A DNA Test Has Confirmed This Lost 19th Century Prince Wasn’t Royalty At All
At long last, scientists have debunked an ancient royal conspiracy theory regarding the identity of a boy who was thought to be a lost prince. A genetic analysis found that the youth was not of a royal background.
Kaspar Hauser, the so-called “lost prince,” was the focus of the study. On May 26, 1828, he appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the city of Nuremberg, located in the state of Bavaria in southern Germany. He was estimated to be about 16-years-old and was barely able to walk or speak.
He carried a letter from an anonymous writer. In the letter, the writer stated that he had taken custody of the boy in 1812 and kept him in isolation.
The youth could not answer the police’s questions. The only information he could provide was the name “Kaspar Hauser,” which he wrote out clearly on a piece of paper. He did not seem to know the meaning or significance of the name.
In the months that followed, Hauser was cared for by several esteemed individuals. Soon enough, his poor motor skills started to show improvement, but he remained relatively weak. He also continued to speak in a childlike manner. People began to suspect that he had been completely neglected as a child.
According to Hauser, he had lived in a small, dark dungeon without seeing another person for as long as he could remember.
He was given only bread and water, which mysteriously showed up in his cell each day. Then, a man finally appeared, took Hauser to Nuremburg, and left him there.
Many people doubted the validity of his story and believed he was a fraud. Nevertheless, Hauser became a popular figure and was featured prominently in German newspapers.
Over a year later, Hauser was found lying in a pool of his own blood in the house of Georg Friedrich Daumer, who was a poet, philosopher, and teacher.
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On Hauser’s forehead, there was a two-inch-long wound. Some said it was a murder attempt, while others claimed the wound had been self-inflicted and that Hauser was merely trying to attract public attention. Either way, he made a quick recovery.
Afterward, the king of Bavaria, Ludwig I, had Hauser guarded by police officers at all hours. This gave rise to the idea that the youth was someone of nobility or political importance.
A theory that he was an abducted prince of the Grand Duchy of Baden started to gain traction. According to the theory, the prince could be the son of the Grand Duke Carl of Baden.
It was said that Hauser was kidnapped as a newborn, and a countess had replaced him with another baby, the fatally ill son of one of her employees.
She aimed to put a different royal lineage on the throne. The baby died 18 days later and was buried as the prince, while the real prince lived on somewhere else.
In the latest study, hair samples from Hauser were tested to solve the mystery once and for all.
Traces of mitochondrial DNA were analyzed, and the results showed that it deviated from the Baden lineage. So, Hauser was not of royal origin, and the prince theory has been deemed invalid.
Hauser died five and a half years after his sudden appearance by a supposed assassination. Experts now know he was not the prince of Baden, but his real identity is still unclear.
The study was published in iScience.
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