Tragedies That Shook Royal Families Around The World
The Tragic Life Of Louis XVII, Son Of Marie Antoinette
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
During the French revolution, Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis Auguste were famously overthrown, imprisoned, and beheaded for high treason. They shared four children together, Marie Therese, Louis Joseph, Louis XVII, and Sophie.
When the family was imprisoned in the Temple in 1792, it wasn’t long before Marie and her husband were beheaded, leaving Louis an orphan. He was treated appallingly by guards, kept in seclusion, and at one point no one entered his cell for six months. When he died of tuberculosis at the age of 10, the doctor performing the autopsy was shocked to see the young child’s body covered in scars.