LOUIS XVII., CHARLES ( 1785-95). Titular King of France after the execution of Louis XVI. on January 21, 1793. Ile was horn on 2dareh 27, 1785, the second son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette. After the death of his brother, June 4, 1789, he became heir to the throne, but together with the royal family he was • imprisoned in the Temple after August 10, 1792. His fate was a most pitiful one, for he was ulti mately delivered over to a brutal shoemaker named Simon, and died from neglect and abuse on June S, 1795. Though there could be no ques tion of the death of the real Louis XVII., vari ous claimants arose, who had all some followers. There was one Hebert, who appeared in 1828, and carried on a propaganda until his death. in 1845. Then a Prussian named Naundorff and his de scendants sought, for a time after 18:30, to en force their so-called claims. About the middle of the nineteenth century many people firmly believed that the lost Dauphin had been found in America in the person of Eleazar Williams, an Episcopal clergyman and missionary to- the Indians, of which race his putative great-grandfather was.
He seems to have been convinced that he was a Bourbon, and sufficient argument: were brought forward to furnish a book in defense of his claim —Hanson, The Lost Prince (New York, 1854 ) ; but sonic of thee arguments were afterwards dis proved, and the belief lost ground. Williams died in 1858. No one has explained how the escape could possibly have been effected, and why no one appeared before 1804 to show that the Prince had not died. Consult: Chantelauze, Louis X11/., son enfance, sa prison, et so mort on 'Temple (Paris, 1895) : Mau. Geheime Geschichten unit riitseIhafte Menschen, vol. ii. (2d ed., Leipzig, 1863) ; Evans, The Story of Louis XI II. of France (London, 1893).