#Louis XVII

[tiny-librarian]

I commend to God my wife and my children, my sister, my aunts, my brothers, and all those who are attached to me by ties of blood, or by any other manner whatsoever. I pray God especially to cast the eyes of his mercy on my wife, my children, and my sister, who have suffered so long with me; to support them by his grace if they lose me, and for as long as they remain in this perishable world.

[la-belle-histoire]

Marie Antoinette and her Children, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. 1787.

[bunniesandbeheadings]

Once again chosen mostly at top of my head. You might think the ones who were literally murdered have an advantage, but some, I think, were murdered detachedly, in a mafioso “business is business” way, while others lived surrounded by someone who was focusing a full grown adult’s preoccupying hate into them.

So use whatever metric you want!

Paul I was suggested so often in my last poll and forgive me for forgetting the beef.

*beefed with the hardest

[elbereth-de-lioncourt]

LOUIS XVII 10th Anniversary live

[vivelareine]

A portrait of Louis Charles de France, described as a "copy by Eugene [Dévéria?] after an original at Versailles." Via Vanderkindere.

[intriguingpeoplebyangelafloyd]

LOUIS XVII

LOUIS XVII

1785-1795

Louis XVII was the son of King Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette. I read a book called The Lost King of France by Deborah Cadbury (2022); it was one of the saddest books I’ve read. The French Revolutionists abused Louis XVII in every sense in the word and he sadly died from disease and mistreatment at the age of 10.

            Born Louis Charles at the Palace of Versailles, he became heir to the throne when his older brother died in 1789, a few weeks before the French Revolution started. In 1789 the royal family were imprisoned in the Tuileries Palace, Paris. In 1793 Louis XVI was executed, and Louis XVII became king in the eyes of royalists.

            Louis XVII was taken away from his mother and was imprisoned in a cell and tortured daily. The Revolutionists made him sign a charge of sexual molestation against his mother and his mother was executed in 1793.

            In 1794, the Revolutionists had Louis XVII placed in a dark cell which was much like a cage for a wild animal. Food was passed to him through the bars and he continued to live in dirty unhygienic surroundings. He was neglected, secluded, and lived in absolute silence. The only people he saw were the guards who abused him.

            He was visited by three commissioners who couldn’t get a word out of him and observed that the child was seriously ill. Louis died alone on 8 June 1795, aged 10, from scrofula associated with tuberculosis. An autopsy was conducted and the doctor was shocked at the sight of all the abusive scars all over his body.

            Louis was buried in Sainte Marguerite cemetery but wasn’t given any marker. His heart was smuggled out and was kept in a crystal vase at the royal crypt at Saint Denis Basilica the burial place of his family. In 2000, DNA testing was conducted which proved that the heart was his.  

            The only surviving member of the royal family was Louis’s older sister Marie-Therese who married her cousin in 1799 and moved to England. She died of pneumonia in 1851, aged 72. The next king of France was his Louis XVIIs uncle, Louis XVIII from 1814-1824.

 

#LouisXVII #LouisXVI #marieantoinette #deborahconway

[heaveninawildflower]

Playing-cards - Game of Lotto (French, 18th century) which according to a pasted note on the first card ‘once belonged to the Dauphine of France, son of Louis XVI., taken from the Bastille before the exe....’ 

‘Each card bears a combination of illustrations of the Cries of Paris and proverbs, within a framework of flowers, and the name of the cry or the proverb inscribed beneath.’

Bodycolour and pen and ink on vellum.

© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

[usergreenpixel]

JACOBIN FICTION CONVENTION MEETING 31: DANGEROUS EXILE (1957)

1. The Introduction

Hello, Citizens! Here I am, ready to commence our brand new meeting with a brand new review for everyone to (hopefully) enjoy!

So, “Dangerous Exile” is a swashbuckling Frev movie that is based on the alternative history premise: What if Louis 16th’s son (Louis 17th) survived Frev instead of meeting an untimely end in prison?

To be honest, I discovered the movie while scrolling through IMDb and got hooked on the premise since I have a soft spot for adventure stories. However, I ran into two problems.

Firstly, the movie was hard as fuck to find so I had to settle for a rather shitty Russian dub. Apparently the original English version does pop up on YouTube from time to time, but it’s mostly available on DVDs that have to be purchased. So yeah, not readily available at all and I couldn’t find the English version even on Russian sites…

Secondly, I know that the real Louis 17th was treated horribly in prison and, just to avoid royal family fans and anti Frev neighbors coming for my Montagnard ass, let me make something clear: While I’m not a fan of Louis 16th or Marie Antoinette as monarchs, I don’t think their children deserved to suffer and my admiration for Frev in general doesn’t automatically mean that I condone everything that was done by revolutionaries. Hopefully that’s out of the way now.

