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LIBRARY

AN UNRECOGNISED KING.

BY

YMAL OSWIN.

ST. Andrew's press, barnet.

1907.

AN UNRECOGNISED KING.
A PAGE OF SECRET HISTORY.
BY YMAL OS"WIN.
The recent interesting article by Mr. Dudley Baxter on " Henri
V of France," says that " unfortunately he never reigned, thus
recalling the hapless Louis XVII." This impels me to publish
the study I had made some time previously, of this hapless
" Uncrowned King," Louis XVII, the mystery of whose survival
and later life is touched upon by Mr. Baxter also, in his article
in St. Peter's Net, in April, although he treats his claims as
mythical. Circumstances, however, are now bringing to light,
in a wonderful manner, the legality of the claims of this prince
and his descendants. Only this year, it is known to me on trust-
A\'orthy evidence that Pius X granted an audience to Prince Jean
Augusts de Bourbon, the representative of this line, although
circumstances prevented the latter availing himself of it then.
I have seen copies qf the documents relating to the lineal de
scent of this family myself, and their right to their name,
which they have striven for three generations to have acknow
ledged, is now rarely denied to them ; although they do
not wish to enter into political life, but merely to bear their
name openly, of De Bourbon,
The brave Due de Berri, Madame, and the succeeding Kings
of France, also " Henri V " himself, were aware of the existence
and survival of Louis XVII, being often informed of it by many
witnesses, and the generous Due de Berry promised to support
his claims to the throne, but death intervened. The extreme
hesitation of Henri V on every occasion when he could have
become possessed of the Crown of France, is attributed to the
knowledge he had of the existence of this elder line, who, de-
p"rived of all fortune, were powerless to come forward ; and to
his conscientious scruples as to his right to it, I give a few
pages frorn this secret history ; and when the whole of the
documents concerning this sad story, and preserved in the
secret papers of many Courts, especially that of Germany, are
given to the public, which is the object for which Prince Jean
de Bourbon is working, all will be made clear, the political
chicanery of the last hundred years exposed, and the wrongs of
this family, now so large, righted.

4 AN UNRECOGNISED KING.
The Lady in Waiting to Marie-Antoinette, la Comtesse d'
Adhemar, declared on her soul and conscience, that Louis
XVII did not perish in the Temple, but that political motives
had caused this report to be spread. (P. 142 Souvenirs de
Marie- Antoinette.) tt it j -l
In the cemetery of the town of Delft m Holland, may be
seen a large slab of stone, covering a grave, the inscription on
which at once arrests the attention of the traveller :
" lei repose
Louis XVII, Roi de France et Navarre ; Charles Louis
Due de Normandie.
Ne a Versailles, le 27 Mars 1785.
Decede a Delft, le 10 Aout 1845."*
The unfortunate man, who here lies buried, has now been
recognised, either in secret documents, or openly, by the
Governments of the leading countries of Europe, and by three
successive popes, to be the Dauphin, who was imprisoned with
his father, Louis XVI, and his mother in the Temple, but was
always believed to have escaped after their death. Many
claimants were put forward at the time, to represent the little
prince, whose whereabouts long remained a secret to all but a
faithful few of his father's adherents. He passed many years
of his eventful life in state prisons, for the existenee of the
rightful heir, if recognised, would have imperilled Napoleoh's
Empire, and that of three successive kings, and he passed his
life in trying to vindicate his claims, and to hand on his birth
right to his heirs.
A whole literature has now been written on this subject, for
it is of vital importance to his numerous desendants, living in
Holland and France under the name of Princes of Bourbon, to
have their lineage recognised, A perusal of some of these
works brings to light a story more romantic than that of any
novel, more gloomy than the tragedies of Victor Hugo, and
the writer gleans from these thrilling pages, the story now
outlined here, with the incontrovertible proofs of its authen
ticity. Much is taken from the Abrege de I'histoire des infortunes
du Dauphin, published in London in 1836, by the exiled prince
himself. For other authorities see Footnote. I
_ * Translation : " Here rests Louis X"VII, King of France and Navarre ;
Charles Louis Duke of Normandy, born at Versailles on the 27th of
March, 1785. Died at Delft, the loth ot August, 1845."
tLa survivance du roi-Martyr : par un ami de la verite. gth edition,
i?Y,"^?" ^ -Le , rfe»-m"cr roi legitime de la France, by Henri Provins.
Appel a la Consctence prMic, par le Comte Bruau de la Barre. Louis XVII
k, WaTtYn. R.,?i'V "'¦"' ,?<'""^""'^ 'i' Marie-Antoinette, by her Lady
de Fon a"?e etf etc WoTk. Kr'f ''/' ^""'^ ^^^^' ^^ ^ ^^" ^^bretl
Quai d s G kSds Augus^ns Pa^ri;^'"'"'' ^* '""^ ^''^'^^'"^ d'Education, 33

