she was taken
to Vienna. She later married her
cousin, Louis-Antoine, and lived in
exile in Britain. She finally went back to
France with the Bourbon restoration in 1814. When Napoleon
returned to France in 1815, Marie attempted to rally the
troops against him and refused to leave Bordeaux despite
Napoleon’s demands, leading him to dub her the ‘only man
in her family’. After the death of Louis XVIII, Marie’s husband
became heir to the throne, however, the July Revolution
forced his abdication and Marie was exiled once again to
Britain, where she died of pneumonia aged 72.
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