During Marie Antoinette season 2, episode 3, Louis is fearful that his son has developed a genetic condition. What is this condition, and did this happen in real life?
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS for Marie Antoinette season 2, episode 3.
There are many reasons Louis should be fearful that his reign will end with issues. The one that he thinks about the most is that his son will no inherit the throne. What happens to his lineage then?
The episode starts with the Dauphin having his height measured, and the doctor confirms that the boy’s illness has progressed. He has lost more height, and the doctor believes that the boy has the same illness that affected Louis’s brother.
Louis shares that he remembers how his brother died in pain, with his spine constantly cracking has it failed to hold the weight of his head. So, what condition does the boy have, and does this have any basis in real life?
Louis-Joseph was a sickly child in real life
The Dauphin was a sickly child, but he was also bright. Records show that he had a curved spine, and he also suffered from regular bouts of illness and fevers. It was a concern for the people of the time, but this isn’t necessarily what killed him.
Louis-Joseph died at the age of seven from what seems to have been smallpox, which he battled on five years! It was before the executions of Marie Antoinette and Louis, but they were not allowed to see their son in his final days or go to his funeral due to royal protocol. Just 40 days later, the Bastille was stormed, and while he was buried there, his tomb was desecrated in the attack.
Is Louis’s brother’s story made up in Marie Antoinette
There is no evidence that I can find of a brother dying of some sort of genetic illness involving the spine. Louis did have an older brother who died young, but it was due to an abscess that formed after he developed a limp. He would later share that a friend pushed him over, and he didn’t say anything in fear of the friend being punished for hurting him.
He did end up being confined to his bed and was diagnosed with extra pulmonary tuberculosis of the bone. Louis did serve as his brother’s companion until his brother’s death in 1761 when he was just nine years old.
It’s easy to see how this could have been written into a story that affects Louis now. He could see his son’s illness as something similar to the illness that took his brother’s life. After all, he was the younger brother at the time, and may not have taken everything in fully, including the fall that started it all.
Marie Antoinette airs on Sundays at 10/9c on PBS.
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