On 13 February 1820 the Duke of Berry, the only Bourbon prince capable of siring an heir, was assassinated. Seven months later the Duchess of Berry gave birth to a boy, the Duke of Bordeaux, and the Bourbon lineage was saved. The boy was immediately nicknamed the miracle child. The Duke’s assassination and the birth of his son gave rise to the Royalist Reaction of 1820, a ten-month period that forever altered France’s political landscape.