AN UNRECOGNISED KING. 5
1 he reasons why he concealed himself under the incognito
of Naundorff during a large portion of his life will be easily
made clear, but in the Civil Mortuary Register of Holland, he
IS described as " the son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette,
born at the Chateau de Versailles in France, on the 27th March,
1785, having been known under the name of Naundorff." His
widow was always treated in Holland as, and styled, the
Duchess of Normandy, and her sons and their descendants were
described on the baptismal register of Maestricht, as De Bour
bons, and also on the death-roll of that country, so that the
name of Naundorff has long been abolished.
The present head of this elder branch of the royal family of
France, now lives in Paris, i.e. Prince Auguste Jean de Bourbon
(John III) with his charming wife, Princess Fanny Magda
line, and their little son Henry Charles. It was our good
fortune to be present at one of their receptions in the spring of
1906. Several enthusiastic adherents of the family were
present, and it was pretty to see the princely child give his
hand to them to be kissed. One admiring Countess exclaimed,
" Ah, what a child to adorn a throne ?" Busts and portraits
of many of the Bourbons were around the Salon, including a
life-like bust of the hero of this article, Louis XVII himself in
middle life, which showed a striking likeness to the fine brow
and eyes of Marie-Antoinette, with the Bourbon nose. His
daughter, Princess Amelie, still living, is the image of the un
happy Queen. It was with a vivid sense of having been
privileged to see the direct descendents of the murdered King
Louis XVI, that we turned to the pages relating his son's
escape from a similar fate.
Thus runs the tragic story of his life. On the 13th August,
1792, he was imprisoned in the building then known as the
Temple, with the king, queen, his sister and his aunt, Mme.
Elisabeth, being then seven years and a half in age. The
following year, he was removed from the care of his mother,
and was entrusted to the guardianship of Simon, the cobler —
a low brutal man, whom the Commune mockingly appointed,
" governor of the children of the tyrant." In describing this
prison, in after years, the prince gives the most minute details
of its structure, and the arrangement of their rooms, which, he
says, were separated by a long, dark corridor, in which two
republican officers were placed at night to guard them, but
during the day they watched the prisoners in their own rooms.
" In spite of these obstacles," he writes in the Abrege, " my
mother wrote daily to my aunt in bed . . . my good mother
hid what she had written in the morning, and concealed the
letters upon me, her son. I served as postman, when the faith
ful Clery could not."
He gives many other curious details of their daily life, and

