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Louis XVII
King of France and of Navarre (titular)
Seven year old Louis in 1792, portrait by Alexander Kucharsky
Reign	21 January 1793 – 8 June 1795 (claimant)
Predecessor	Louis XVI
Successor	Napoleon I (de facto in 1804) Louis XVIII (de jure in 1814)
Born	(1785-03-27)27 March 1785 Palace of Versailles, France
Died	8 June 1795(1795-06-08) (aged 10) Paris Temple, France
Burial	Saint Denis Basilica, France (Heart only)
Names Louis Charles of France
House	Bourbon
Father	Louis XVI of France
Mother	Marie Antoinette
Religion	Roman Catholic

Louis XVII (Versailles 27 March 1785 – Paris 8 June 1795), from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy; then from 1789 to 1791 as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France; and from 1791 to 1792 as Louis-Charles, Prince Royal of France, was the younger son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. As the son of the king, he was a Fils de France (Son of France). His older brother, Louis Joseph, died in June 1789, just a few weeks before the start of the French Revolution.

His parents were executed for treason under the first republic making the newly orphaned eight-year-old Louis-Charles nominal successor to the abolished throne. In keeping with dynastic order, when his father was executed on 21 January 1793, during the middle-period of French Revolution, he became (nominally) the King of France and Navarre in the eyes of the royalists. However, as France was by then the First French Republic (21 September 1792 – 2 December 1804), and as he had been imprisoned from August 1792 until his death from illness in 1795 at the age of 10, he was never officially king, nor did he rule. His title is rather one bestowed by his royalist supporters and implicitly by Louis XVIII's adoption of the title Louis XVIII rather than Louis XVII.

Biography

Louis-Charles de France was born at the Palace of Versailles, the second son and third child of his parents, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. He became the Dauphin at the death of his elder brother Louis-Joseph.

Like all royal children of the time, Louis-Charles was cared for by multiple people. The Queen appointed Governesses to look after all three of her living children; Louis-Charles' original Governess was Yolande de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac, who left France near the beginning of the revolution; she was replaced by marquise Louise Élisabeth de Tourzel. Additionally, the Queen selected Agathe de Rambaud to be the official nurse of Louis-Charles. Alain Decaux wrote (somewhat dramatically): "Madame de Rambaud was officially in charge of the care of the Dauphin from the day of his birth until 10 August 1792, in other words, for seven years. During these seven years, she never left him, she cradled him, took care of him, dressed him, comforted him, scolded him. Many times, more than Marie Antoinette, she was a true mother for him".

On 6 October 1789 the royal family was forced by the revolution to move from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris where they spent the next three years. There the family lived a secluded life, and Marie Antoinette dedicated most of her time to her children, especially the little Dauphin. On 21 June 1791 the family tried to escape in secrecy in an incident known as the Flight to Varennes, but the attempt failed after the family was recognized and returned to Paris. When the Tuileries were stormed by the armed mob on 10 August 1792 the royal family sought refuge at the Legislative Assembly.

On 13 August, the royal family was imprisoned in the tower of the Temple. At first their conditions were not extremely harsh but they were prisoners and were re-styled as "Capets" by the new-born Republic. The king, Louis XVI was separated from his family and tried in December.

Naming

From birth to 1789, as a second son, he was known officially as Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy and colloquially as the prince du sang (prince of the blood); then on becoming heir-apparent as a four-year-old after the death of his 7 year old older brother the Dauphin Louis Joseph from a quick acting illness on 4 June 1789 to October 1791 he became styled officially as Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France (the seventeenth Dauphin of France; the hereditary title under the Capet Monarchy of a French crown prince). The old Monarchy title would be explicitly stripped under the new written French Constitution of 1791, which made France a short-lived constitutional monarchy. Under the new constitution the heir to the throne was restyled as the Prince Royal (likewise the ancien régime title prince du sang (prince of the blood) would be retitled as prince français), the new dignity taking effect from the inception of the Legislative Assembly on 1 October 1791.

From October when the old title gave way to the new official republican substitute and then beyond into the following August 1792 when he was imprisoned, he was known as Louis Charles, 'Prince Royal of France'. He held the new title when imprisoned in August 1792 as the Royal Heir, after the family failed to escape the republic, until arguably, he became the uncrowned king in January 1793— at least in the eyes of Royalist factions and foreign International powers hoping to restore the monarchy.

As the son of the king, he was sometimes written about as a Fils de France (lit. a Son of France), and in most historiography is primarily listed as 'Louis XVII of France', since with the Bourbon restoration, his uncle took Louis XVIII as regnal name.

Prisoned and rumours of escape

1793: disputed accession

After the execution of his father on 21 January 1793 Louis became, for the royalists, King of France, and a week later, his uncle, the Count of Provence (later to rule as King Louis XVIII), arrogated to himself the title of Regent. From that moment plots were hatched for the escape of the prisoners from the Temple, the chief of which were engineered by the Chevalier de Jarjayes, the Baron de Batz, and the faithful Lady Atkyns. On 3 July the little Dauphin was again separated from his mother, this time to be given into the keeping of the cobbler(shoe-maker) Antoine Simon who had been named his guardian by the Committee of General Security.

