# Dauphin still dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 20, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796 "2000-04-20T18:51:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/1 "2000-04-20T18:51:00Z")
In the morning paper, there was a report that the kid who died in 1795 was really the dauphin. Apparently, some doctor had kept his heart as a souvenir and they were able to compare its DNA with some from Marie Antoinette’s hair. Cecil’s column is at [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_121.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_121.html) . ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/2 "2000-04-20T20:06:00Z")
[http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000420/t000037245.html](http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000420/t000037245.html) ## No comment. “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/3 "2000-04-20T20:40:00Z")
Here is a Los Angeles Times article discussing the results of the recent DNA testing done on the preserved (in alcohol) heart of the supposed Dauphin. [A Telltale Heart Ends a Royal Mystery in France](http://www.latimes.com/print/20000420/t000037245.html) I do disagree with one point made in the article. The article says > [@](#): > > In a decision now difficult to interpret as anything other than needlessly cruel, the Committee of Public Safety, the main instrument of anti-royalist terror, ordered that the dauphin be taken away from Marie Antoinette and kept isolated in a well-guarded tower of the Temple. Historians say there were several competing plans to free the boy–by monarchists who dreamed of a restoration, but also by republicans who wanted him as a hostage. > The cause of his death was officially given as tuberculosis, but there are widespread suspicions that at the very least, his captors let him die to extinguish the royal bloodline. Of course, I do not approve the imprisonment and death of a child, but it seems to me easy to understand why the revolutionaries would prefer a dead Louis XVII. The child, if allowed to reach adulthood, would be the focus of many plots to restore the monarchy. In the article, a historian makes a comparison to killing Mrs. Hitler. The difference is that the king was an inherited position, whereas Hitler’s chancellorship was not. So was the decision cruel? Yes. Needlessly? debatable. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2000, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/4 "2000-04-20T20:41:00Z")
Sorry, Notthemama, I swear I didn’t see your post first! You must have posted during a board “slowdown”. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/5 "2000-04-21T06:29:00Z")
why did the revolutionaries refer to the king and dauphin by the last name “Capet”? I appreciate that Hugh Capet was the founder of the line of French kings, but by the time of the revolution there had been several changes of dynasty - Valois and Bourbon, for example. So why Louis Capet? * * * Thanks for doing your bit to advance the cause of human knowledge.     – Cecil Adams ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/6 "2000-04-21T14:55:00Z")
Wow, not only did I beat **Arnold** to a link, but **he** apologized to **me** for it! What a triumph! But I can afford to be generous in victory. **Arnold,** your link is much prettier than mine, plus you added a very nice comment. Well done! 😃 ## All I could have said would have been an observation to the effect that perhaps now certain French Royalists can “obtainez une vie”. :rolleyes: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2000, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/7 "2000-04-21T15:13:00Z")
**jti** asks: > [@](#): > > why did the revolutionaries refer to the king and dauphin by the last name “Capet”? Because Louis XVI _was_ descended fom Hugh Capet by strictly male lineage (Salic Law, although the custom appears largely to have been invented to satisfy the power-hunger of Louis X’s brothers, and to keep Isabelle of France, Louis X’s sister and Edward III of England’s mother, well away from the French throne – not a bad idea _per se_). The descent is from Robert, Count of Clermont, fourth son of St. Louis (IX). The division into Capetians, Valois, and Bourbons marks (some) breaks in the direct succession, and is largely a convenience for historians. * * * “I don’t just want you to feel envy. I want you to suffer, I want you to bleed, I want you to die a little bit each day. And I want you to thank me for it.” – What “Let’s just be friends” _really_ means ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2000, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/8 "2000-04-26T22:00:00Z")
And now, another news flash just in: Gen. Franco Francissimo of Spain is still dead. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2000, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/9 "2000-04-27T08:18:00Z")
Generalissomo Francisco Franco 😃 But yes, he is still dead. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2000, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dauphin-still-dead/1796/10 "2000-04-28T00:58:00Z")
Heh, I mean **Generalissimo** :o