The Lost King of France: A True Story of Revolution, Revenge, and DNA (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "On Saturday, April 21,1770, the Austrian archduchess, Maria-Antonia, left her home, the imperial palace of Hofburge in Vienna, forever and embarked on the long journey..." (more)
Key Phrases: real dauphin, lost dauphin, crystal urn, Madame Simon, Madame Campan, Princesse de Lamballe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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... Cadbury does an exemplary job describing the history, the mystery and the tragic fate of Louis XVII. 8 pages of b&w photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A first-class read--informative, entertaining, and a great, grand adventure. Most noteworthy." (Margaret George, bestselling author of The Autobiography of Henry VIII and The Memoirs of Cleopatra

"A fascinating and well told story that reads with great interest and pleasure." --Ian Dunlop, acclaimed biographer

"Unputdownable...I cannot recommend this too highly." --Maureen Waller, popular historian

"[A] fascinating account of a child victim of revolutionary brutality...Authoritative, lucid and utterly absorbing." --Anne Somerset, author of the bestselling biography Elizabeth I

"An absorbing tale, combining sound history and modern science." --John Hardman, author of Robespierre and Louis XVI
-- Review

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312283121
• ISBN-13: 978-0312283124
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #694,555 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unputdownable piece of historical non-fiction, October 31, 2002

By	ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

It is a rare piece of historical non-fiction that is so gripping it becomes a one-sitting read, as Deborah Cadbury's book does. As Alison Weir's comments on the hardback edition state, it is: `stunningly written'.
The book opens with a present day mystery of a heart that is purported to be that of Louis XVII of France - the boy-king - that is (dis)proved by DNA. Rather than giving us the answer immediately the author then tells the story of the downfall of the French Monarchy at the hands of the sans-culottes and the leaders of the French Revolution. Told from the royal perspective, centering on Marie Antoniette, Louis XVI, Louis-Charles (Dauphin and future Louis XVII) and their other immediate family and associates, we are given a story full of immense pathos, where the royal family - clearly depicted as undone by previous French royal excesses and a failing economy - are treatedly brutally at the hands of the revolutionaries. Marie Antoniette is depicted as a naïve young woman of excess, then as a great mother, ultimately as aa Queen of France whose suffering reflects much of the Revolution. Louis XVI is presented as a monarch whose stoical steadfastness to uphold the good of his country costs him the constitution and ultimately his life, Louis-Charles as a boy wise beyond his years - clearly intimated as potentially a great french monarch.
The first part of the book is taken up with the history of the french royal family from the moment Maria-Antonia of Austria marries the young Dauphin and follows them as they are vilified, blamed and ultimately killed for the problems assailing France. The story is told from the royal perspective, Cadbury engendering great sympathy with the family, possibly to the extent of presenting a somewhat biased view of the revolutionaries as a brutal regime whose leaders use the anger of the mob to further their own political gain. Drawing mainly on personal testimonies of Clery who served the family during their Parisian imprisonment at Tullieres, The Tower and the Temple, Marie-Therese (daughter of Marie-Antoniette and Louis) and Madame Tourzel, we are given the emotional history of a key point in European history where the author gives a very focused view on the ordeals and depravations of Louis XVI, Marie Antoniette, and finally, in a lengthy section, on Louis-Charles mental and physical abuse. Part 1 ends with the death of Louis-Charles according to the official version given at the time.
Part 2 deals with the twenty year period of revolution, Robespierre and Napoleon, culminating in Marie-Therese's (as the sole direct survivor) reentry into Paris as the Queen with the newly crowned Louis XVIII and subsequent re-fleeing. At this point history gives rise to the legend that Louis-Charles did not die (as Dr Pelletan's autopsy initially stated) but rather was substituted with another child. The primary mover of this legend came from Madame Simon, the wife of the man depicted as responsible for much of Louis-Charles systematic abuse who claimed they had smuggled Louis-Charles out in a wicker basket. What resulted was a procession of Dauphin-claimants, the most prominent being Naundorff, Bruneau and Hervagault each of whom claimed to be the long-lost surviving Louis-Charles - to the evident distress of Marie-Therese. As each of these were found guilty of being imposters eventually the rumours and claimants dwindled until twentieth century forensic and, eventually, DNA, technology enabled scientists to coduct tests on the original family, the notable claimants and the preserved heart that Pelletan had taken from the dead boy during the autopsy.
This leads us back to the opening statement of the book and the resulting conclusions, based on DNA, seem to give a resolution to the story.
What the author has done is present a deeply sympathetic view of the lives of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoniette and Louis-Charles, perhaps seeking to redress the perceptions of them as given in many political articles of the time, and finally, give a satisfactory ending to a mystery that has echoed over the past two hundred years. She has done it in a way that, conclusions aside, is immensely readable and interesting.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 6 Stars and counting - Magnificent history/mystery from one of the best non-fiction writers around, September 17, 2005

By	A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Yet again, huge applause for Deborah Cadbury here, proving her amazing book Terrible Lizard, was not just a fluke. IN this she follows the story of what happened to the boy king Louis XVII of France. A child when his parents Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette went to the guillotine in the French Revolution. The boy king was kept locked up in appalling conditions, solitary confinement with constant maltreatment. By 1795 he was silent, unable to speak, and that same year he died. Therein lies the beginning and end of this book for almost immediately the rumours that the boy who died in that cell was not the King, but an imposter.

