Louis-Charles' Schoolwork

At first, in the Temple, the family was able to be together most of the time although they didn't all sleep in one room.  They read, worked on lessons, played games, did needlework and tried to maintain a semblance of normal family life.  Sometime after Louis' execution,  Louis-Charles was taken from his mother, sister, and aunt -  beaten, neglected, taught to drink, sing revolutionary songs, curse and became so eager to please (a case of what we'd term Stockholm Syndrome today?) that he ultimately accused his mother and aunt (Louis XVI's pious sister, Elizabeth, who was confined with them at the Temple) of sexual abuse, a charge sprung on Marie Antoinette at her trial.

In her last letter, written the night before her execution, to her sister-in-law, Madame Elizabeth, Marie Antoinette wrote "…I have to speak to you of one thing which is very painful to my heart, I know how much pain the child must have caused you. Forgive him, my dear sister; think of his age, and how easy it is to make a child say whatever one wishes, especially when he does not understand it."

Marie Antoinette's Chou d'Amour, Louis-Charles, died in the Temple prison, at age ten.

I bought the portrait from an antique mall in Virginia when I was with Katherine, Mary, Micah.  Working on making our home into a shrine.  My husband is a tolerant sort.