Books
Phase
Imprisonment of Louis XVII in the Temple
1792–1795 CE
The royal family was confined in the Temple after the fall of the monarchy in August 1792. Following the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, their young son Louis-Charles remained a prisoner under increasingly isolated and harsh conditions.
Royalists recognised him as Louis XVII, making his custody a question of dynastic legitimacy as well as imprisonment. He died in the Temple in June 1795, while rumours of substitution and escape continued for decades.
El Dorado builds a fictional rescue operation around the real child prisoner. Sir Percy’s attempt to remove the Dauphin from Paris converts the unresolved royalist hopes surrounding Louis XVII into the series’ most politically consequential mission.
