Karl Wilhelm Naundorff

Karl Wilhelm Naundorff (March 27, 1785 – August 10, 1845) was a Prussian watchmaker who until his death claimed to be Prince Louis Charles or Louis XVII of France, son of Louis XVI, King of France and Marie Antoinette of Austria. Naundorff was one of the most headstrong of more than thirty men claiming to be Louis XVII.

The possibility of Louis XVII's survival has long aroused the curiosity of certain authors. In 2012, geneticist Gérard Lucotte took samples from Hugues de Bourbon, son of Charles de Bourbon and descendant of Karl-Wilhelm Naundorff. The Y-chromosome analysis of the Naundorff offspring is then compared to the Bourbon haplotype using “a Y-chromosome profile” of the royal house. In March 2014, the two researchers published the results of their analysis. According to Dr. Gérard Lucotte: "We found in Karl-Wilhelm Naundorff most of the Y-chromosome markers of the Bourbons, he is part of the family."

Biography

Prince Louis Charles, son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, was imprisoned during the French Revolution and is believed to have died in prison. However, there were various rumors that royalist sympathizers had broken the young dauphin out of the Temple prison and that he was secretly living elsewhere. Among those said to be involved in his escape are Paul Barras and Josephine de Beauharnais.

The earliest records of Karl Wilhelm Naundorff are from 1810 in Spandau, Berlin, where he received Prussian citizenship. In 1822 he had moved to live with a family in Brandenburg-on-the-Havel, where he was later charged with arson. In 1824 Naundorff was imprisoned for three years for forgery.

During the withdrawal of French troops, Spandau was bombarded. Ill, Naundorff was cared for by his governess, Lady of Sonnenfeld. Restored, he would have written to the King of Prussia, the Emperors of Austria and Russia to assert his claim to the crown of France, but he will never get a reply. After the Hundred Days episode, Naundorff wanted to go to Paris to claim his rights. Madame de Sonnenfeld being ill, she called Marassin, a French officer, and ordered him to send a letter to Maria Theresa of France, Duchess of Angoulême, surviving daughter of Louis XVI. She doesn't get an answer. Then he wrote a new letter to his "sister" and to Charles Ferdinand of Artois, Duke of Berry, his "cousin", son of Charles X, in 1818, specifying that he does not claim the throne but simply his name and title of prince. French.

In November 1818, Naundorff married a pipe merchant's orphan, Jeanne Einert (also called in French Jeanne Frédérique Einert), sixteen, who bore him nine children. The couple stayed in Spandau until 1822, then moved to Brandenburg. During a fire that affects the theater, his neighboring house burns down, he loses all his belongings: burned, drowned by water from the fire brigade, stolen. The legal advisor Voigt then accuses him of having set the fire himself. There he managed to convince many people that he was Louis XVII. The presence in Crossen of Luis-Carlos, Duke of Normandy is even announced in the Leipzig Gazette; this article is reproduced in France in le Constitutionnel de Paris, August 1831. The King of Prussia takes a dim view of Naundorff's actions and decides to arrest him. Warned, Naundorff fled, abandoning his wife and children. He went to Switzerland then to Paris, where he arrived in 1833 "without shoes, without shirt and without stockings". He soon rallied loyalist supporters who formed around him a court appearance.

There, he moved in with the brother of François Albouys, a lawyer in Cahors (the latter read the article and believed Naundorff). She meets Madame Agathe de Rambaud, the Queen's maid and attached to the dauphin, who recognizes her. She brought a small sky blue coat that belonged to the boy to test Naundorff like all the other suitors.

- "Maybe you will remember to put it on, and in what circumstances, in the Tuileries?"

- "It was not in the Tuileries, but in Versailles, for a party... and I didn't put it, I think, from the party, because it bothered me. »

This answer dispels the last doubts about Madame de Rambaud. She wrote to the Duchess of Angoulême and went to Prague, where Madame Royale lived in exile.

Other people recognize Louis XVI in Naundorff, in particular the husband of Madame de Rambaud (former usher of the chamber to Louis XVI), the Marquise de Broglio-Solari (attendant in the service of Marie Antoinette of Austria), Étienne de Joly (last minister of justice of Louis XVI) or even Brémond (former private secretary of Louis XVI). Naundorff thus formed an increasingly important entourage. Morel, one of them, became his secretary and wrote Naundorff's supposed letters to the royal family, his master's proclamations, and pseudo-memoirs. Morel leaves for Prague to meet the Duchess of Angoulême: he does not get an audience.

During his absence, Naundorff was mugged by strangers and stabbed multiple times. Morel intervened in the trial of the Baron de Richemont (Another alleged-Louis XVII), appearing before the criminal court of the Seine, giving the magistrates a letter in which Naundorff claims to be Louis XVII. Naundorff sends a letter to Luis Felipe and requests to the Chambers. So, pushed by Morel, he launched, in June 1836, a summons to claim the inheritance from Carlos X and María Teresa of France.

Until then tolerated in Paris by the government and Louis-Philippe, the prospect of a trial against the deposed king and the daughter of Louis XVI, which caused a huge scandal, we decided to arrest him. On June 15, 1836, Naundorff was imprisoned and the police confiscated the 202 documents in the file that "prove" that Naundorff was Louis XVII. He was followed by the Baroness de Générès, niece of Madame de Rambaud. Naundorff's supporters were frightened into silence.

Naundorff decided to leave the UK, "disappointed by your hospitality," in 1841. He went to Rotterdam, where he managed to sell his bomb project.

Naundorff died on August 10 in Delft, the anniversary of the fall of the French monarchy.

Predecessor: Luis XVI

Pretendant to the throne of France 1785 - 1845

Successor: Carlos X