The tales told by royalist writers of the barbarous cruelty inflicted by Simon and his wife on the child are not proven. Marie-Jeanne, in fact, took great care of the child's person. But the Simons did not raise Louis as a prince, and stories survive narrating how he was encouraged to eat and drink to excess, and learned the language of the gutter (e.g. swearings). Also, Louis was abused by the Simons, like frequent beatings, being forced to sing Marseillaise, being forced to drink large amount of wine, being forced to insult his family, being scared until fainting of the tales the Simons told him about the horrible guillotine, etc., etc. The foreign secretaries of England and Spain also heard accounts from their spies that the boy was raped by prostitutes in order to infect him with venereal diseases to supply the Commune with manufactured "evidence" against the Queen.

But the scenes related by A. de Beauchesne of the physical martyrdom of the child are not supported by any other testimony, though he was at this time seen by a great number of people. On 6 October, Pache, Chaumette, Jacques Hébert and others visited him and secured his signature to charges of sexual molestation against his mother, his sister and his aunt. The next day he was confronted with his elder sister Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte for the last time.

1794: imprisoned prince becomes ill

Simon's wife then fell ill, and on 19 January 1794 the Simons left the Temple, after securing a receipt for the safe transfer of their ward, who was declared to be in good health. A large part of the Temple records from that time onwards were destroyed under the Bourbon Restoration, so that exact knowledge of the facts is practically impossible. Two days after the departure of the Simons, the prince is said by the Restoration historians to have been put in a dark room which was barricaded like the cage of a wild animal. The story runs that food was passed through the bars to him, who survived in spite of the accumulated filth of his surroundings.

Robespierre visited Marie-Thérèse on 11 May, but no one, according to the legend, entered the dauphin's room for six months until Barras visited the prison after the 9th Thermidor (27 July 1794). Barras's account of the visit describes the child as suffering from extreme neglect, but conveys no idea of the alleged walling in. It is nevertheless certain that during the first half of 1794 he was very strictly secluded; he had no special guardian, but was under the charge of guards who changed from day to day.

Louis was abused often, but the poor boy made no complaint to Barras of his ill-treatments, possibly because he feared to do so. He was then cleaned and re-clothed. His room was cleaned, and during the day he was visited by his new attendant, a creole and a compatriot of Joséphine de Beauharnais, named Jean Jacques Christophe Laurent (1770–1807). From 8 November onwards, Laurent had assistance from a man named Gomin.

The child was then taken out to walk on the roof of the Tower. From about the time of Gomin's entrance the boy was inspected, not by delegates of the Commune, but by representatives of the civil committee of the 48 sections of Paris. The rare recurrence of the same inspectors would obviously facilitate fraud, if any such were intended. From the end of October onwards the child maintained an obstinate silence, explained by Laurent as a determination taken on the day he made his deposition against his mother. On 19 December 1794 he was visited by three commissioners from the Committee of General Security — J. B. Harmand de la Meuse, J. B. C. Mathieu and J. Reverchon — who extracted no word from him.

1795: Death

On Laurent's retirement, Étienne Lasne was appointed on 31 March 1795 to be the child's guardian. In May 1795 the prisoner was seriously ill, and a doctor, P. J. Desault well acquainted with the dauphin having visited him seven months earlier, was summoned. However, Desault died suddenly, not without suspicion of poison, on June 1, and it was some days before other doctors Pelletan and Dumangin were called.

It was announced that Louis Charles died alone on June 8. Next day an autopsy was conducted by mainly Pelletan at which it was stated that a child apparently about ten years of age, "which the commissioners told us was the late Louis Capet's son", had died of a scrofulous infection of long standing. He was buried on the 10th in the cemetery of Ste. Marguerite, but no stone was erected to mark the spot. "Scrofula" as it was previously known is nowadays called Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis and that Latin refers to a lymphadenitis (chronic lymph node swelling or infection) of the neck (cervical lymph nodes) lymph nodes associated with tuberculosis. Following a tradition of preserving royal hearts, his heart was smuggled out. It was preserved by the examining physician, Philippe-Jean Pelletan. Louis-Charles's body was buried in a mass grave. Dr. Pelletan was also shocked at all the scars from abuses of the poor boy, such as whippings, all over the front and back of his torso as well as on his arms, legs, and feet.

Controversy

The weak parts of this story have been identified as: the sudden and unexplained departure of the Simons; the subsequent cruel treatment of the child – keeping him in a dark room practically out of sight (unless any doubt of his identity was possible), while his sister Marie-Thérèse was in comparative comfort; the cause of death, declared to be of long standing, but in fact developed rapidly, and the fact that the disease is usually not fatal and is self-limiting; the insufficient excuse provided for the child's muteness under Gomin's regime (he had answered Barras) and the irregularities in the formalities in attending the death and the funeral, when a simple identification of the body by Marie Thérèse would have prevented any doubt of his death.

Immediately on the announcement of the dauphin's death a rumour arose that he had escaped (which proved to be not true later). Simien-Despréaux, one of Louis XVIII's authors, stated in 1814 that Louis XVII was living and someone possessed proof of this; and Eckard, one of the mainstays of the official account, left among his unpublished papers a statement that many members of "an assembly of our wise men" obstinately named Louis XVII as the prince whom their wishes demanded.

Unfortunately the removal of the child suited the plans of the comte de Provence, now Louis XVIII, as well as it suited those of the revolutionary government. The royal family made no serious attempt to ascertain the truth, though they paid no tributes to the memory of the deceased king which might have been expected, had they been convinced of his death. Even his sister wore no mourning for him until she arrived at Vienna and saw that this was expected of her.

In 2000 Philippe Delorme arranged for DNA testing of the heart believed to have belonged to the child who died in captivity. The tests proved that the heart was that of Louis-Charles. French Legitimists organized its burial in the Basilica on 8 June 2004, next to the remains of Louis's parents.

