ACEO, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, watercolor and gouache, September2007 Louis-Charles was the younger son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette who became Dauphin on the death of his elder brother Louis-Joseph in 1789. After his father's execution in 1793 he was taken away from his mother and sister as he was seen as a focus for Royalists who had declared him Louis XVII . He was treated cruelly, given drink and beaten. He was also possibly sexually abused. After Marie Antoinette's execution he was imprisoned in a cell with little light, the doors only opened at mealtimes, only spoken to to be abused. He was kept this way for over a year, gradually losing the will to live, his bedding infested with lice and fleas, his body covered in scabs and sores, surrounded by his own waste. Eventually a doctor was allowed to see him but it was too late and he died in 1595. He was 10. There were many rumours that the child who had died in the prison was a replacement and the real Louis had been rescued and had escaped and many impostor Louis appeared in the years after. The doctor who carried out the autopsy on the dead child had managed to steal the child's heart. In 2004 DNA testing was carried out which seemed to confirm that it was Louis who had died in the prison in that sad and terrible manner.