The heart of the Dauphin riddle

Scientists say heart is that of Marie Antoinette's son

By Stephen Jessel in Paris

One of the great mysteries of French mystery has finally be solved.

Scientists have proved that Louis XVII, son of the king guillotined during the French Revolution, died in prison and did not escape as rumours have suggested for two centuries.

Tests on a heart preserved in a French cathedral show it was that of Louis Charles, son of the executed Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

History books say the 10-year-old died two years after his father, Louis XVI, was guillotined.

Heart of the matter

His heart was taken from his body and after many adventures ended up in the Royal Chapel in the cathedral of St Denis, just outside Paris.

But for 200 years stories have circulated to the effect that the boy who died in the Paris prison was not Louis Charles but a substitute, that the heart was not his and that Louis Charles escaped and died in the Netherlands at the age of 60.

Tests were recently carried out by Belgian and German experts to compare DNA from the heart with that taken from hairs from the head of Marie Antoinette and the heads of her relatives and their descendants.

The examinations showed that, in the words of the experts, it was "more than probable" that there was a genetic link between the boy from whom the heart was taken and Marie Antoinette and her relatives.

Although the findings will be of scholarly interest to historians, for French Royalists they are important, as they prove that the French Bourbon line did indeed end with Louis XVII.

They also strengthen the claims of the head of the rival Orleans line that he is the legitimate Pretender to the throne of France.