Lost Dauphin claimants

As rumours quickly spread that the body buried was not that of Louis-Charles and that he had been spirited away alive by sympathizers, the legend of the "Lost Dauphin" was born. When the Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1814, hundreds of claimants came forward. Would-be royal heirs continued to appear across Europe for decades afterward and some of their descendants still have small but loyal retinues of followers today. Popular candidates for the Lost Dauphin included John James Audubon, the naturalist; Eleazer Williams, a missionary from Wisconsin of Mohawk Native American descent; and Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, a German clockmaker. However, DNA testing conducted in 1993 proved that Naundorff was not the Dauphin.

de Lorraine

Leonard de Lorraine (1600–date of death unknown), the eldest son of Francis II, Duke of Lorraine was said to have been the original lost Dauphin, but disappeared after the invasion of Lorraine by the French in the Thirty Years War.

Naundorff

Karl Wilhelm Naundorff's story rested on a series of complicated intrigues. According to him, Barras determined to save the dauphin in order to please Joséphine de Beauharnais, the future empress, having conceived the idea of using the dauphin's existence as a means of dominating the comte de Provence in the event of a restoration. The dauphin was concealed in the fourth storey of the Tower, a wooden figure being substituted for him. Laurent, to protect himself from the consequences of the substitution, replaced the wooden figure with a deaf mute, who was presently exchanged for the scrofulous child of the death certificate. The deaf mute was also concealed in the Temple. It was not the dead child, but the dauphin who left the prison in the coffin, to be retrieved by friends before it reached the cemetery.

Naundorff, or Näundorff, arrived from nowhere in Berlin in 1810, with papers giving the name Karl Wilhelm Naundorff. He said he was escaping persecution and settled at Spandau in 1812 as a clockmaker, marrying Johanna Einert in 1818. In 1822 he removed to Brandenburg, and in 1828 to Crossen, near Frankfurt. He was imprisoned from 1825 to 1828 for coining, though apparently on insufficient evidence, and in 1833 came to push his claims in Paris, where he was recognised as the dauphin by many persons formerly connected with the court of Louis XVI. Expelled from France in 1836, the day after bringing a suit against the duchess of Angoulême for the restitution of the dauphin's private property, he lived in exile until his death at Delft on 10 August 1845, and his tomb was inscribed "Louis XVII., roi de France et de Navarre (Charles Louis, duc de Normandie)". The Dutch authorities who had inscribed on his death certificate the name of Charles Louis de Bourbon, duc de Normandie (Louis XVII) permitted his son to bear the name de Bourbon, and when the family appealed in 1850–51, and again in 1874, for the restitution of their civil rights as heirs of Louis XVI, no less an advocate than Jules Favre pleaded their cause.

Richemont

Richemont's tale that Mrs. Simon, who was genuinely attached to him, smuggled him out in a basket, is simple and more credible, and does not necessarily invalidate the story of the subsequent operations with the deaf mute and the scrofulous patient, Laurent in that case being deceived from the beginning, but it renders them extremely unlikely.

Richemont (Henri Ethelbert Louis Victor Hébert) was in prison in Milan for seven years and began to put forward his claims in Paris in 1828. In 1833 he was again arrested, was brought to trial in the following year and condemned to twelve years' imprisonment. He escaped after a few months and left the country, to return in 1840. He died at Gleize on 10 August 1853, the name of Louis Charles de France being inscribed on his tomb until the government ordered its removal.

Williams

A third pretender, Eleazar Williams, did not affect to know anything of his escape. He possessed, he said, no consciousness of his early years, only emerging from idiocy at the age of thirteen, when he was living with an Indian family in New York State. He was a missionary to the Indians when the prince de Joinville, son of Louis-Philippe, met him, and after some conversation asked him to sign a document abdicating his rights in favour of Louis-Philippe, in return for which he, the dauphin (alias Eleazar Williams), was to receive the private inheritance which was his. This Eleazar Williams refused to do. Williams' story is generally regarded as false.

Conclusion

Strangely, the account of the substitution in the Temple is well substantiated, even to the names of the substitutes. The curious imbroglio deceived royalists and republicans alike. Lady Atkyns was trying by every possible means to get the dauphin out of his prison when he was apparently already in safe hands, if not outside the Temple walls. A child was in fact delivered to her agents, but he was a deaf mute. That there was fraud, and a complicated fraud, in the guardians of the dauphin may be taken as proved by a succession of writers from 1850 onwards, and more recently by Frédéric Barbey, who wisely attempts no ultimate solution. When the partisans of Richemont or Naundorff come to the post-Temple careers of their heroes, they become in most cases so uncritical as to be unconvincing.

Ultimately, as many as 100 "false dauphins" appeared over the years. Whether there was any truth to any of their claims was uncertain, as there appeared to be no hard proof of the King's fate, until 2000 when DNA testing proved beyond doubt that Louis-Charles had indeed died in prison.

Philippe-Jean Pelletan was one of the doctors who attended Louis-Charles shortly before his death and subsequently Pelletan performed the autopsy. He removed the heart and this was not interred with the rest of Louis-Charles's body. Philippe-Jean Pelletan tried to return Louis-Charles's heart to Louis XVIII and Charles X, both of whom could not bring themselves to believe the heart to be that of their nephew. It is not known if Pelletan tried to approach Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême.