6 AN UNRECOGNISED KING.
alludes to these and other details known only to his sister and
himself, long after, in his letters to the Duchesse d'Augoulenie.
After the 19th of January, 1794, Simon no longer guarded the
royal orphan, but officials were chosen by the Commune to act-
as his guardians ; these were frequently changed, a system which
seems to have been arranged to divide the responsibility, distract
attention, and perhaps prepare the way for the escape, which
many were secretly organising. Even the revolutionaries
shrank from the crime of executing a child because he was the
son of a king. After "Thermidor," a re-actionary wave of
sympathy swept over the country, and the royalists bestirred
themselves to attempt the child's escape. From La Vendee,
General La Charette began to treat with the Committee of
public safety for the freedom of the royal children, and the
existenee of this secret treaty was later on spoken of by
Napoleon. In Brittany, Puisaye was also planning their
escape, in combination with Frotte and Josephine Beauhar-
nais, who was an ardent royalist, and retained her sympathies
to the end of her life. The help of Barras and some of the
governors of the prison was enlisted, and this last combination
was the one that succeeded. Many witnesses and writers have
attested the participation of Josephine in the escape of the
prince — among others the Empress Eugenie in our day.
Josephine, then, succeeded in getting a guard appointed
who was a friend and compatriot of hers, one Laurent, whom
she recommended for this post to Barras, a minister then in
power, and the escape took place in the following manner.
On the night of the 31st of October, the royal boy was
taken from his cell, and carried up to a little room on the
fourth story of the tower, in which were the royal prisons. He
lay there under the roof, and was thus hidden for some time
in the Temple, while his place in the cell was taken by a little
deaf and dumb boy, chosen for his great likeness to the Dauphin,
and for his silence. It was well known that the real Dauphin
never spoke to his guard, for suffering early taught the poor boy
that speech only led to insult.
But, as it was desired by the conspirators, that the country
should think the Dauphin had died, this bov, Tardif by
name, was exchanged in March, 1795, for a sick child taken
from the public hospital, suffering from an incurable maladv
(scrofula) named Gonnhaut. On. the Sth of June, this bov
died, and after some hesitation, and the omission of various
torms usual m the case of death in prison, the Convention
announced publicly that the Dauphin had died, and six
days afterwards his burial was mentioned in the Moniteur
journal But m reality, the boy Gonnhaut was buried in the
ditch ol the tower, and the princ e was carried out in the coffin
alive, but drugged. ""i".

AN UNRECOGNISED KING. 7
How he had spent the winter in his cell in the roof, we will
describe in his own words. " I was as one buried alive," he
writes*, " I ate, I slept, and I awaited my friend ; my first
rescuer brought me all I wanted from time to time, in the
night. I made no fuss about the cold which I felt, for it was
in winter that I was incarcerated on the fourth story. No one
suspected that I was there .... at length I was given (on the
8th of June) a dose of opium, and placed in the coffin from
which the other child was taken, almost at the moment that
they came to take the coffin to the cemetery .... my friends,
who were in the secret, placed the coffin on a carriage, which
was so prepared beforehand. On the way to the cemetery I
was placed in a box at the bottom of the carriage and the
empty coffin filled with rubbish.
" As soon as the coffin was buried in the grave, my friends
took me back to Paris, and I was placed in the hands of
others, without my being able to recollect anything about it.
.... 'When I awoke, I was lying on a bed in a clean room,
with a nurse, Mme. X  . Fortunately this business was
done quickly, for I was hardly in safety, when the mystery was
discovered. Already the public was spreading the rumour,
that it was not I who was buried, and this alarmed the Govern
ment, and they gave orders to recover the coffin, and bury it
in a secret place.| My friends sent me out of Paris in a
carriage, and faithful servants received me on the road with
the greatest discretion."
It is not surprising that the poor boy then fell seriously ill,
after his long sufferings, and he was tenderly nursed by Mme.
X  , the widow of one of the victims of the massacre of the
loth of August. During this stay in a Vendean Chateau, he
saw no one except General La Charette, who once visited him
with two officers. But he was discovered by his enemies even
here. " One night," he writes, " the police entered our resi
dence, snatched me from my bed, and threw me into prison.
But one of our friends, the Marquis de Brigues, wrote at once
to Mme. Beauharnais, who again procured my escape from
prison." The Comte de Montmorin, who had barely escaped being
guillotined in the massacres of September, now devoted his life
and resources to the young prince, who in combination with
the Marquis de Brigues also, escaped to Venice, where the
refugees were secretly protected by Pope Pius VI, and the first
few days were passed in a monastery. By the Pope's advice
they next concealed themselves in a lonely country-house, and
here the little party passed some peaceful months. Mme.
^'Abrege.. •fit is a matter of history that the coffin was foiand empty.