Anyway, this review is dedicated to @pobodleru , @lanterne , @anarchist-mariner and @revolutionfairies . Okay, now that I explained myself, we can officially proceed.

2. The Summary

Louis 17th gets rescued by a group of royalists and accidentally lands on an English island on a hot air balloon. There, in England, the boy is taken in by a woman called Virginia and her family.

However, royalists and jacobins alike are still looking for the boy to further their own agendas and will stop at nothing to find him.

To me this sounds like a cool premise, but let’s see if the execution is good.

3. The Story

It’s a pretty classic and formulaic swashbuckling movie and I happen to like those so I liked the story and was completely hooked. However, it’s definitely not for everyone and I wouldn’t recommend to look for something very original in the storyline.

While the premise spoils the twist on who the boy from the hot air balloon is, I did enjoy the way that mystery unfolded in the movie itself. It also has hints of my beloved “found family” trope as Virginia and Louis bond and he develops a precocious crush on her (innocent childlike crush) and they become close friends.

As usual, I didn’t care for the romantic subplot and I personally would prefer to cut out flashbacks and the nightmare sequences - “show, don’t tell” is a good thing, but it just doesn’t work this time and a bit of dialogue would replace it just fine. Who knows though, maybe the director needed to stretch out screen time. Maybe romance was there to stretch out screen time too…

Here’s something that surprised me though. The movie has nuanced characters on BOTH sides so we have sympathetic jacobins and asshole royalists AND vice versa. We even have an asshole IN THE ROYAL FAMILY itself! And FINALLY Robespierre isn’t the villain! Yay!

(Think what you want about the man, but having him as a villain is just fucking boring at this point.)

As a matter of fact, historical figures (except for the boy) don’t actually appear in the movie and the cast aside from the dauphin consists out of original characters only. A welcome break from the usual stuff we see, if you ask me!

4. The Characters

Louis is a sweetheart here. He’s understandably traumatized by his ordeal but he bonds with his found family (especially Virginia and her aunt) and, in spite of the wishes of the royalists, doesn’t want to be a king and take revenge. Honestly, I can’t blame him for not wanting to return to France.

Virginia is, surprisingly, not a flat character. She’s one of the few people who actually cares about what LOUIS wants and needs but she’s also in a difficult situation because the royalists and the jacobins are searching for the dauphin. Still, Virginia does her best to protect the boy from harm and stands up for him when royalists try to pressure him into becoming the next king of France.

Duke de Beauvais is… not an asshole, but I didn’t like him at all.

He will stop at nothing to help Louis become king and sacrifices HIS OWN SON for that cause (placing his son into the dauphin’s cell). He also seems to be really fanatical at times and doesn’t seem to actually consider what LOUIS wants.

I do understand that de Beauvais himself is in a difficult situation and he IS concerned about his kid, but I still have a feeling that sometimes he just goes a bit too far.

As for secondary characters, unfortunately most are flat but I liked Virginia’s aunt. She’s that one cool caring aunt who makes jokes and loves her family fiercely.

5. The Setting

It seems to me that the settings are more or less accurate, but accuracy isn’t the strongest point here. Not just because the movie is an AU, but also because of this:

Please, for the love of the Supreme Being, get your damn dates right! The monarchy got overthrown BEFORE the time you show!

(Editing Citizen Green Pixel (ECGP) here: Apparently this movie is an adaptation of a novel but I’ve no idea if this mistake is in the novel too or just in movie. The novel is called “A King Reluctant”.)

Other than that, though, the settings and the costumes are done quite well!

6. The Acting

Unfortunately, the absolutely atrocious dub prevented me from fully enjoying the acting but I think it was quite good.

7. The Music

Pretty good, but nothing outstanding, if I’m being honest.

8. The Conclusion

Honestly, this movie was packing quite a few pleasant surprises for me and I actually enjoyed it. Not my favorite and still doesn’t beat “The Black Tulip” when it comes to swashbuckling Frev movies, but still pretty good.

Please check out this movie if you like swashbuckling stories. It’s cheesy, somewhat predictable and cliché at times but it does have nuanced main characters, decent twists and an interesting premise.

On that note, I declare today’s meeting of Jacobin Fiction Convention to be over. Stay tuned for more updates, everyone!

Love,

- Citizen Green Pixel

[playitagin]

1795-Louis XVII of France

Louis XVII (born Louis Charles, Duke of Normandy; 27 March 1785 – 8 June 1795) was the younger son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette. His older brother, Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, died in June 1789, a little over a month before the start of the French Revolution. At his brother's death he became the new Dauphin (heir apparent to the throne), a title he held until 1791, when the new constitution accorded the heir apparent the title of Prince Royal.