The heart was stolen by one of Pelletan's students, who confessed to the theft on his deathbed and asked his wife to return it to Pelletan. Instead, she sent it to the Archbishop of Paris, Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen, where it stayed until the Revolution of 1830.

It also spent some time in Spain. In 1895, Carlos, Duke of Madrid, nephew of the Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (1817–1886), officially received the heart on behalf of Paul Cottin, cousin of the owner and donator, Edouard Dumont. The heart stayed in the castle of Frohsdorf, near Vienna in Austria. In 1909, Jaime, Duke of Madrid, son of Carlos, inherited from the relic, then his daughter Beatriz, princess Massimo and finally in 1938, Infanta Maria das Neves of Portugal, titular Queen consort of Spain, France, and Navarre.

By 1975, it was being kept in a crystal vase at the royal crypt in the Saint Denis Basilica outside Paris, the burial place of Louis-Charles's parents and other members of France's royal family.

In 2000, Philippe Delorme arranged for DNA testing of the heart as well as bone samples from Karl Wilhelm Naundorff. Ernst Brinkmann of Münster University and Belgian genetics professor Jean-Jacques Cassiman of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, conducted mitochondrial DNA tests in 2000 using samples from Marie-Antoinette, her sisters Maria Johanna Gabriela and Maria Josepha, their mother, Maria Theresa, and two living direct descendants in strict maternal line of Maria Theresa, Queen Anne of Romania and her brother, Prince André de Bourbon Parme. The tests proved that Naundorff was not the dauphin, and the heart was that of Louis-Charles. It was buried in the Basilica on 8 June 2004.

In fiction

• Louis XVII is the subject of an advice column appearing in the satirical newspaper The Onion called "Ask the Dauphin", which portrays him as a spoiled brat.

Novel

• 2011 – Missouri Dalton, The Grave Watchers ISBN 9781610402842
• 2011 – Jacques Soppelsa, Louis XVII, la piste argentine, Histoires, A2C Médias, ISBN 9782916831169
• 2011 – Louis Bayard, La Black Tower, ISBN 9782266188906
• 2010 – Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution ISBN 9780385737647
• 2009 – Dominic Lagan, "Live Free or Die" ISBN 0956151809
• 2007 – Christophe Donner, Un roi sans lendemain, éditions Grasset, ISBN 2246625815
• 2005 – Ann Dukthas, En Mémoire d'un prince, éditions 10/18 ; Grands Détectives, ISBN 2264037903
• 2003 – Amélie de Bourbon Parme, Le Sacre de Louis XVII, éditions Folio ISBN 9782070302284
• 2003 – Françoise Chandernagor, La Chambre, éditions Gallimard, ISBN 2070314200
• 2000 – Deborah Cadbury, "The Lost King of France: A true story of revolution, revenge, and DNA" ISBN 9780312283124
• 1953- Willa Gibbs, "Seed of Mischief" ISBN 139780110500645
• 1937 – Rafael Sabatini, The Lost King ISBN 9780755115440
• 1913 – Baroness Emmuska Orczy, Eldorado ISBN 9780755111121
• 1884 – Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ISBN 9780486280615

Cinema

• (pre-production) – The Rose of Versailles (Japanese anime).
• 2006 – Marie Antoinette played by Jago Betts, Axel Küng, Driss Hugo-Kalff
• 2001 – The Affair of the Necklace played by Thomas Dodgson-Gates
• 1995 – Jefferson in Paris played by Damien Groelle
• 1991 – Killer Tomatoes Eat France played by Steve Lundquist.
• 1989 – La Révolution française played by Sean Flynn
• 1982 – The Scarlet Pimpernel played by Richard Charles
• 1957 – Dangerous Exile played by Richard O'Sullivan
• 1945 – Paméla played by Serge Emrich
• 1938 – Marie Antoinette played by Scotty Beckett
• 1938 – La Marseillaise played by Marie-Pierre Sordet-Dantès
• 1937 – Le roi sans couronne played by Scotty Beckett

Ancestry

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 27 March 1785 – 4 June 1789 His Royal Highness the Duke of Normandy (Monseigneur le duc de Normandie)
• 4 June 1789 – 1 October 1791 His Royal Highness the Dauphin of France (Monseigneur le Dauphin)
• 21 January 1793 – 8 June 1795 His Majesty the King of France and Navarre

The Royal Family of France, 1787

References

1. Alain Decaux, Louis XVII retrouvé, 1947, p. 306."Gallica". BNF.
2. ^ Nagel, Susan (2009). Marie-Thérèse: the fate of Marie Antoinette's daughter. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-7475-9666-0.
3. Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis
4. "tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis" at Dorland's Medical Dictionary
5. "French boy king's heart to be buried in crypt". Paris. Reuters. 7 June 2004. p. 1.
6. Frasier, Antonia (2001). Marie Antoinette: The Journey
7. Louis XVII, sur histoiredefranceactu.over-blog.fr
8. Louis XVII, memorialdefrance.org
9. Revue rétrospective, BNF
10. "The mtDNA and its role in Ancestry: Part XIV (Descendents of Maria-Theresa)" Genebase Retrieved 22 June 2009
11. http://www.heraldica.org/topics/france/frroyal.htm#sang Style of HRH

