 First edition cover | |
| Author | Frances Hodgson Burnett |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Maurice L. Bower |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's novel Ruritanian romance |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (UK) Century Co. (US) |
Publication date | 1915 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 415 pp (first edition) 321 pp (1971 Puffin paperback abr. ed.) |
| ISBN | 0-8488-1253-0 |
The Lost Prince is a novel by British-American author Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in 1915.
This book, a Ruritanian romance for children, [1] is about Marco Loristan, his father, and his friend, a street urchin called "The Rat". Marco's father, Stefan, is a Samavian patriot working to overthrow the cruel dictatorship in the kingdom of Samavia. Marco and his father come to London where Marco strikes up a friendship with a crippled street urchin known as The Rat. The friendship occurs when Marco overhears The Rat shouting in military form. Marco discovers he had stumbled upon a club known as the Squad, where the boys drill under the leadership of The Rat, whose education and imagination far exceeds their own.
Stefan, realizing that two boys are less likely to be noticed, entrusts them with a secret mission to travel across Europe giving the secret sign: 'The Lamp is lighted.' Marco is to go as the Bearer of the Sign while The Rat goes as his Aide-de-Camp (so-named at his own request). The boys encounter many dangers while on this journey.
This brings about a revolution which succeeds in overthrowing the old regime and re-establishing the rightful king. When Marco and The Rat return to London, Stefan has already left for Samavia. They wait there with his father's faithful bodyguard, Lazarus, until Stefan calls. The book ends in a climactic scene as Marco realizes his father is the descendant of Ivor Fedorovitch and thus the rightful king of Samavia.
No precise location is given for Samavia in terms of real life geography. It is described as having been a small kingdom with a pastoral economy during the Middle Ages, ruled by the House of Fedorovitch. The Fedorovitch were overthrown in the early fifteenth century after a rebellion ended in the regicide of the reigning king and the disappearance of his son, Ivor Fedorovitch, the Lost Prince. During the next five centuries, two great Houses, the Iarovitch and the Maranovitch, fought for control of the kingdom in civil wars similar to the Wars of the Roses. In the 1830s a secret organisation of Fedorovitch supporters was formed. Early in the twentieth century the reigning monarch, King Michael Maranovitch, was assassinated, and civil war broke out as Nicola Iarovitch sought to gain the crown. The Secret Party instead proclaimed Stefan Loristan, descendant of the Lost Prince, king.
Charles XV or Carl was King of Sweden and Norway, there often referred to as Charles IV, from 8 July 1859 until his death in 1872. Charles was the third Swedish monarch from the House of Bernadotte. He was the first one to be born in Sweden, and the first to be raised from birth in the Lutheran faith.
The House of Bourbon is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. A branch descended from the French Bourbons came to rule Spain in the 18th century and is the current Spanish royal family. Further branches, descended from the Spanish Bourbons, held thrones in Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Today, Spain and Luxembourg have monarchs of the House of Bourbon. The royal Bourbons originated in 1272, when Robert, the youngest son of King Louis IX of France, married the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon. The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, serving as nobles under the direct Capetian and Valois kings.
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The Capetian House of Valois was a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty. They succeeded the House of Capet to the French throne, and were the royal house of France from 1328 to 1589. Junior members of the family founded cadet branches in Orléans, Anjou, Burgundy, and Alençon.
Louis XII, also known as Louis of Orléans, was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second cousin once removed and brother-in-law, Charles VIII, who died childless in 1498.
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Agnatic seniority is a patrilineal principle of inheritance where the order of succession to the throne prefers the monarch's younger brother over the monarch's own sons. A monarch's children succeed only after the males of the elder generation have all been exhausted. Agnatic seniority excludes females of the dynasty and their descendants from the succession. Contrast agnatic primogeniture, where the king's sons stand higher in succession than his brothers.
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Vukan Nemanjić was the Grand Prince of the Grand Principality of Serbia from 1202 to 1204. He was the Grand Prince of Pomorje from 1195 until his death. He was the eldest, but his father had instead chosen his younger brother Stefan as heir, as soon as his father died, he plotted against his brother, Stefan Nemanjić, and took the throne by force, in a coup assisted by the Kingdom of Hungary. He was defeated two years later, and was pardoned by his third brother, who became Saint Sava, and he continued to rule his appanage of Zeta unpunished.
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The Lost Prince public domain audiobook at LibriVox  | This article about a children's novel of the 1910s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |
