Louis XVI, with his immediate family, makes a dash in June 1791 for the nearest friendly border, that of the Austrian-controlled Netherlands (Queen Marie-Antoinette being a sister to the Habsburg emperor, Leopold II), but in Varennes on June 21, Louis and his family are arrested by Citizen Drouet, the local postmaster, who had been alerted by a message received from nearby Sainte-Menehould.

It is said that at Sainte-Menehould, where the escaping party had spent the previous night, a merchant had alerted the town authorities of their presence after recognizing the King's face on a coin, as Louis tried to buy something from a shop.

Once more, France's king, queen, and dauphin (crown prince) return to the Tuileries in humiliating captivity.

French monarchism is checked by the death of the imprisoned dauphin, the uncrowned Louis XVII , in June 1794, and by a failed royalist landing in Brittany in support of his uncle, the Count of Provence, proclaimed Louis XVIII by the princes-in-exile.

The execution of Louis XVI in January 1793 had left his young son, Louis Charles, as the titular King, proclaimed by the princes-in-exile proclaimed as "Louis XVII of France".

The Count of Provence, brother to King Louis XVI, had then unilaterally declared himself regent for his nephew, who was too young to be head of the House of Bourbon.

In May 1795, the boy had fallen seriously ill, and a doctor, P. J. Desault, who had visited him seven months earlier, was summoned.

However, on June 1, Desault had died suddenly, not without suspicion of poison, and it was some days before doctors Philippe-Jean Pelletan and Dumangin were called.

Louis-Charles died on June 8, 1795.

The next day an autopsy was conducted by Pelletan, at which it was stated that a child apparently about ten years of age, "which the commissioners told us was the late Louis Capet's son", had died of a scrofulous infection of long standing.

During the autopsy, the physician Dr. Pelletan was shocked to see the countless scars that covered the body of Louis-Charles.

The scars were the result of the physical abuse the child suffered while imprisoned in the Temple.

His only surviving sibling is his imprisoned sister Marie-Thérèse, who is not considered a candidate for the throne because of France's traditional adherence to Salic Law.

Thus on June 16, the princes-in-exile declare the Count of Provence "King Louis XVIII".

The new king accepts their declaration soon after.

The French government announces on June 28 that the heir to the French throne has died of illness (many doubt the statement).