This book begins in April 1770 when Archduchess Maria Antonia left her family, home, and country to travel to France. She was making her way to Versailles to be married to Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie. Naturally, being betrothed to the Dauphin meant that she would have to adapt to life in the French Court, and upon being accepted into the French Royal family, she became Marie-Antoinette.
Louis-Charles eventually acceded to the throne and became Louis XVI. There were three surviving children, Marie-Thérèse, Louis-Joseph and his younger brother Louis-Charles. One has to wonder what was going through Marie-Antoinette's mind as she travelled to France as a young teenager. Did she perhaps envisage the terrible fate that awaited her some twenty or so years later - probably not - but that journey must have been full of trepidation of one form or another.
The revolution took hold of Paris on July 14th, 1789 and then the rest of the country quickly afterwards. There had been a significant period of societal unrest in advance of the storming of the Bastille, but the changes that were coming for the country, Marie-Antoinette and her family were harrowing and are still studied, written about and debated today, some 230 years later. The Lost King of France charts the life of Louis-Charles, the boy who would have become Louis XVII and finally answer the many questions about what happened to that little boy.
I really enjoyed this piece of non-fiction on numerous levels. First, it filled some of the gaps in my knowledge of French history generally. Secondly, with the focus being the young Louis XVII, and through the author's rigorous research, it was fascinating to have a new insight into the revolutionary cause. The privations that the dwindling members of the royal family suffered and the way they were treated sometimes made the reading difficult. Ideology for the cause took precedence over common decency and humanitarianism. Something, regrettably, that we are still witnessing across our modern and supposedly much more enlightened world today. But man's capability for inhumanity to his fellow man is within us all. It's just a question of making a choice.
Thirdly, the book looks at the aftermath of the revolution and the commencement of the Napoleonic age, along with the many pretenders to the throne of France. Today, of course, with our leaps in technology and science, we can say definitively whether Louis XVII survived or died and whether the descendants of any of the pretenders to the throne have a bona fide claim or not. I found that section of the book to be as fascinating as the earlier parts.
This is a riveting piece of history, narrated in a flowing and easily readable way. Some of the subject matter is disturbing, but the 18th century was a turbulent time. A book that thoroughly deserves its five stars.
Other book reviews include France: The Dark Years France on Trial The Vanished Collection and Cursed Bread
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