Deborah Cadbury, intrigued by this mystery, who died in that cell? and what of all the imposters who harassed the Kings sister until her death, were they really the King returned from exile? Or were they also imposters? This would be a very short book if that was all that Cadbury wrote of. However Cadbury provides us with an excellent background from Marie-Anotnia leaving her Hapsburg home in Austria and arrival in France as Marie-Antoinette, the teenage wife-to-be of the heir to the French throne.

The reasons for the French revolution, the downfall of the house of Bourbon in France, the terrible end of the boy king in his lonely pest-ridden cell and then the rise of the swathe of counterfeit King Louis XVII's and their legal battles over the centuries - indeed right into the 1950's when the last great court battles were fought in France by the main pretenders to the French Throne.

Ironically the last court battle was fought the same year that Crick and Watson discovered the double helix model which is DNA which was finally to prove the veracity of the claim. It has only been in very recent times that DNA science could be used to identify mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from tiny samples provided. MtDNA, unlike DNA, is passed on almost complete from mother to children, there are on average one variation in 33 generations so it is a very stable way of being able to test family linkages.

Cadbury saves the results of the testing to the very last chapters. The last great search for the body of Louis XVII, the painstaking tracking down of his heart which was taken in the the dissection of the body. The search for sources of DNA sources for Marie-Antoinette and her family - and finally the results.

These may not be conclusive as the results suggest. But Cadbury presents all the evidence and makes conclusions which I found convincing, I won't spoil the answer by revealing it, but it will keep you reading to the last page.

This is a phenomenal book, well researched, written with the easily readable style Cadbury showed in Terrible Lizard, and a compelling page turner.

My highest recommendation.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DEATH IS PREFERABLE TO A LITTTLE BOY, July 4, 2005

By	Schuyler V. Johnson (Lake Worth, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Imagine what his life was like! Being separated from his mother and father, was horrific enough, then to be thrown into a situation where he is at the mercy of a sadist like "Citizen Simon" is truly beyond comprehension. The boy is brutalized, forced into grotesque sexual acts from which he contracts disease; he is physically, mentally and emotionally tortured for many months until finally he is moved to a different cell and away from Simon...who was later, jusitifiably, killed. In one of the saddest parts of this story, the Dauphin leaves some flowers at his mother's cell door, not knowing she had been killed weeks before.
His situation goes from horrific to beyond description in rapid succession until one day he meets a physician, called in at the 11th hour when the keepers are concerend over the deterioration of the Dauphin's condition. Confined in a dark, rat infested cell, with no water and no toilet, he is forced to live in a black, fetid cell with his own waste. His limbs grow abnormally long to compensate for his total lack of exercise, and decent food and his health declines from lack of fresh air, light and water to bathe in. The doctor is a sympathetic soul who makes promises to the Dauphin to help him, and his health, for a time, improves...but one day the doctor does not come and the Dauphin doesn't know his only friend has been poisoned for being a confidante of the Dauphin and being sympathetic to him.
My former sympathies for the people of France during the Revolution were considerably eroded after reading this account; I know the conditions were terrible, but after reading what they were capable of doing to a terrified, delicate little boy, they became, rightly or wrongly, a nation of monsters, ravening beasts.
The Dauphin becomes a wise, cynical child, with wisdom gained from extreme horror, and he no longer believes in anyone or anything after the doctor is taken away from him, and not long after that, he mercifully succumbs.
I literally (forgive the cliche) could not believe what I was reading; I had often wondered about the Dauphn and what became of him after his parents were murdered, and now I know...and it is far beyond any horrors that even his parents faced, given his age and the brutality he was forced to live in for the last couple of years of his sad little life. Remember, this boy grew up in a beautiful place, Versailles, with beauty and love all around him, his doting parents and siblings, and the servants, and then within a matter of days, he is separated from his family and thrown into conditions appalling enough to break a Viking, let alone a delicate, loving child.
This book has haunted me ever since I first read it, and I am so thankful that after all he was forced to endure, he is now back with his family and surrounded by beauty and love once again.