Louis-Charles died on 8 June 1795. The next day an autopsy was conducted by Pelletan. In the report it was stated that a child apparently about 10 years of age, "which the commissioners told us was the late Louis Capet's son", had died of a scrofulous infection of long standing. "Scrofula" as it was previously known, is nowadays called Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis referring to a lymphadenitis (chronic lymph node swelling or infection) of the neck lymph nodes (cervical lymph nodes) associated with tuberculosis.[9][10] During the autopsy, the physician Dr. Pelletan was shocked to see the countless scars which covered the boy's body, evidently the result of the physical mistreatment which the child had suffered while imprisoned in the Temple.

Following a tradition of preserving royal hearts, Louis-Charles's heart was removed and smuggled out during the autopsy by the overseeing physician, Philippe-Jean Pelletan. Thus, Louis-Charles' heart was not interred with the rest of the body. Dr. Pelletan stored the smuggled heart in distilled wine in order to preserve it. However, after 8 to 10 years the distilled wine had evaporated, and the heart was from that time kept dry.  Following the Revolution of 1830, and the plundering of the Archbishop's palace, Pelletan's son found the relic among the ruins and placed it in the crystal urn in which it is still kept today.

[tiny-librarian]

In the early morning hours of October 16th, having been condemned to death by guillotine, Marie Antoinette was led back to her cell in the Conciergerie. She wrote the following letter to her sister in law, Madame Elisabeth, but it would never reach her.

Here is a translation of the letter, images of the original are above.

16th October, 4.30 A.M. It is to you, my sister, that I write for the last time. I have just been condemned, not to a shameful death, for such is only for criminals, but to go and rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same firmness in my last moments.

I am calm, as one is when one's conscience reproaches one with nothing. I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and tender sister. You who out of love have sacrificed everything to be with us, in what a position do I leave you! I have learned from the proceedings at my trial that my daughter was separated from you. Alas! poor child; I do not venture to write to her; she would not receive my letter. I do not even know whether this will reach you. Do you receive my blessing for both of them. I hope that one day when they are older they may be able to rejoin you, and to enjoy to the full your tender care. Let them both think of the lesson which I have never ceased to impress upon them, that the principles and the exact performance of their duties are the chief foundation of life; and then mutual affection and confidence in one another will constitute its happiness. Let my daughter feel that at her age she ought always to aid her brother by the advice which her greater experience and her affection may inspire her to give him. And let my son in his turn render to his sister all the care and all the services which affection can inspire. Let them, in short, both feel that, in whatever positions they may be placed, they will never be truly happy but through their union. Let them follow our example. In our own misfortunes how much comfort has our affection for one another afforded us! And, in times of happiness, we have enjoyed that doubly from being able to share it with a friend; and where can one find friends more tender and more united than in one's own family? Let my son never forget the last words of his father, which I repeat emphatically; let him never seek to avenge our deaths. I have to speak to you of one thing which is very painful to my heart, I know how much pain the child must have caused you. Forgive him, my dear sister; think of his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever one wishes, especially when he does not understand it. It will come to pass one day, I hope, that he will better feel the value of your kindness and of your tender affection for both of them. It remains to confide to you my last thoughts. I should have wished to write them at the beginning of my trial; but, besides that they did not leave me any means of writing, events have passed so rapidly that I really have not had time. I die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers, that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed. Having no spiritual consolation to look for, not even knowing whether there are still in this place any priests of that religion (and indeed the place where I am would expose them to too much danger if they were to enter it but once), I sincerely implore pardon of God for all the faults which I may have committed during my life. I trust that, in His goodness, He will mercifully accept my last prayers, as well as those which I have for a long time addressed to Him, to receive my soul into His mercy. I beg pardon of all whom I know, and especially of you, my sister, for all the vexations which, without intending it, I may have caused you. I pardon all my enemies the evils that they have done me. I bid farewell to my aunts and to all my brothers and sisters. I had friends. The idea of being forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to my latest moment I thought of them. Farewell, my good and tender sister. May this letter reach you. Think always of me; I embrace you with all my heart, as I do my poor dear children. My God, how heart-rending it is to leave them forever! Farewell! farewell! I must now occupy myself with my spiritual duties, as I am not free in my actions. Perhaps they will bring me a priest; but I here protest that I will not say a word to him, but that I will treat him as a total stranger.

[philoursmars]

Je reviens à mon projet de présenter la plupart de mes 55000 photos (nouveau compte approximatif. On se rapproche du présent !).

2016. Une journée à Paris....et ici, un crochet à Saint-Denis pour visiter la Basilique, qui est aussi la nécropole royale. Ici, on est dans la crypte.

- la chapelle des Bourbons, Louis XVIII

- le cœur de Louis XVII

- cénotaphe de Henri IV

- cénotaphe de Louis XIV

- le caveau des Bourbons

- les 2 dernières : la crypte primitive

[bunniesandbeheadings]

Don’t think too hard. I picked most of these at off top of my head. I mentioned specific beefs sometimes and not other times because sometimes they beefed with many children and it has to be clarified. If you want to fight, or want more nuance, fight each other, and I will reply no further nuance

Thanks.

