Imprisonment and death of Louis-Charles, regarded as King Louis XVII, in the Temple

Louis-Charles of France, second son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, was confined in a dungeon and for several years subjected to torture. After the execution of his parents he was regarded as King of France, Louis XVII. A remarkable child, filled with courage, dignity and intelligence, he lived a truly tragic life, the last years of which were a veritable hell on earth. Little Louis is remembered for his pensive words, wise beyond his years, on the essence of service and of faith, for his steadfastness in the face of torment and for a boldness proper to true aristocrats of the spirit. For the most part the dauphin's years in prison, and then those of the young king, are bound up with assaults upon his mind and with attempts to fashion a sans-culotte out of a royal scion: little Louis was made to imbibe hatred of his family and of the crown, and testimony against his mother was wrung from him, the methods descending to outright vileness. He is held to have died at the age of ten from complications after the prisoner of the Temple was doused with ice-cold water. A saintly child, fallen victim to the genocide of the Jacobin dictatorship.