Louis-Joseph, Dauphin of France



Louis-Joseph Xavier Francois, Dauphin of France (October 22 1781–June 4 1789) was the second child and first son of King Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette of Austria. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was called the Dauphin. A sweet-natured child, Louis-Joseph died at the age of seven of what was then known as "consumption" (tuberculosis). On his death the title of Dauphin passed to his younger brother Louis-Charles, Duke of Normandy (1785–1795), who would survive his father and die in prison at the age of ten.

Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, is named for him (Louis-Joseph, Dauphin of France). The Pennsylvania legislature, meeting in Philadelphia in 1785, to thank France for helping America win her independence from Great Britain, named the newly formed county, "Dauphin", northwest of Lancaster and north of York, in which Harrisburg is located.