Further reading

• Cadbury, Deborah. The Lost King of France: Revolution, Revenge and the Search for Louis XVII. London: Fourth Estate, 2002 (ISBN 1-84115-588-8, hardcover), 2003 (ISBN 1-84115-589-6, paperback); New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002 (ISBN 0-312-28312-1, hardcover); New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2003 (ISBN 0-312-32029-9, paperback reprint). (Note that subtitles vary in different editions of the book.)
  • Reviewed by Hilary Mantel in the London Review of Books, Vol. 25, No. 8, 17 August 2003.
• 'Live Free or Die' (historical thriller novel) by Dominic Lagan ISBN 978-0-9561518-0-3, Editions Gigouzac 2009 paperback

External links

Primary sources

• Template:Fr icon Duchess of Angoulême's Memoirs on the Captivity in the Temple (from the autograph manuscript)
• Duchess of Angoulême's Memoirs on the Captivity in the Temple, (1823 English translation of a slightly redacted French edition)
• Louis XVII

Other material

• Template:Fr icon Philippe Delorme's website (one page in English).
• Template:Fr icon Details about the DNA analysis of the heart believed to be that of Louis-Charles.
• Dangerous Exile at IMDb
• "FRANCE SET TO BURY ROYAL AFTER 209 YEARS", "New York Post", 8 December 2003.

