![]() Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, a German clockmaker, wrote a series of memoirs that proved so convincing that several surviving members of the royal family took up his cause (notably absent was his sole surviving supposed sibling, Marie Therese). Although most people were easily dismissed, others presented “evidence” that swayed believers. Over the next several decades, dozens of people would claim that they were Louis XVII. Rumors quickly spread that the boy had miraculously escaped his captors and that the body of another dead child was used in his place. Louis-Charles’ Impostersĭespite the abolition of the French monarchy, royal supporters believed that Louis-Charles had become King Louis XVII following his father’s execution. A sympathetic physician smuggled the child’s heart out of the prison following his autopsy, where it set out on a centuries-long odyssey, being passed to royal relations across the continent before finally coming to rest alongside his parents’ graves in the church of Saint-Denis in Paris in the 20 th century. Less than two years later, in June 1795, 10-year-old Louis-Charles died, likely from tuberculosis worsened by his mistreatment. Following a grueling two-day trial, Marie was found guilty of crimes against the state and followed her husband to the guillotine on October 16, 1793. That false evidence was used during Marie’s trial, a charge his heartbroken mother fiercely denied. Isolated and scared, the boy began to display signs of emotional instability, likely exacerbated by the false accusation he was forced to give by his jailers that he had been sexually molested by his mother and his aunt, Louis XVI’s sister. His grief-stricken parents had little time to mourn, as the powder keg that would become the French Revolution exploded with the storming of the Bastille just weeks after Louis’ death. A bright but sickly child, he likely died from tuberculosis of the spine. In the summer of 1789, Marie and Louis were devastated when 7-year-old heir Louis-Joseph died. Tragedy struck less than a year later, when Sophie, who had been born prematurely, died. The following year, she gave birth to her last child, a daughter named Sophie. The timing of the birth of Marie’s third child, Louis-Charles, in 1785 set tongues wagging throughout France, as many surmised that he was von Fersen’s son. He and Marie likely began their affair after he returned from fighting in the American Revolution in 1778. For Marie, that role was played by Swedish diplomat Axel von Fersen. Getty ImagesĪlthough Louis and Marie were fond of each other (unlike most other royal males, Louis didn’t take a formal mistress), theirs was no great love match. Royal courts were notoriously gossipy, none more-so than intrigue-filled Versailles, and Marie and Louis were harangued with advice and criticism about their supposed biological “failure.” Marie’s brother was even dispatched to give the young king some step-by-step sexual advice.Īxel von Fersen had an emotional, and perhaps physical, affair with Marie Antoinette beginning in the 1770s. ![]() But the marriage went unconsummated for several years, due to either a physical issue on Louis’ part or a psychological one. The newlyweds both knew that Marie’s primary duty as a wife was to produce a male heir. The couple wed in 1770 when she was just 14 and Louis just 15. The 15 th of 16 children born to Austrian Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Marie was betrothed to the heir to the French throne while still a child. Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI Struggled to Start a Family ![]() ![]() Watch the PBS Special Marie Antoinette, the Oscar-winning film Marie Antoinette starring Kirsten Dunst, or the documentary The Secret Versailles of Marie Antoinette. In the end, their sole surviving daughter was left to cope with the trauma and tragedy of family’s fate. The French Revolution would tear France-and Marie’s family-apart, leading to the deaths of Louis, Marie, and one of their sons. But she was also a devoted mother to her four children-Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, Louis-Joseph, Louis-Charles, and Sophie-who provided emotional solace for the troubled French queen. Marie Antoinette has been portrayed as the spendthrift wife who meddled in the political affairs of her weak-willed husband, Louis XVI.
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