Live auction - fmd_429891 - Essai en bronze au module du décime n.d. VG.462

LOUIS XVII

(21/01/1793-8/06/1795)

The Duke of Normandy, second son of the marriage of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, was born in Versailles on March 27, 1785. He became dauphin after the death of his older brother who died on June 4, 1789. After August 10, 1792, he was locked up in the Temple with his parents. When his father was guillotined on January 21, 1793, the royalists proclaimed him titular king of France under the name of Louis XVII.. On July 3, 1793, he was separated from his mother, guillotined on October 16, then from his aunt Elisabeth, also guillotined on May 10, 1794.. He was entrusted to the care of the shoemaker Simon who, contrary to legend, would not have subjected him to any ill treatment.. On January 5, 1794, Louis XVII was entrusted to the custody of four commissioners of the Commune. The precise date of his death is uncertain; he probably died on June 8, 1795 and was secretly buried in the Sainte-Marguerite cemetery in Paris. His sister, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, 19 December 1778 – 19 October 1851, escaped death and after years of martyrdom was exchanged with the Austrians for Nicolas Marie Quinette Baron de Rochemont, Minister of the Interior, member of the Five Hundred, investigator into the treason of Dumouriez, captured on this occasion.