Titles and Succession

v t e Dukes of Normandy House of Normandy 911–1135 Rollo* William I* Richard I* Richard II Richard III Robert I William II** Robert II Henry I** William (III) House of Blois 1135–1144 Stephen** House of Plantagenet 1144–1259 Geoffrey Henry II** Henry the Young King Richard IV** John** Henry III** House of Valois (French appanage) John (1332–1350) Charles (1355–1364) Charles (1465–1469) * As count of Rouen • ** Also king of England v t e Dauphins of France House of Valois Charles V Charles VI Charles Charles Louis John Charles VII Louis XI François Charles VIII Charles Orlando Charles François François Henry II Francis II House of Bourbon Louis XIII Louis XIV Louis, Le Grand Dauphin Louis, Le Petit Dauphin Louis Louis XV Louis Louis XVI Louis Joseph Louis XVII Louis XIX v t e Monarchs of France Detailed family tree Simplified family tree List of Frankish kings List of French monarchs Merovingians (509–751) Clovis I Childebert I Chlothar I Charibert I Guntram Chilperic I Sigebert I Childebert II Chlothar II Dagobert I Sigebert II Clovis II Chlothar III Childeric II Theuderic III Clovis IV Childebert III Dagobert III Chilperic II Chlothar IV Theuderic IV Childeric III Carolingians, Robertians and Bosonids (751–987) Pepin the Short Carloman I Charlemagne (Charles I) Louis I Charles II Louis II Louis III Carloman II Charles the Fat Odo Charles III Robert I Rudolph Louis IV Lothair Louis V House of Capet (987–1328) Hugh Capet Robert II Henry I Philip I Louis VI Louis VII Philip II Louis VIII Louis IX Philip III Philip IV Louis X John I Philip V Charles IV House of Valois (1328–1589) Philip VI John II Charles V Charles VI Charles VII Louis XI Charles VIII Louis XII Francis I Henry II Francis II Charles IX Henry III House of Lancaster (1422–1453) Henry VI of England House of Bourbon (1589–1792) Henry IV Louis XIII Louis XIV Louis XV Louis XVI Louis XVII House of Bonaparte (1804–1814; 1815) Napoleon I Napoleon II House of Bourbon (1814–1815; 1815–1830) Louis XVIII Charles X Louis XIX Henry V House of Orléans (1830–1848) Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe II House of Bonaparte (1852–1870) Napoleon III Debatable or disputed rulers are in italics. v t e House of Bourbon Henry IV of France Spouse(s) Margaret of Valois Marie de' Medici Children Louis XIII Elisabeth, Queen of Spain Christine, Duchess of Savoy Nicolas Henri, Duke of Orléans Gaston, Duke of Orléans Henrietta Maria, Queen of England, Ireland and Scotland Siblings Henri, Duke of Beaumont (1551–1553) Louis, Count of Marle (1555–1557) Madeleine (1556) Catherine, Duchess of Lorraine Illegitimate children César, Duke of Vendôme Catherine Henriette, Duchess of Elbeuf Alexandre, Chevalier de Vendôme Henri, Duke of Verneuil Gabrielle Angelique, Duchess of La Valette and Epernon Antoine, Count of Moret Jeanne Baptiste, Abess of Fontevraud Marie Henriette, Abess of Chelles Grandchildren Anne Marie Louise, Duchess of Montpensier Marguerite Louise, Grand Duchess of Tuscany Élisabeth Marguerite, Duchess of Alençon and Angoulême Françoise Madeleine, Duchess of Savoy Princess Marie Anne Jean Gaston, Duke of Valois Louis XIV Philippe, Duke of Orléans Louis XIII Spouse(s) Infanta Ana Maria Mauricia of Spain  Children Louis XIV Philippe, Duke of Orléans Grandchildren Louis, Dauphin of France Princess Anne Élisabeth Princess Marie Anne Princess Marie Therèse, Madame Royale Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou Louis François, Duke of Anjou Marie Louise, Queen of Spain Philippe Charles, Duke of Valois Anne Marie, Queen of Sardinia Philippe Charles, Duke of Orléans Élisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Lorraine Great grandchildren Louis, Duke of Burgundy King Felipe of Spain Charles, Duke of Berry Louis, Duke of Orléans Louis XIV Spouse(s) Infanta María Teresa of Spain  Françoise d'Aubigné, Marchioness of Maintenon Children Louis, Dauphin of France Princess Anne Élisabeth Princess Marie Anne Princess Marie Therèse, Madame Royale Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou Louis François, Duke of Anjou Illegitimate children Marie Anne, Princess of Conti Louis, Count of Vermandois Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine Louis César, Count of Vexin Louise Françoise, Duchess of Bourbon Louise Marie Anne, Mademoiselle de Tours Françoise Marie, Duchess of Orléans Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse Louise, Baroness of La Queue Grandchildren Louis, Duke of Burgundy King Felipe V of Spain  Charles, Duke of Berry Louis Auguste, Prince of Dombes Louis Charles, Count of Eu Louise Françoise, Mademoiselle du Maine Louis Jean Marie, Duke of Penthièvre Great grandchildren Louis, Duke of Brittany Louis, Duke of Brittany Louis XV Louis I of Spain  Felipe of Spain  Felipe of Spain  Ferdinand VI of Spain  Charles III of Spain  Francisco of Spain  Mariana Víctoria, Queen of Portugal  Philip, Duke of Parma  Maria Teresa Rafaela, Dauphine of France  Luis, Count of Chinchón  Maria Antonietta, Queen of Sardinia  Charles, Duke of Alençon Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Alençon Louis Alexandre, Prince of Lamballe Louis XV Spouse(s) Maria Carolina Sophia Felicity Leszczyńska Children Louise Élisabeth, Duchess of Parma Princess Henriette Princess Louise (1728–1733) Louis, Dauphin of France Philippe, Duke of Anjou Marie Adélaïde, Duchess of Louvois Princess Victoire Sophie, Duchess of Louvois Princess Thérèse Princess Louise (1737–1787) Grandchildren Princess Marie Therèse, Madame Royale Princess Marie Zéphyrine Louis, Duke of Burgundy Xavier, Duke of Aquitaine Louis XVI Louis XVIII Charles X Clothilde, Queen of Sardinia Princess Élisabeth Illegitimate children included Charles de Vintimille Agathe Louise de Saint-Antoine Philippe, Duke of Narbonne-Lara Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara Louis XVI Spouse(s) Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria  Children Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France Louis XVII Princess Sophie Hélène Louis XVII Note Louis had no children; he died aged 10 in 1795. His uncle, the future Louis XVIII, proclaimed himself regent but both titles were disputed. See Bourbon Restoration in France. Louis XVIII Spouse(s) Princess Marie Joséphine of Savoy Charles X of France Spouse(s) Maria Theresa of Savoy Children Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême Sophie, Mademoiselle Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry Marie Thérèse, Mademoiselle d'Angoulême Grandchildren Princess Louise Élisabeth Prince Louis Louise Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Parma Henri, Count of Chambord Notes also an Infante or Infanta of Spain also an Archduchess of Austria both Philip was the first Bourbon king of Spain, the country's present ruling house. v t e French Revolution Causes Timeline Ancien Régime Revolution