S. AN UNRECOGNISED KING.
X^  , the young widow, who had formerly acted as nurse,
had since married a clockmaker, and rejoined the Dauphm in
Italy, with her husband, who taught Charles Louis his trade ot
watchmaker, for which the boy showed great aptitude, and
which was afterwards of the greatest use to him. In this
retreat, the prince at last heard of the death of his raother.
Queen Marie-Antoinette, which had been concealed from him
up to the present. Marie, the daughter of his protector, told
the boy that the Oueen had been executed, and so great was
the shock that he" fell into a deep fainting-fit. But soon the
revolutionary army marched into Italy, Pius VI was forced to
fly and it was no longer safe for the little party of refugees to
stay there, for their retreat was betrayed to the enemy. The
house, which was lent to them by a friend of the Pope, was
burnt one night, and Mme. X  and her husband died mys
teriously on the same day. Before he left, however, Marie gave
Charles Louis a medallion containing miniatures of his parents,
Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, and a paper on which the
Queen had written their two names, with the date of their
son's birth, bidding him never to part with it. Soon after
this, the Marquis de Brigues and Marie both died under strong
suspicion of poison. " And thus," he writes : " All my noble
friends died a violent death, victims' of their devotion to my
person. In consequence of this deplorable event, I was taken
at sea (the little party had embarked on a vessel bound for
England) and forcibly re-conducted to France." Only the
Comte de Montmorin was now left, for he had fortunately
escaped, and secretly followed the tracks of the prince who
was again thrown into a State prison in France. Some secret
emissaries of the Government visited him here, and told him
that he was required to renounce his name and birthright, and
on these conditions only, a safe retreat would be found for
him, in a monastery.
" You may kill me," replied the youth, " but you will never
obtain from me the renunciation of my rights."
"Thy mother, also, would not yield: thou art indeed her
son ; Va ; the same fate awaits thee ! "
He then departed, and soon afterwards three wretches entered
the prison, bound Charles Louis to his chair, and after com
paring his face with a portrait they produced, they pricked
his face all over with a pointed instrument, and then bathed
it with something poisonous, so that it became inflamed and
disfigured beyond recognition. Touched by the sight of his
sufferings, for the prince almost lost his sight from the inflam
mation, the gaolor's wife assuaged the wounds with liniments,
and after a long illness, he recovered But a few traces and
small marks of this disfigurement, remained till his death
Meanwhile the indefatigable Count Montmorin again had

AN UNRECOGNISED KING. -9-
recourse to the Empress Josephine, who persuaded the astute
Minister Fouche to contrive the release of the prisoner,
without the Emperor's knowledge. A vain attempt was then
made by the friends of Charles, to obtain the protection of
the Count of Provence, for his unhappy nephew, and one of
them, by name Pichegru, was sent secretly to him. But it
was against the Count's interests that his nephew should be
reinstated, and the perfidious uncle merely informed the
government of Charles Louis' hiding place. He was again
objiged to fly, and he took himself to Ettenheim, the residence
of the Duke d'Enghien, who had been informed of his escape.
But it was Napoleon's object also, to prevent the Dauphin,
who been given out as civilly dead, from ever being in a
position to assert his rights. At his instigation, the Due
d'Enghien was mysteriously murdered, before Charles could
reach him, and the latter was seized and conducted to the
fortress of Strasbourg. From thence he was removed in a
close carriage to the fortress of Vincennes, where he was
incarcerated four years. His dungeon was dark, its only
opening being the door and a breathing-hole at the top. He
lived on bread and water only, and the rats were his only
companions. At length the brave Montmorin succeeded in
penetrating this living tomb, and one day the gaolor admitted
him and several other friends, to the prison — once more
through a secret order from Josephine, whose kind heart and
ineradicable royalist sympathies, never failed to help the
orphan prince. Even to his friends, the unhappy youth was
now hardly recognisable, being in rags, with his hair and nails
untrimmed for so. long. They conveyed him to a house near,
and after a few days of tender nursing from Count Montmorin,
he recovered sufficiently to hear and relate all that had passed
during these four years in the cell.
They held long consultations, and at length they decided to
go to Germany, and endeavour to enlist the aid of the King
of Prussia, for it "was not safe to remain in France.
They proceeded in safety to the banks of the Elbe, where
they fell in with the Duke of Brunswick and his forces, for
there was then war between Prussia and Napoleon, and on the;.
Prince discovering his identity, the Duke gave him a letter to
the King of Prussia and they .proceeded on their journey.
Arrived in Prussia, they fell in with the army of the brave
General Schill, by whom they were well received. They were
unfortunately with him when a 'Westphalian army attacked
his troops, and almost annihilated them, and in the retreat,
the faithful Count Montmorin was killed, and Charles Louis
was struck down and made prisoner.
'With other prisoners of war, the Prince was thrown into
the, fortress of Wesel, and these were condemned by Napoleon,

