Born To Be A King

[volgadon]

The lesson in Sunday School used the following quote from Vaughan J. Featherstone.

http://lds.org/new-era/1975/11/the-kings-son?lang=eng

Many years ago I heard the story of the son of King Louis XVI of France. King Louis had been taken from his throne and imprisoned. His young son, the prince, was taken by those who dethroned the king. They thought that inasmuch as the king’s son was heir to the throne, if they could destroy him morally, he would never realize the great and grand destiny that life had bestowed upon him.

They took him to a community far away, and there they exposed the lad to every filthy and vile thing that life could offer. They exposed him to foods the richness of which would quickly make him a slave to appetite. They used vile language around him constantly. They exposed him to lewd and lusting women. They exposed him to dishonor and distrust. He was surrounded 24 hours a day by everything that could drag the soul of a man as low as one could slip. For over six months he had this treatment—but not once did the young lad buckle under pressure. Finally, after intensive temptation, they questioned him. Why had he not submitted himself to these things—why had he not partaken? These things would provide pleasure, satisfy his lusts, and were desirable; they were all his. The boy said, “I cannot do what you ask for I was born to be a king.”

This appears to be a story about Louis XVII. Personally, I think that the stories of his brutal treatment have little substance to them, but they were told, and enjoyed wide curency among opponents of the French Revolution. What I'm interested in is where Featherstone's story comes from.

I have yet to find a source apart from Featherstone's New Era article. Perhaps this says something about my google skills, so if anyone can find a source I'd love to see it.

The phrase “I was born to be a king” rings false. Louis XVII was not born to be a king. His brother Louis Joseph Xavier was the Dauphin. When he died in 1789 his brother Louis Charles became Dauphin. He was 4 at the time and died 6 years later. I find it hardly to swallow that any 18th-19th c. writer would be ignorant of the distinction.

I have read the bit about the rich foods and bad language, but the lewd women is a new one on me. Unlikely that such an unspeakably vile action of the revolutionaries (Louis was 8-10 years old) would go unmentioned by their enemies.

[mercyngrace]

I think it is supposed to be a reference to Louis XVII and I'm wondering if the story is drawn more from Hugo's poem that actual accounts. I can't find it on the internet but I believe the name is Capet, eveille-toi or something close to that. It describes the various ways he was tortured, as I recall.

[Nominee]

The last royal heir to an overthrown kingdom, son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, his is a story like that of Anastasia.

http://www.historywi...m/louisxvii.htm

edit:

Here is another link to the real known history of "The Lost Dauphin"

http://www.history1700s.com/articles/article1078.shtml

I can't find anything on the origin of the story you have quoted above. It is a popular story but also appears to be just that, a story.

Edited November 30, 2011 by Nominee

[volgadon]

Thanks, I had forgotten the poem.

http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2007/01/hugos-poem-in-honor-of-louis-xvii.html

Still nothing about born to be a king.

[volgadon]

It is a popular story but also appears to be just that, a story.

I know. What I'm trying to discover is whether or not Featherstone came up with it himself.

[ldsfaqs]

In traditional story telling and some history's, someone can be "born to be King" yet not actually of the blood line, or of another blood, or are simply righteous great leaders thus in fact are "chosen" to be King, thus in that sense ARE "born to be King".

[mercyngrace]

Thanks, I had forgotten the poem.

http://teaattrianon....louis-xvii.html

Still nothing about born to be a king.

Ahh well. It was worth a shot. Haven't read that since college (ugh - two decades ago!). I had a prof who was a goddess of European history. She could recount tales of palace intrigue as if she'd been there - she was the most entertaining instructor I've ever had - sometims she would even burst into song! Love, love, love her!

[volgadon]

Ahh well. It was worth a shot. Haven't read that since college (ugh - two decades ago!). I had a prof who was a goddess of European history. She could recount tales of palace intrigue as if she'd been there - she was the most entertaining instructor I've ever had - sometims she would even burst into song! Love, love, love her!

Those are the best.

Except for the song part, it sounds like a dear friend of mine. Having them tour me round London was a treat.

[mercyngrace]

Still having fun looking....

Found this which I thought was quite touching:

Louis-Charles, the orphaned son of a king and - to royalists - a king (Louis XVII) himself, would have been better off had his captors simply killed him. Instead, he endured unimaginable conditions in Temple prison, existing in a room above his sister.

When first imprisoned, he was a bright, good-looking child:

...his blue eyes, aquiline nose, elevated nostrils, well-defined mouth, pouting lips, chestnut hair parted in the middle and falling in thick curls on his shoulders, resembled his mother before her years of tears and torture. All the beauty of his race, by both descents, seemed to reappear in him.

(Campan,

Memoirs of Marie Antoinette

,

Supplement

to Chapter IX - scroll down 60%.)

An acquaintance of Robespierre, Antoine Simon (often called "Simon the shoemaker"), was charged with caring for the young prince.

Existing, barely, in a pest-ridden cell, the child was terrorized by his captors. Rewarding vile behavior, Simon did his best to corrupt the youngster. He called him by the surname of the Bourbon family's ancestor, Hugh Capet. Beatings were not unusual events:

On one of these occasions, when the child had fallen half stunned upon his own miserable couch, and lay there groaning and faint with pain, Simon roared out with a laugh, "Suppose you were king, Capet, what would you do to me?" The child thought of his father's dying words, and said, "I would forgive you."

[volgadon]

In traditional story telling and some history's, someone can be "born to be King" yet not actually of the blood line, or of another blood, or are simply righteous great leaders thus in fact are "chosen" to be King, thus in that sense ARE "born to be King".

Sure, there are plenty of those, but do you know of any in which the hero makes that claim himself? Do you know of any specifically involving Louis XVII?

Do you know of any in whcih the hero who wasn't meant to be king, yet as fortune would have it really was born to be king, who never actually fulfils that destiny

[mercyngrace]

Still haven't found the "born to be a king" quote in anything but what seems to be a child's historical fiction and it was related to the death of Louis Joseph rather than the Temple Prison period.

This source says (I think) that the young king was forced to sleep with prostitutes and contracted venereal diseases which, factual or not, explains the "lewd women" part of Elder Featherstone's retelling.