The Dauphin (Louis XVII): The Riddle of the Temple

by G. Lenôtre

Excerpt: The following narrative of the captivity of the little King of the Temple is to be distinguished from the numerous works treating the same subject, inasmuch as it is based entirely on official documents and authorised testimony, intentionally omitting the touching and doubtful legends under which the thread of this sorrowful story has too often disappeared. It does not follow that no deduction is allowable. The gaps in this confused chronicle are numerous and, in order to set forth the peripetia without too many interruptions, one must indeed sometimes have recourse to the subterfuge of argument; yet it has been made use of with reserve and through necessity, preferring, in the absence of certainty, an avowal of doubt to a rash affirmation. From the comparison of these presumptions and these indisputably authentic facts results a fresh solution of what Louis Blanc calls the Mystery of the Temple, - a partial but unexpected solution which will perhaps astonish my readers, which will shock some of them, and which, it is to be feared, will satisfy nobody completely, since it does not lead to the desired end. It presents, however, the advantage of a rigorous connection with what we know of the history of the Temple and it restores to the boyish figure of King Louis XVII the too unrecognised place which it unconsciously held in the politics of the Revolution.

410 pages, Paperback

Published August 24, 2018

About the author

Pseudonym of Louis Léon Théodore Gosselin.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure that I read this particular book on Louis XVII I read quite a number of books about him in my teenage years, most of them even for the 1970s antique in nature. They were all great fun but I didn't believe a word of their complex conspiracy theories because ultimately none of them could provide a convincing reason why, if you go the trouble of rescuing a valuable child who is king of FRance, you then go off and hide away for decades, apprentice him to a watchmaker etc. It is the same problem that all pretenders whether they be Russia's false Dimitri's in the 16th century or Romanov children saved from Ipatiev house in the 20th; the Princes in the Tower in England; the lost king Sebastian of Portugal, or the dauphin in France, no one can ever satisfactorily explain the years between their death and reappearance.

Of course the lack of satisfactory explanations is down to the fact that all these stories are bollox. Amusing bollox, sometimes creative bollox, almost always supported by nothing more than a desire for it to be true.

In the Dauphin's case his death was proven (as much as such things can be proven) when the DNA of the Dauphin's heart in the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris was found to match that of Marie Antoinette. More importantly it was shown the other claimants had no DNA link with her. Perhaps not 100% proof but rather like the bodies discovered outside Ekaterinburg while it may not be 100% proven that they are the murdered Russian imperial family and their servants you have to say who else those bodies linked by DNA to Prince Phillip are.

The whole story of the dauphin's little heart and his DNA is told in a wonderful book 'The LOst King of France' by Deborah Cadbury.

As for this book and all those others I found in second hand Dublin bookshops? Well they were marvellous fun and the pre WWI editions were very beautiful. Of course they passed out of my ownership half a century ago. I'd happily buy those antique editions again but a reprint seems silly. Still they fed my early love of history and worlds beyond Dublin quaysides where I bought these books. Perhaps I am reviewing this book in memory of the vanished Dublin in which I grew up half-a-century ago. I wouldn't wish it on today's Dublin youth but it was mine and is as vanished as the pre 1789 France that those who dreamed of finding a lost dauphin wanted to return to.

[Bernard Pauwels · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’ai lu la version française... un peu long et dur si on n’est pas familier avec l’histoire de la révolution française et toutes les tribulations qui la suivent. Le mystère et les mystifications son bien expliquées, pourtant l’enigme reste.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting to read this book now, since DNA testing was done in 2000 that shows what happened to the Dauphin. In this work, written in 1921, Lenotre argues for the theory that the Dauphin was smuggled out of the prison and the child who died was a decoy. He doesn't claim that any of the pretenders who popped up over the years were the real prince, but he strongly believes a switch did occur. Read some of the post-2000 publications that discuss the results of the DNA testing first; that way, you'll appreciate just how convincingly Lenotre writes what he believes.