The Lost King of France: A True Story of Revolution, Revenge, and DNA Read Online Free PDF

reported enthusiastically early in 1776 that “his body seemed to be becoming firmer.”
    The empress, however, required much more than this to seal the all-important political alliance. The following year, in April 1777, Marie-Antoinette’s brother, now the Emperor Joseph, came to visit Versailles, charged, amongst other things, with trying to ascertain why no heir was forthcoming. Joseph was enchanted with his sister, whom he described as “delightful … a little young and inclined to be rash, but with a core of honesty and virtue that deserves respect.” It would appear from Joseph’s private letters afterwards to his brother Leopold of Tuscany that during his six-week stay he did not shrink from probing the intimate details of their marriage: “In the conjugal bed, here is the secret. He [Louis] has excellent erections, inserts his organ, remains there without stirring for perhaps two minutes, and then withdraws without ever discharging and, still erect, he bids his wife goodnight. It is incomprehensible.” Joseph continued, “He ought to be whipped, to make him ejaculate, as one whips donkeys!” As for Marie-Antoinette, he wrote that she is not “amorously inclined,” and together they are “a couple of awkward duffers”!
    Joseph reproved his sister for not showing her husband more affection. “Aren’t you cold and disinterested when he caresses you or tries to speak to you?” he challenged her. “Don’t you look bored, even disgusted? If it’s true, then how can you possibly expect such a cold-blooded man to make love to you?” Marie-Antoinette evidently took his advice to heart. That summer, she was elated to tell her mother that at last she had experienced “the happiness so essential for my entire life.” The king and queen’s sexual awakening brought them closer together and, early the following year, she reported that “the king spends three or four nights a week in my bed and behaves in a way that fills me with hope.” Some weeks later, Marie-Antoinette proudly announced to her husband that she was at last expecting a baby. Louis was overjoyed.
    On December 19, 1778, Marie-Antoinette went into labor. At Versailles, a royal birth, like eating or dressing, was a public ritual, open to spectators who wished to satisfy themselves that the new baby was born to the queen. As the bells rang out, “torrents of inquisitive persons poured into the chamber,” wrote Madame Campan. The rush was “so great and tumultous” that
it was impossible to move; some courtiers were even standing on the furniture. “So motley a gathering,” protested the First Lady of the Bedchamber, “one would have thought oneself in a place of public amusement!” Finally, when the baby was born, there was no sound, and Marie-Antoinette began to panic, thinking it was stillborn. At the first cry, the queen was so elated and exhausted by the effort that she was quite overcome. “Help me, I’m dying,” she cried as she turned very pale and lost consciousness.
    The Princesse de Lamballe, horrified by the agony of her friend, also collapsed and was taken out “insensible.” The windows, which had been sealed to keep out drafts, were hurriedly broken to get more air, courtiers were thrown out, the queen was bled, hot water fetched. It took some time for the queen to regain consciousness. At this point “we were all embracing each other and shedding tears of joy,” writes Madame Campan, caught up in “transports of delight” that the queen “was restored to life.” A twenty-one-gun salute rang out to announce the birth of a daughter: Princesse Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, or Madame Royale. “Poor little girl,” the queen is reported to have said as she cradled her daughter. “You are not what was desired, but you are no less dear to me on that account. A son would have been the property of the state. You shall be mine.”
    Despite this success, there was still great pressure on Marie-Antoinette to conceive a male