What happened to the children of foreign monarchs after revolutions and coups

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

When you hear about how the revolution overthrows the emperor, king or tsar, one of the thoughts - what about the children? They didn't have time to do anything wrong. But society, unfortunately, was not always loyal to the descendants of monarchs.

Poo yi

The last emperor of China was one of the relatives of Empress Cixi. When she learned that her nephew, Emperor Zaitian, had organized a conspiracy against him, she returned to the imperial palace, put her nephew under arrest, and appointed his own nephew, the boy Pu Yi, as his heir. Pu Yi's father was Prince Chun, the monarch's brother. under arrest.

Pu Yi became emperor at the age of two, in 1908 - barely having time to issue a decree about this, the elderly and sick Cixi gave up her ghost. The regent under Pu Yi was his own father, the twenty-five-year-old prince Chun; naturally, in fact it was he who rules. But after three years, the revolution stripped him of this title. First, the victorious rebels reappointed Aunt Pu Yi Longyu as regent, then ordered her to sign the abdication of the throne on behalf of the boy.

However, until the eighteenth birthday, Pu Yi remained in the Forbidden Palace with the title of emperor (but without the right to rule, like a foreign monarch). At a distance from the people, he led an ordinary palace idle life, got a beloved eunuch, entertained himself with traditional games and studied. At the age of eighteen, all this was taken away from him, he became an ordinary citizen of China. He also lost the right to be in such a historical monument as the Forbidden Palace.

For some time he lived with a court on the territory of the Japanese concession, then he was put by the Japanese at the head of the puppet Manchurian state. He was considered the commander-in-chief of the Manchurian army. In 1945, at the age of thirty-nine, he was captured by Soviet troops and witnessed the prosecution at the Tokyo Trial - the trial of Japanese war criminals who committed such atrocities on the territory of Manchuria that at the trial some of the Soviet public lost consciousness from photographic evidence.

In 1950, despite Pu Yi's requests to leave him in the USSR, the deposed emperor was handed over to communist China. He spent nine years in a prison for war criminals and at the very beginning of the Great China Famine was released by special order of Mao Zedong. On the instructions of the leader of the Chinese nation, Pu Yi wrote a memoir in which he described what a worthless emperor he was and how he became an ordinary citizen. During his life, he was married five times, did not conceive a child, died at sixty-one from cancer.

Louis XVII and Maria Teresa of France

The last Louis of his family was seven years old when the revolutionaries abolished the monarchy in France. The royal family became just citizens with the surname Capet, and after a while the family of Louis was arrested and placed in the Temple. The boy's parents and his fourteen-year-old sister shared the conclusion. Soon after the arrest, the deposed king of France was beheaded. Upon learning of this, Louis's mother knelt before him and swore allegiance to him as king.

Soon after that, Louis was separated from his relatives and began to trick and threaten to get him to testify against his own mother, in particular - to confirm the accusation of her unhealthy craving for his body. In the end, the boy broke down, because from threats and offers of prostitutes (to an eight-year-old!), The jailers quickly turned to forcible drinking with strong drinks, from which the boy then suffered from vomiting and pain, deprivation of food and sleep, and outright beatings. After the trial and execution, Louis's mother was given up for education: he was supposed to become a citizen of the new world in a demonstrative manner.

At first, everything went relatively according to the plan: they bought toys for Louis, taught him to swear and blaspheme, he was dressed in ordinary clothes for a child from a family of urban artisans, and in the same way, without hesitation, the guardian and teacher beat him in a fatherly way. But then the project with education was gradually curtailed. It was decided to keep Louis alive as fit for some important exchange.

The boy was locked in a dark, unventilated cell and some bread and water were given to him. He did not have the opportunity not only to wash and wash - to ask to empty the parache on time. He did not move from weakness and fear of stepping on a rat, and his body and head were swarming with insects. Meanwhile, negotiations for the extradition of the boy were started by his relative, the Spanish king. They were crowned with success, but alas … The boy died of exhaustion and tuberculosis, and his corpse looked frankly awful - the doctor who examined him was amazed at the traces of old beatings. There was no living space on the boy.

Maria Teresa was released at about seventeen years old. What exactly she had to endure in prison will forever remain a mystery. She was exchanged for French prisoners of war and banned from ever entering France. Only when she was free did she learn about the death of her mother and brother. Maria Theresa was received by her cousin, the Austrian Emperor Franz. She later married another cousin, the Comte d'Artois in exile, and their life together ended in Great Britain.

Princess Elizabeth and Prince Henry

The daughter of the English king Charles I and the French princess Henrietta Maria at the age of seven, together with her younger brother, became a prisoner of the English parliament, which literally waged war with Charles. Ultimately, Karl was deposed and decapitated, but at first the children suffered a lot. They were constantly transported from place to place, given very meager food. They were cut off from their wardrobe (and they needed clothes of a different size over time), so in winter the children were not dressed warmly enough and were constantly freezing. Money for new clothes was given to them with a creak. In parallel, they were re-educated from Catholics to Protestants.

Elizabeth and Henry were taken prisoner when the girl became seriously ill - she was transported, ostensibly for her own good. At first, Parliament was about to completely dissolve their servants, but the girl wrote a tearful letter reminding her that the sirs had promised to take care of her. The letter somewhat embarrassed her father's political opponents, and left some servants for the children.

During the game in custody, Elizabeth fell and broke her leg, and this further worsened her situation. Now she had to spend all the time in bed until the leg healed. In fact, the princess spent many months locked up. In confinement, Elizabeth was entertained mainly by studying languages - among her teachers was the linguist Miss Makin.

At the age of ten, the position of the prince and princess improved, they were transferred to the care of the Earl and Countess of Northumberland - and they really took care of the children. Later, they were also able to reunite with their older brother Jacob, the twelve-year-old Duke of York. They spent the next two years together. Elizabeth helped her older brother escape, first convincing him to do so, and then providing women with clothes for changing clothes. She did this when she learned that the captured Father King had also fled. Alas, if she hoped that after the escapes of her brother and father there would be an early release, her life was seriously disappointed.

The king was caught again and sentenced to death. The day before, he had been allowed to see his thirteen-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son. Elizabeth was mad with grief, learning about the future. After his death, she became seriously ill due to stress. She died at fourteen. She was buried with a tombstone with only her initials.

Henry was allowed to leave the country two years later and was even given money. He found shelter with his older sister Maria, Queen of the Netherlands. As a youth, he took part in the war of the Spaniards against the English Republic, and he was spared both by bullets and sabers. But he died anyway very early, at the age of twenty - from smallpox. By the way, he was a zealous Protestant, and after the reunification in the Netherlands, his mother even tried to send him to study with the Jesuits so that they hammered Catholicism back into him - her eldest son Karl prevented her.

They did not always even try to re-educate children. The last Louis, baby False Dmitry, the Orthodox son-in-law of the French king: How children died in an adult struggle for power.