[empirearchives]

(Jacques-Louis David: Portrait of Pope Pius VII, 1805)

One of the interesting details of Napoleon’s exile is that, inspite of everything, Pope Pius VII made a formal intervention to the allies in 1817 on behalf of Napoleon’s family.

“The Emperor’s family. . . has informed us that the rock of St. Helena is deadly and that the poor exile is visibly wasting away. We have been extremely grieved by the receipt of such news, and you will no doubt judge the matter as we do, for we must remember that, after God, it is mainly he who was zealous in re-establishing religion in the truly great realm of France.”

The Pope did not receive a reply.

I think the Pope wrote this more out of respect and loyalty to Napoleon’s mother, who was a pious follower of the religion.

Source: Alain Decaux, Napoleon’s mother

[histoireettralala]

".. and now that he loved him and was very worthily served, she wanted to have him ruined"- Louis XIII, Richelieu, and Marie de Medici.

The triangular relationship of monarch, mother, and minister, was rife with tension. While Marie's influence was not great enough to label the governing body a triumvirate, she was pushy enough to make decisions both in and out the council very, very difficult. She became jealous of her former protégé, listened to the backbiting criticism of dévots like Marillac and Cardinal Bérulle, and eventually spoke out in council against the cleric who had once dictated her speeches. She pushed and pushed until, in 1629 and 1630, she finally demanded that her son dismiss Richelieu. This placed Louis in precisely the position he sought to avoid: to choose between minister and mother.

Louis did his best to keep his mother content and contained. He made her regent for northern France during his absence at the siege of La Rochelle in 1627-1628, and again during his campaign in Savoy in 1629. When they were separated, he was a faithful correspondent on government and personal matters. From Susa, he wrote of being "right to the last breath of my life your very humble and obedient son." But, except when she insisted on Gaston's marrying in 1626, Louis refused to follow his mother's political recommendations when these differed from his own intuitions.

In the face of Marie's growing jealousy of the bond between her protégé and her son, Louis praised the Cardinal's services: "My Cousin the Cardinal of Richelieu has so worthily served me on this occasion that I cannot say just how much I am satisfied with his care and diligence. They give me hope that the rest of my undertaking will go the same way; and that God, if it pleases him, will continue to favor my designs."

In the winter of 1629-30, Louis mustered his strongest argument, saying that "when he had been not at all inclined toward [Richelieu] she got him to employ him; and now that he loved him and was very worthily served, she wanted to have him ruined." Marie countered in vain "that he could employ him if he wished, but for her part she would never engage his services." Louis insisted on getting the three principals together in a meeting that left all of them in tears. An observer recalled that "the king threw so much passion into this reconciliation that it was achieved the next day." Against her better judgment, Marie agreed to retain Richelieu and his relatives as leading members of her personal household. And so tensions continued.

Ultimately, Louis resolved such tensions as these by striking back. Irritated beyond measure by government problems involving human failures, he lashed out against the immediate wrongdoer and made sweeping cabinet changes that, not trusting his own judgment, he had previously hesitated to undertake.

A. Lloyd Moote - Louis XIII the Just

[dawningwinds-s]

Historical figures should try being named something other than Louis. Especially the french ones. It's very rude of them to confuse us by all having the same name like that

[bethanybeatdowns]

there's so much potential to make dark!marie to be Marie Therese of France. sure, there's lore™ reasons for whatever the event made her be but hear me out.

✅ the perfect in-between of Louis Charles, Louis XVII who suffered as a child in prison and Marie Antoinette as Queen of France. Marie Therese maybe queen for 20 minutes but it still counts!!!

✅ i need more Marie Therese of France content in general. she's the only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. we all know how many pretenders and copycats crawled out of the woodwork claiming to be Tsaritsa Anastasia. Marie Therese is actually the Anastasia story had it been true- a true blue-blooded daughter of a recently toppled regime moved around by relatives and used as a political pawn in many of these circumstances.

✅ there's a whole-ass "Dark Countess" rumor going on about her. there was some mysterious rich l ady who dressed in all black and people were convinced she was the twice-deposed Marie Therese. it has been confirmed that it's not her, but but but! Avenger-class in general work with rumors/speculations/urban legends/general nasty gossip abt people. And! she fits!!!!

✅ Dark Marie=/= Dark Countess? I don't think so. It's said that Marie Therese resembled Marie Antoinette. It's a better fit, sis.

✅ I just think Dark! Marie is just lazy and reaching when there's a better-suited historical figure right in the family tree.

I know there's lore-related reasons, but I don't care. Nasuverse breaks it's own rules all the time and my thighs circumference is another person's waistline. I'm sexy and I won't listen 😘. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.