Prince Louis' Heart	April 19, 2000
by Bernadette Arnaud

DNA tests have proved that Prince Louis died in Paris' Temple Prison. (Superstock) [LARGER IMAGE]

DNA tests on a 200-year-old desiccated human heart have proved that it belonged to Prince Louis, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, who was imprisoned in Paris' Temple Prison during the French Revolution. Mitochondrial DNA extracted from the mummified organ conserved in a crystal box in the royal crypt at the Cathedral of St. Denis corresponds to that of two living descendants of the queen Marie-Antoinette--Anne of Romania and her brother Andre de Bourbon-Parme, said Jean-Jacques Cassiman of the Center for Human Genetics at the University of Leuven in Belgium in a press conference in Paris today. The announcement brings to a close more than two centuries of speculation about the fate of Prince Louis; researchers have published nearly 600 books and papers on the question.

It is thought that the prince died of tuberculosis in prison in 1795 at the age of ten. Since then, however, many people have insisted that the dauphin (a title given to the eldest son of the king of France) was rescued from prison by monarchists; an imposter was said to have died in his place. In the years following the Revolution, more than 100 men claimed to be the prince. Experts on the French monarchy say that dozens still claim to be his direct descendants, although few have made their claims public.

Genetic laboratories at the University of Leuven in Belgium and the University of Münster in Germany established the identity of the heart by comparing its DNA sequence with that from strands of hair that belonged to Marie Antoinette and her sisters. These relics were recovered among other belongings donated to Austria's Klagenfurt convent. The hair was found in a rosary decorated with small gold medallions belonging to the empress Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette's mother. The medallions contained locks of hair from each of Maria Theresa's children.

Philippe-Jean Pelletan, a surgeon present at the dauphin's autopsy, is believed to have snuck the heart out of prison in a handkerchief. It was stored for years in wine vinegar before drying out. The organ eventually ended up in the hands of a printer's son, who bequeathed it to a branch of the royal family in his will. After languishing in a château for decades, it was brought to the royal crypt at the Cathedral of St. Denis.

© 2000 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/online/news/louis.html