ID AN UNRECOGNISED KING.
on their recovery from their wounds, to serve in the S^^^?^\?
Toulon. They were marched in a long hne through tne
centre of France, and their sufferings from thirst and hardsmps
on the way, were terrible. Having formed a "endship witti
a fellow-prisoner, one of SchiU's hussars, Charles Lou is deter
mined to escape, and one night, during a great stom they
managed to fly to the woods, and determined to find their
way back to Germany. . , . ¦„ f^,,- fr^,^r^ ac
Hiding by day, and walking by night foraging for food as
best the? could, they at last reached the borders of Saxony^
Here Friedrichs, the hussar, was taken by a lawless band of
Soldiers, the " streichreiters," and shot as a spy, and cnarles
warned of his death by a farmer, then continued his lonely road
toward Berlin.
It was impossible to enter this town, without a passport,
and how was the nameless traveller to procure one? A
traveller, driving in his coach, took compassion on him, and
took him into his carriage, driving him the rest of the way to
Berlin, when he mysteriously thrust into his hand his own
passport, made out in the name of Charles William Nauridorff,
which made it possible for him to enter the capital with no
further difficulty. Several of the adherents of Charles Louis
have concurred in the opinion that the mysterious fellow-
traveller was a secret agent, sent to watch the Prince's where
abouts, and to give him a name under which to disguise him
self, and' giving up his identity, thus to enable him to pass as a
private citizen.
Happier times now dawned for the persecuted young man,
and he was allowed to pass some peaceful, if obscure years in.
Prussia, with the knowledge and connivance of the govern
ment. He first applied to enter the army, but this was denied
him, as being a foreigner The Director of police, M. le Coq,
to whom he presented the private papers, which he had
always carefully kept, sewn into his coat, recognised him. as
the son of Louis XVI., but made him give up to him the most
important papers regarding his birth and histor}^, giving him
in return, a legal permit to set up in Prussia in the trade of a
clockmaker. by which he desired to make a living. The
Director gave him some gold to start him, and requested him
to live at Spandau, in Prussia.
By special order of the Prussian Clovernment, he was received
as a burgher of this town, although a foreigner, without being
obliged to produce the documents usually required. He soon
^tt%^ 'T^ ^ }'^ watches, and several families became
nnt?vi''tn°r™' """"^ ^'lY'ted him to the musical reunions, so
rnsruiSts"^""^"^- "^ ^'"^^^^^ '-™^^ ^° P'^y --ral
After the disastrous Russian Campaign, Charles foresaw

AN UNRECOGNISED KING. II
that Napoleon's empire was doomed, and wrote to the
Emperors of Russia and Austria, and also to the King of
Prussia and M. le Coq, to represent his position, and reclaim
his papers from the Prussian Government, but did not succeed
in doing so. In 1818 he married a young German girl, the
daughter of one of his friends in Spandau, by name Jeanne
Einert, with whom he had fallen in love. At his wedding
Charles Louis was again dispensed by the authorities from
producing the papers necessary for an ordinary marriage.
Jeanne was a most devoted wife, and when the eldest of his
nine children was born, who was christened Amelie, her
striking likeness to Marie Antoinette was a delight to her
father. After a time the young couple removed to Branden
burg, and domestic happiness and peace shone upon the
troubled heart of the man, who had passed seventeen of his
early years in state prisons. His disposition, though naturally
rather melancholy, was distinguished by amiability and
sweetness ; he was musical and now cultivated his powers
in the intervals of work. The sentiments expressed in his
letters display a noble and unworldly character, full of
Christian forgiveness of his many enemies.
In 1 82 1, a fellow-townsman, urged by jealousy of his
success, got up a law suit against hira, but Charles Louis, in
spite of false witnesses, gained his case... Three years later, on
the burning of the theatre near his house, the latter was
plundered and he was accused of being the incendiary, and
soon after was thrown into prison on the strange accusation
of coining false money. Although acquitted of- this false
charge also, he was kept in prison three years, under the
pretext that he had called himself the Duke ot Normandy,
and signed his name as such (which indeed he had every right
to do). In 1828 the King of Prussia ordered him to be
released, but he was nevertheless sent to Crossen in Silesia,
and the magistrate, Herr Pezold, was charged to keep him
under inspection. But this honest man examined the stranger's
papers (which were still in the hands of the police) and dis
covered that he was no other than the son of Louis XVI.
From that moment, this upright man constituted himself
his friend and protector, and left no stone unturned to obtain
justice for him. He took the Prince, his wife and family, to
live in his own house, and corresponded unceasingly with those
in power, representing his sad case, demanding the recognition
of his .status from the King and his ministers. Possibly his
perseverance might have been rewarded by success, but he
died suddenly ih 1832, apparently from poison, Charles
Louis, deprived of this valuable support, then wrote a careful
account of his life's history, but the government forbade him
to print it, although he besieged the ministers with his appeals

