Word: naundorff
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...Carl Wilhelm Naundorff The German clockmaker and manufacturer of munitions (he dubbed them "Bourbon bombs") declared in 1833 that he was Charles Louis, son of Louis XVI, thought to have died in prison following the French Revolution. Undeterred by the fact that the dauphin's name had actually been Louis Charles, Naundorff attracted followers and even penned a royal memoir detailing his escape from captivity hidden in the coffin of a dead child...
...descendants of the Prussian clockmaker, Karl-Willhelm Naundorff, aren't prepared to do that; they have rejected the DNA analysis. After all, the claim of this pretender was supported by a former Versailles maid, who swore he was the same boy she'd seen at the palace, by some French royals, and by his tombstone, which reads HERE LIES LOUIS XVII, DUKE OF NORMANDY, KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE. May they both rest in peace...
...Bourbon Bomb. The government confiscated 202 documents he was hoarding as evidence of his claim and banished him from France. Naundorff fled to England, sired a son who was registered on the books as Prince of France, and settled down to write his memoirs. While in London the pretender was shot at three times...
Three years later Naundorff was run out of England. He settled in The Netherlands and wangled huge sums of money from the Dutch War Ministry to finance a new explosive, "the Bourbon bomb," on which he was working. In Delft in August 1845, Naundorff fell mysteriously ill. The Dutch King's personal physician attended him, but to no avail. A few days later he died. The death certificate bore the name Charles Louis de Bourbon...
Last week a company of still loyal believers who call themselves the Survivantists gathered around an open grave in a Delft cemetery to exhume the old bones which may or may not be those of an heir to the throne of France. A new examination of Naundorff's remains did nothing to dispel the mystery, but the Survivantists were not discouraged. Next year in the Vatican, on the 100th anniversary of her death, the secret will of Maria Therese, Duchess of Angouleme, is to be opened and read. Perhaps, hope the Survivantists, it will contain the final proof that...