- PARIS (Reuters) - More than
200 years after the death of Louis XVII, son of France's Louis XVI and
Marie-Antoinette, the French culture ministry has given permission for
his heart to be buried in the royal crypt.
-
- The ministry approved the symbolic burial after geneticists
who had compared the DNA of different members of the royal family decided
in 2000 that it was indeed Louis who had died in prison in 1795.
-
- The then dauphin, or heir to the throne, was seven when
he was jailed in 1792 along with the rest of the royal family in the turbulent
period after the French Revolution, and died of tuberculosis in 1795.
-
- His parents died on the guillotine in 1793.
-
- His death was long a subject of dispute. The "lost
dauphin" legend says he was taken from prison and replaced by another
boy, and that it was the substitute who died there.
-
- Because of lingering uncertainty Louis' heart, stone-hard
and held in an urn, was later placed in the chapel near the royal crypt
of the Saint Denis Basilica, near Paris, the burial place of his parents
and other members of the royal family.
-
- "Given all the historical and scientific studies,
the ministry of culture believes there's mounting evidence that the heart
is that of Louis XVII," a ministry spokesman told Reuters Sunday.
"That has led to its approval to transfer the heart to the royal crypt."
-
- The French daily Le Figaro reported Saturday that the
ministry had approved the re-burial of the heart at the request of the
Society of the Bourbon House, which represents descendants of the royal
family. France is now a republic.
-
- The paper said the Society would hold the burial ceremony
next June 8, the anniversary of Louis' death.
-
- The ministry could not confirm the date but said the
French state would not pay for the burial.
-
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