12 AN UNRECOGNISED KING.
for permission. Despairing at last of Prussia, he determined
to return to France, and quitting his family, and confiding ms
plans only to his eldest daughter Amelie, he started on nis
journey, and after many strange adventures, he arrived on tne
French frontier in July 1832. .
At this date the royalists were again in power m i* ranee,
but by an agreement of the European powers, Louis XVIII
obtained the throne of his ancestors, although aware ot the
existence of his nephew, of which he had often been informed.
It is now known that in the secret documents of diplomacy,
the title of King was only granted to the Count of Provence
provisionally, and with a reserved clause with regard to the
rights of the Dauphin, should he be found. Charles X had
also taken possession of the crown in defiance of these reserve
clauses, known to be inscribed in his brother's will, although
he received many letters from Charles Louis, who since 1814
had written to various members of the Royal family. None
of them replied, except the generous Duke de Berri who
recognised the exile's rights, and undertook to have justice
done to him, but he too was prevented by a mysterious death
(1820) from helping hira.
Charles Louis at length arrived in Paris on the 26th Maj',
1833, and at once began the search for any old servants of his
father, who might still be living and able to recognise him. His
first visit was to the fatal prison of the Temple and he found that
the tower, where he had passed so many miserable days, was de
stroyed, and the rest of the building turned into a Convent.
During most of his stay in Paris, he was the guest of M. and Mme.
Albouys, devoted royalists, and here many interesting meetings
took place. Several of those, who had been in the service of
Louis X'\^I were informed of the Prince's arrival, among these,
Mme. de Rambaud, first lady in waiting to Marie-Antoinette.
M. de Joly, formerly a minister of Louis XVI, also bore
witness that he was indeed the son of his former King. Mme.
de Rambaud was much moved by the Prince's recollection of
the little blue coat, which he had put on the first time at
Versailles at a fete before he was taken to the Temple, — " And
I never saw it again since that fete," he added, " for it did not
fit me." The old lady told him that she had the coat still for
she had kept it ever since as a cherished relic, and kneeling she
kissed his hand. with tears, exclaiming, " Only ray Prince could
tell me that!" -^
Others soon joined the little circle, and several of them
wrote once more to the Duchesse d'Angouleme, the Prince's
M dp slint n h'''"" ^.'\^'S"^'^ ^ ^^Ply to his letters to her.
M.de SamtDidier and Mme. Rambaud, both wrote to her
witnessing to his identity and begging her to see him But
terrified at possible - results, the cold-hearted Duchess still

