Louis XVII of France

About Louis XVII of France

Louis XVII of France (1785–1795) is a figure intrinsically linked to the seismic events of the French Revolution. Though he never reigned as an adult, his historical importance stems from his status as the Dauphin and titular King of France following the execution of his father, Louis XVI, in 1793. His incredibly brief life, spent largely in prison until his death at age ten, symbolizes the radical break with the *Ancien Régime* and the brutal political turmoil of the era. This significance is reflected in the MIT Pantheon project, which ranks him at #646 in overall historical influence.

Despite this high ranking, Louis XVII suffers from a profound digital attention gap. In 2025, his Wikipedia page accumulated only 42K annualized views, creating an attention deficit 8 times greater than his historical importance suggests ($\text{-}8\times$ underattention). To put this in stark contrast, Lech Wałęsa, a politician ranked much lower at #729 importance, garners 752K views in the same year. Even Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, another politician ranked similarly at #754, receives nearly three times the attention with 110K views.

Furthermore, interest in the lost king appears to be rapidly declining in the digital sphere. His year-over-year view change shows a sharp drop of $\text{-}31.3\%$, and his recent 2025 Momentum (Q1 vs Q3) suggests an even steeper decline of $\text{-}46\%$, indicating that his memory is fading notably faster than his historical rank might imply.