Constitutional monarchy Republic Directory Consulate Glossary Journals Museum Significant civil and political events by year 1788 Day of the Tiles (7 Jun 1788) Assembly of Vizille (21 Jul 1788) 1789 What Is the Third Estate? (Jan 1789) Réveillon riots (28 Apr 1789) Convocation of the Estates General (5 May 1789) Death of the Dauphin (4 June 1789) National Assembly (17 Jun – 9 Jul 1790) Tennis Court Oath (20 Jun 1789) National Constituent Assembly (9 Jul – 30 Sep 1791) Storming of the Bastille (14 Jul 1789) Great Fear (20 Jul – 5 Aug 1789) Abolition of Feudalism (4–11 Aug 1789) Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 Aug 1789) Women's March on Versailles (5 Oct 1789) Nationalization of the Church properties (2 Nov 1789) 1790 Abolition of the Parlements (Feb–Jul 1790) Abolition of the Nobility (23 Jun 1790) Civil Constitution of the Clergy (12 Jul 1790) Fête de la Fédération (14 Jul 1790) 1791 Flight to Varennes (20–21 Jun 1791) Champ de Mars massacre (17 Jul 1791) Declaration of Pillnitz (27 Aug 1791) The Constitution of 1791 (3 Sep 1791) National Legislative Assembly (1 Oct 1791 – Sep 1792) 1792 France declares war (20 Apr 1792) Brunswick Manifesto (25 Jul 1792) Paris Commune becomes insurrectionary (Jun 1792) 10th of August (10 Aug 1792) September Massacres (Sep 1792) National Convention (20 Sep 1792 – 26 Oct 1795) First republic declared (22 Sep 1792) 1793 Execution of Louis XVI (21 Jan 1793) Revolutionary Tribunal (9 Mar 1793 – 31 May 1795) Reign of Terror (27 Jun 1793 – 27 Jul 1794) Committee of Public Safety Committee of General Security Fall of the Girondists (2 Jun 1793) Assassination of Marat (13 Jul 1793) Levée en masse (23 Aug 1793) The Death of Marat (painting) Law of Suspects (17 Sep 1793) Marie Antoinette is guillotined (16 Oct 1793) Anti-clerical laws (throughout the year) 1794 Danton and Desmoulins guillotined (5 Apr 1794) Law of 22 Prairial (10 Jun 1794) Thermidorian Reaction (27 Jul 1794) Robespierre guillotined (28 Jul 1794) White Terror (Fall 1794) Closing of the Jacobin Club (11 Nov 1794) 1795–6 Insurrection of 12 Germinal Year III (1 Apr 1795) Constitution of the Year III (22 Aug 1795) Directoire (1795–99) Council of Five Hundred Council of Ancients 13 Vendémiaire 5 Oct 1795 Conspiracy of the Equals (May 1796) 1797 Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 Sep 1797) Second Congress of Rastatt (Dec 1797) 1798 Law of 22 Floréal Year VI (11 May 1798) 1799 Coup of 30 Prairial VII (18 Jun 1799) Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 Nov 1799) Constitution of the Year VIII (24 Dec 1799) Consulate Revolutionary campaigns 1792 Verdun Thionville Valmy Royalist Revolts Chouannerie Vendée Dauphiné Lille Siege of Mainz Jemappes Namur 1793 First Coalition War in the Vendée Battle of Neerwinden Battle of Famars (23 May 1793) Expedition to Sardinia (21 Dec 1792 - 25 May 1793) Battle of Kaiserslautern Siege of Mainz Battle of Wattignies Battle of Hondschoote Siege of Bellegarde Battle of Peyrestortes (Pyrenees) Siege of Toulon (18 Sep – 18 Dec 1793) First Battle of Wissembourg (13 Oct 1793) Battle of Truillas (Pyrenees) Second Battle of Wissembourg (26–27 Dec 1793) 1794 Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 Apr 1794) Second Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees) (30 Apr – 1 May 1794) Battle of Tourcoing (18 May 1794) Battle of Tournay (22 May 1794) Glorious First of June (1 Jun 1794) Battle of Fleurus (26 Jun 1794) Chouannerie Battle of Aldenhoven (2 Oct 1794) Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795) 1795 Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795) Peace of Basel 1796 Italian campaign (1796) Battle of Lonato (3–4 Aug 1796) Battle of Castiglione (5 Aug 1796) Battle of Theiningen Battle of Neresheim (11 Aug 1796) Battle of Amberg (24 Aug 1796) Battle of Würzburg (3 Sep 1796) Battle of Rovereto (4 Sep 1796) First Battle of Bassano (8 Sep 1796) Battle of Emmendingen (19 Oct 1796) Battle of Schliengen (26 Oct 1796) Second Battle of Bassano (6 Nov 1796) Battle of Calliano (6–7 Nov 1796) Battle of Arcole (15–17 Nov 1796) Ireland expedition (Dec 1796) 1797 Italian campaign (1797) Naval Engagement off Brittany (13 Jan 1797) Battle of Rivoli (14–15 Jan 1797) Battle of the Bay of Cádiz (25 Jan 1797) Treaty of Leoben (17 Apr 1797) Battle of Neuwied (18 Apr 1797) Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct 1797) 1798 French invasion of Switzerland (28 January – 17 May 1798) French Invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) Irish Rebellion of 1798 (23 May – 23 Sep 1798) Quasi-War (1798–1800) Peasants' War (12 Oct – 5 Dec 1798) 1799 Second Coalition (1798–1802) Siege of Acre (20 Mar – 21 May 1799) Battle of Ostrach (20–21 Mar 1799) Battle of Stockach (25 Mar 1799) Battle of Magnano (5 Apr 1799) Battle of Cassano (27–28 Apr 1799) First Battle of Zurich (4–7 Jun 1799) Battle of Trebbia (17–20 Jun 1799) Battle of Novi (15 Aug 1799) Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 Sep 1799) 1800 Battle of Marengo (14 Jun 1800) Convention of Alessandria (15 Jun 1800) Battle of Hohenlinden (3 Dec 1800) League of Armed Neutrality (1800–02) 1801 Treaty of Lunéville (9 Feb 1801) Treaty of Florence (18 Mar 1801) Algeciras campaign (8 Jul 1801) 1802 Treaty of Amiens (25 Mar 1802) Treaty of Paris (25 Jun 1802) Military leaders France French Army Eustache Charles d'Aoust Charles-Pierre Augereau Alexandre de Beauharnais Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte Louis-Alexandre Berthier Jean-Baptiste Bessières Napoléon Bonaparte Guillaume Brune Jean François Carteaux Jean-Étienne Championnet Chapuis de Tourville Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine Louis-Nicolas Davout Louis Desaix Jacques François Dugommier Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Charles François Dumouriez Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino Louis-Charles de Flers Paul Grenier Emmanuel de Grouchy Jacques Maurice Hatry Lazare Hoche Jean-Baptiste Jourdan François Christophe de Kellermann Jean-Baptiste Kléber Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Jean Lannes Charles Leclerc Claude Lecourbe François Joseph Lefebvre Étienne Macdonald Jean-Antoine Marbot Marcellin Marbot François Séverin Marceau Auguste de Marmont André Masséna Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey Jean Victor Marie Moreau Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise Joachim Murat Michel Ney Pierre-Jacques Osten [fr] Nicolas Oudinot Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon Jean-Charles Pichegru Józef Poniatowski Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier Joseph Souham Jean-de-Dieu Soult Louis-Gabriel Suchet Belgrand de Vaubois Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno French Navy Charles-Alexandre Linois Opposition Austria József Alvinczi Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen Count of Clerfayt (Walloon) Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze (Swiss) Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth Pál Kray (Hungarian) Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (French) Maximilian Baillet de Latour (Walloon) Karl Mack von Leiberich Rudolf Ritter von Otto (Saxon) Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló (Hungarian) Karl Philipp Sebottendorf Dagobert von Wurmser Britain Sir Ralph Abercromby James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Netherlands William V, Prince of Orange Prussia Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen Russia Alexander Korsakov Alexander Suvorov Andrei Rosenberg Spain Luis Firmin de Carvajal Antonio Ricardos Other significant figures and factions Patriotic Society of 1789 Jean Sylvain Bailly Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt Isaac René Guy le Chapelier Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Nicolas de Condorcet Feuillants and monarchiens Grace Elliott Arnaud de La Porte Jean-Sifrein Maury François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas Antoine Barnave Lafayette Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth Charles Malo François Lameth André Chénier Jean-François Rewbell Camille Jordan Madame de Staël Boissy d'Anglas Jean-Charles Pichegru Pierre Paul Royer-Collard Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac Girondins Jacques Pierre Brissot Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière Madame Roland Father Henri Grégoire Étienne Clavière Marquis de Condorcet Charlotte Corday Marie Jean Hérault Jean Baptiste Treilhard Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve Jean Debry Olympe de Gouges Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux The Plain Abbé Sieyès de Cambacérès Charles-François Lebrun Pierre-Joseph Cambon Bertrand Barère Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot Philippe Égalité Louis Philippe I Mirabeau Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville Jean Joseph Mounier Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours François de Neufchâteau Montagnards Maximilien Robespierre Georges Danton Jean-Paul Marat Camille Desmoulins Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Paul Barras Louis Philippe I Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau Jacques-Louis David Marquis de Sade Georges Couthon Roger Ducos Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois Jean-Henri Voulland Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier Jean-Pierre-André Amar Prieur de la Côte-d'Or Prieur de la Marne Gilbert Romme Jean Bon Saint-André Jean-Lambert Tallien Pierre Louis Prieur Antoine Christophe Saliceti Hébertists and Enragés Jacques Hébert Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne Pierre Gaspard Chaumette Charles-Philippe Ronsin Antoine-François Momoro François-Nicolas Vincent François Chabot Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel François Hanriot Jacques Roux Stanislas-Marie Maillard Charles-Philippe Ronsin Jean-François Varlet Theophile Leclerc Claire Lacombe Pauline Léon Gracchus Babeuf Sylvain Maréchal Others Figures Charles X Louis XVI Louis XVII Louis XVIII Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien Louis Henri, Prince of Condé Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé Marie Antoinette Napoléon Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte Joseph Bonaparte Joseph Fesch Joséphine de Beauharnais Joachim Murat Jean Sylvain Bailly Jacques-Donatien Le Ray Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes Talleyrand Thérésa Tallien Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target Catherine Théot Madame de Lamballe Madame du Barry Louis de Breteuil de Chateaubriand Jean Chouan Loménie de Brienne Charles Alexandre de Calonne Jacques Necker Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil List of people associated with the French Revolution Factions Jacobins Cordeliers Panthéon Club Social Club Influential thinkers Les Lumières Beaumarchais Edmund Burke Anacharsis Cloots Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Pierre Claude François Daunou Diderot Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Antoine Lavoisier Montesquieu Thomas Paine Jean-Jacques Rousseau Abbé Sieyès Voltaire Mary Wollstonecraft Cultural impact La Marseillaise Cockade of France Flag of France Liberté, égalité, fraternité Marianne Muscadin Bastille Day Panthéon French Republican calendar Metric system Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen Cult of the Supreme Being Cult of Reason Temple of Reason Sans-culottes Phrygian cap Women in the French Revolution Incroyables and merveilleuses Symbolism in the French Revolution Historiography of the French Revolution Influence of the French Revolution Films v t e Pretenders to the French throne since 1792 Capetian pretenders (1792–present) Legitimist (1792-1883) 1792 Louis XVI 1793 Louis XVII 1795 Louis XVIII 1824 Charles X 1836 Louis XIX 1844 Henri V 1883 Unionist (1883–present) 1883 Philippe VII 1894 Philippe VIII 1926 Jean III 1940 Henri VI 1999 Henri VII 2019 Jean IV present Anjouist (1883-present) 1883 Jean III 1887 Charles XI 1909 Jacques I 1931 Charles XII 1936 Alphonse I 1941 Jacques II 1975 Alphonse II 1989 Louis XX present Bonaparte pretenders (1814–present) 1814 Napoléon I 1821 Napoléon II 1832 Joseph 1844 Louis 1846 Napoléon III 1873 Napoléon IV 1879 Napoléon V Jérôme / 1891 Napoléon V Victor 1926 Napoléon VI 1997 Napoléon VII Charles / Napoléon VII Jean-Christophe present (disputed) Actually reign twice: first from 1814-1815, second from 1815-1824 Actually reigned from 1824-1830 Orléanist pretender from 1848-1873 as Louis Philippe II Reigned as King of Spain from 1886-1931 as Alfonso XIII Briefly restored and then deposed in 1815 Actually reigned from 1852-1870 v t e France topics History Overviews History Timeline Political history Military history Language Economic Foreign relations Journalism Liberalism and radicalism Regions History of Brittany History of Normandy Ancient Prehistory Greek colonies Celtic Gaul Roman Gaul Middle Ages Visigothic Kingdom Francia West Francia Middle Ages Kingdom of France Fundamental laws Early Modern Early modern era House of Bourbon Absolute monarchy Ancien Régime Wars of Religion Thirty Years' War Peace of Westphalia Second Hundred Years' War Louis XIV War of the Spanish Succession Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 Seven Years' War Revolution French Revolution Napoleonic era First Republic First Empire Late Modern Long nineteenth century Restoration July Monarchy Revolution of 1848 Second Republic Coup of 2 December 1851 Second Empire Government of National Defense Third Republic Belle Époque World War I Interwar Années folles World 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