AN- UNRECOGNISED KING. I3
refused to see him, under empty pretexts, for she was entirely
governed by her uncle, the King. In his touching letters to
her, Charles reminded her of many little details of their journey
from Varennes, and particularly of their imprisonment, which
could be only known to themselves, but in vain, she still
refused to see him.
The only result was that the Prince's secret enemies made
a determined attempt to assassinate him. He was crossing
the Place du Carrousel on the evening of the 28th of January,
1834, when he was stabbed six times, and one wound was
nearly fatal, but was luckily turned aside from the heart by
a raedal of the Blessed Virgin which he always wore. But
the number of his adherents increased, and one of these, the
Baroness de Generes, a young widow, generously offered herself
as governess to his children, and placed her fortune at the
disposal of his wife and family, who were then living in the
greatest penury in Prussia. This delicate offer could not be
refused, for it relieved Charles Louis of his greatest anxiety,
and the Baroness then sought out his poor wife, and conducted
her and her little children to Dresden, where they lived for
some years together in peace, the Baroness supplying all their
necessities from her fortune. She engaged a tutor for them,
and he was so struck with the extraordinary likness of Princess
Amelie to Queen Marie-Antoinette that he always treated her
with such marked deference in consequence, so that the Baron
ess thought it better to tell him the secret of her origin.
Charles Louis, disgusted at the continued refusals of his
sister to recognise him, at length adopted the only resource
of justification in his power, i.e., he appealed to the law-courts
and summoned his sister to hear the proofs of his identity
before the tribunal of Paris. Two days afterwards, a body of
police-officers forced their way into Mme. de Rambaud's house,
where the Prince was then staying, seized all his papers, about
200 in nuraber, and illegally threw him into prison without
trial. In spite of his protests and those of his legal advisers
Louis Philippe arbitrarily expelled him from France, and he
•was shipped for England. A trial for imposture was then
commenced against hira in France, but as he was absent, this
farce was terrainated by a verdict of alibi years later, in January
1841. Charles Louis lived for some years quietly in London,
where he was visited by many of his friends, and was at length
able to publish the narrative of his life, the "Short history of
the misfortunes of the Dauphin," which he had begun in
Prussia, and from which this account is chiefly taken. The
French Government ordered all the copies of this work that
reached France, to be summarily seized, and the two petitions
he addressed to the Chamber of Deputies in 1837 and 1838,
were unanswered, and his adherents were persecuted.

H

AN UNRECOGNISED KING.

The King of Prussia yielded at last to secret deni^ds from
France, and ordered the King of Saxony to expel the innocent
wife and children of Charles from Dresden, fnd though ne
refused at first, he was obliged - reluctantly to yield- ^le
Prince's familv then took refuge m Switzerland, where tney
stayed nTe house of M, de Bremond, formerly one of Louis
XvA Secretaries In 1838 we find the family once more
x^umted aftei their long separation, and living with Charles
L^ms in London, His enemies pursued him to this retreat,
and on the i6th of November, he was again attacked by an
assassin, who concealed himself in the garden and fired two
shots from a pistol at Charles Louis, which fortunately only
inflicted a slight wound. The Prince gave himself up to the
pursuit of his scientific tastes, and established a laboratory m
his house which was a great interest to hira. His son Adelberth
de Bourbon, was born here on the 26th of April, 1840, bemg
the only Bourbon ever born in England. He was entered on
the English Baptismal Register, as of French origin, under the
name of Adelberth de Bourbon.
A year after, a fresh attack was raade on Charles Louis' life
by an attempt to blow up his laboratory, but the perpetrator
of the outrage was undiscovered. But at last his perseverance
and the scientific fidelity with which he had carried on his
pyrotechnical studies, which had long formed an all-absorbing
distraction from his political troubles, were rewarded by a
successful invention which would be of great use for military
purposes. He entered into negociations with the Dutch
Government with regard to their taking up this invention,
and to carry this out, Charles Louis went to Rotterdam early
in 1845, On his first arrival he was guarded in his hotel as
" The Duke of Normandy," as the Dutch Consul discovered
his incognito and thought him a dangerous man. His friends
appealed to the King, 'William II, who was secretly informed
of the identity of the illustrious inventor, and he at once
granted him his generous protection, being the only sove
reign who had the courage to recognise him openly as the
son of Louis XVI, during the life-time of the unfortunate
Prince, Fortune at last smiled on him, and after a few months
delay and interviews with the Ministers of "War, of the
Admiralty and the Colonies, he concluded a contract with
the govemment to take over his invention, which it is beyond
the scope of this paper to explain. But the unfortunate Prince
grasped success too late, for a fatal malady declared itself in
June, 1845, and he at once sent for his wife and family from
England, After a painful illness, borne with great fortitude
and Christian sentiments, he died on the loth of August 1^ k
at Delft, surrounded by those he loved. His last words d

