The Burial of the Heart of the "Lost" Dauphin

[Dennism]

BBC

A royal funeral has been held in France for the co-called "lost Dauphin", the son of the beheaded king Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette.

A heart widely assumed to be that of dauphin Louis-Charles was laid to rest in a basilica outside Paris.

He died of tuberculosis at the age of 10 in a prison cell in 1795, two years after his parents were guillotined.

Louis-Charles's fate remained a mystery for two centuries, until a DNA test on a preserved heart in 2000.

The genetic data showed that the organ belonged to the child of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

On Tuesday it was placed near his parent's grave at the royal crypt of Saint Denis basilica, north of Paris.

More than 2,000 people - including European royalty - attended the ceremony, which began with a funeral mass.

Royal squabbles

The test in 2000 quashed rumours that the dauphin - who would have reigned as Louis XVII - had somehow escaped from Temple prison in Paris.

The doctor who performed the autopsy on the boy in 1795 cut out the heart and kept it in an alcohol-filled vase.

He boasted of his possession to a student, who stole it.

When the student died of tuberculosis himself his widow returned the organ to the doctor, who sought to give it to France's royal Bourbon family.

He was thwarted by royal squabbles. The heart found its way to the Spanish Bourbons, and eventually back to France.

Despite the genetic test, there is still controversy about who the preserved organ belongs.

Some commentators have argued that it could belong to the dauphin's older brother, who died in 1789.

French Royalists Stage Funeral for Relic:


"French royalists staged a pageant-filled funeral Tuesday for a tiny, rock-hard relic they hailed as the heart cut from Louis XVII, who died at age 10 in a filthy revolutionary prison. "

More is in here:

Louis XVII

[GrandDuchess]

This article is basically about the burial of the heart, and the story behind the whole mystery. It also says that the question if King Louis XVI was the real father of his son King Louis XVII remains. The DNA tests that has been made are only with Queen Marie Antoinette's hair and her living relatives - so nothing from the father. The article leaves a vague question if the Swedish nobleman and Marie Antoinette's lover, Axel von Fersen (who tried to resque King Louis XVI & Queen Marie Antoinette during the Varennes night) could be the real father...

Picture of the crystal thing which keeps the heart

Article from Swedish Aftonbladet, 9 June 2004:

Här begravs franske kungen
Ludvig XVII kan ha varit son till Axel von Fersen

PARIS.
Under rojalistisk pompa och ståt begravdes i går hjärtat av Ludvig den XVII - arvinge till Ludvig den XVI och Marie-Antoinettes franska tron. Men hjärtat kan vara halvsvenskt. För Axel von Fersen var Marie Antoinettes älskare.

Till toner av trumpeter och stark lukt av rökelse begravdes Ludvig XVII i Saint-Deniskatedralen utanför Paris. Jordfästningen betyder slutet på ett 209 år gammalt mysterium. Och början på ett nytt.

Det lilla, läderliknande hjärtat bankade en gång i tiden i bröstet på Marie-Antoinettes barn, Ludvig. Det har dubbla DNA-tester bevisat.

Drottning Marie-Antoinette och Ludvig XVI:s tronarvinge dog 1795, tio år gammal: ensam, tuberkolossjuk och utsvulten i en smutsig fängelsecell utan dagsljus. Två år innan hade Ludvig den XVI och Marie-Antoinette giljotinerats av de franska revolutionärerna.

Men i stället för att slänga hela barnkroppen i en massgrav skar obducentläkaren, doktor Pelletan, ur hjärtat. Läkaren gömde det hemma hos sig, i en kristallvas där en av hans studenter stal det.

Så har barnhjärtat bytt ägare flera gånger. En gång blev det liggande ett dygn i rännstenen i Paris under revolutionen 1830.

DNA-testerna stämmer överens med Marie-Antoinettes hårtussar och hennes i dag levande ättlingar, habsburgarna Anne av Rumänien och hennes bror André de Bourboun Parme. Ingen DNA-test har däremot gjorts på Ludvig XVI:s sida.

Vem tioåringens pappa var är därmed en öppen fråga. Marie-Antoinettes älskare var den svenske adelsmannen Axel von Fersen. Det var han som försökte rädda kungaparet under den så kallade Varennesnatten. Kung Ludvig XVI jagade då i väg älskaren innan hela ekipaget körde fast och kungafamiljen fick återvända till fängelse och giljotiner i Paris.

Axel von Fersen dödades av en folkmassa i Stockholm 1810.

[GrandDuchess]

Article from The Australian (by AFP though), 9 May 2004:

Picture of the service in the Saint Denis Basilica

Nobles farewell the 'lost dauphin'

FRANCE laid to rest one of its most intriguing mysteries Tuesday when it installed the tiny heart of Louis XVII - the son of the beheaded king Louis XVI and queen Marie-Antoinette - in a royal crypt outside Paris.

European aristocrats were among the 2,500 people who packed into the Saint-Denis basilica north of Paris to watch the 209-year-old organ in its crystal vase given a final burial after spending a long period as a much-traded curiosity in the wake of the French Revolution.

A 12-year-old descendant of France's former royal family, Amaury de Bourbon-Parme, handed the heart over in a formal mass broadcast to another 1,000 people watching outside.

The presiding priest, archbishop Jean Honore, paid homage to the "lost child who knew nothing of what he was and of what he is".

Louis-Charles, the so-called "lost dauphin" who would have reigned as Louis XVII, died of tuberculosis at the age of 10 on June 8, 1795 in a windowless cell in the French capital's Temple prison, where he had been incarcerated with his parents before they were guillotined.

The boy's fate was the source of rumours and speculation for two centuries, until DNA tests four years ago finally proved the heart belonged to a Hapsburg, the lineage of Marie-Antoinette.

The story of the heart is a bizarre tale that began when the doctor who performed the autopsy on the boy cut out the organ to save it as a memento in an alcohol-filled vase kept on his bookshelves.

He boasted of his possession to one of his students, who swiped the prize. Years later, after the thief died of tuberculosis himself, his widow returned the heart to the doctor.

The physician tried for many years to return the heart to members of the Bourbon family but was thwarted by royal squabbles. Louis XVII's remains finally found their way to the Spanish Bourbons, and eventually back to France.

Historians and conspiracy theorists seized on the amazing journey of the heart to argue that maybe it did not belong to Louis XVII after all, suggesting that instead of dying in prison, he had escaped or been spirited out of France to safety, and that the heart belonged to another child.

In the 19th century, several pretenders to the throne surfaced, including a German clockmaker named Karl Wilhelm Naundorff. Although he never claimed it himself, many thought US naturalist John James Audubon was the long-lost heir.

In 2000, scientists conducted DNA tests to put the rumors to rest. Result: the heart indeed belonged to a descendant of Marie-Antoinette.

Those who wanted to keep the "lost dauphin" myth alive argued that the heart could belong to Louis-Xavier-Joseph, Louis XVII's older brother who died in 1789.

But the heart of the older brother had been properly embalmed according to royal custom, while the one that had been examined -- that of Louis XVII -- had not.

For historians, the debate was over.

"This is a way to give this child-martyr, who passed away in tragic circumstances and around whom mystery swirled for more than 200 years, a proper death," said Charles-Emmanuel de Bourbon-Parme, one of Louis XVII's relatives.