AN UNRECOGNISED KING. 15
thoughts were all of France, of God, and of his family.
Sorrowfully remembering his sister, the Duchesse d'AngoulSme,
whom he had never been allowed to see since he was a child,
he exclaimed. "Cest elle ! it is her fault that all has ended
thus." Addressing his son Edward, he exclaimed, " My son,
what raisfortunes are about to fall on France, what fire ahd
bloodshed ! (This was soon to be fulfilled in 1848). Men will
never know the good I would have done for France." He
pardoned all his eneraies, and prayed for thera, and then
passed peacefully away.
By order of the King of Holland, he was accorded railitary
honours at his funeral at Delft, and his death was registered
on the civil list of the town as, Charles Louis de Bourbon,
Louis XVII, son of Louis XVI, and Marie-Antoinette," and the
same inscription was placed, as we have seen, on the tomb of
this uncrowned King. His widow lived in Holland with her
children, and was also addressed and treated with respect as
the Duchess of Normandy. Her fourth son. Prince Adelberth
desired to enter the Dutch army, and begged to be naturalised
in order to do so. This request was submitted by King
William to the Chambers, and after examining his claims to
his name and title, and perusing the documents furnished by
the Minister of Justice, this was granted hira. A civil act of
the Law-courts of Maestricht, dated 20th May, 1891, establishes
the descent of the family then numbering numerous branches,
from Louis X\'I King of France, so that the incognito of
" Naundorff " has long been legally abolished.
In France, this elder branch of Bourbons, have laid before
the French law-courts an appeal to have the inscription
erased from the civil code of France, which states that " le
petit Capet '' died on the Sth of June, 1795, but the case is not
yet concluded, though few in France now refuse the title
of Princes de Bourbon to this family. The grandsons of Charles
Louis have registered their marriages in France, under the
narae of De Bourbon, and use the Bourbon crest and arms un
molested. But the immense fortune, which should be theirs,
has not yet been restored, and these princes have therefore
entered various professions and support themselves honourably
by civil occupations. Prince xA.uguste Jean (Jean III) is now
the heir to this branch, and at the receptions held by his
charming young wife, representatives of raany of the royalist
families of old France are seen. The Prince wisely takes no
part in politics, and makes no claim to the throne of his an
cestors, and is therefore unmolested by the Republican
Government, His great aunt, Princess Amelie de Bourbon
lives quietly at MazeroUes in France, A royalist newspaper
" La Legitimite," is published, which carries on the interest in
the royal family, and the demand for the numerous historical

i6

AN" UNRECOGNISED KING.

works relating to them, some of which we have cited, is now
greater than ever.
"What the future holds for the De Bourbons, is among the
secrets of Divine Providence, but truth will out, and Charles
Louis' life-long sufferings and unquenchable efforts to establish
his name and birthright, are rewarded by the complete recog
nition of his descendants to their right to the noble name of
Bourbon.

We subjoin a genealogical table showing the present des
cendants of Charles Louis, which raay not be without interest.
Louis XVI

Louis XVII (Louis
raarried Jeanne Frederica Einert.

Charles Duke of
Normandy.

Charles Edward. Charles XI. Charles Edmond. Adelberth. Emmanuel

(Charles X) died at died at Breda,
died 31 Jan. Teteringen, Holland, 29 Oct.
i8"65, Holland, 1883, married
26 Nov, 1899, Christine
Shoenlau,

died 18 Oct, died 13 Feb,
1887. 1878,
married Marie
Du Ouesne,

Auguste Jean Charles
Emmanuel Louis
(Jean III), born at Mathieu
Maestricht, 1872, born 4
6 Nov. married March,
Magdeleine Cuille, 1875,
Henri Charles Louis
Dauphin, born at
Lunel, 27 Nov, 1899,

Louis I j 'i j"
born Louis Henri Emmau- Fer-
29 born born uel dinand
Aug- 8 25 born born
1878. Dec, Oct, 14 Jan, 1873,
1866, 1867. 1869.

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