Charles Desnoyer (1806-1858) and Leon Beauvallet (1828-1885) were French playwrights of the mid-nineteenth century. THE KING OF ROME focuses on the Emperor Napoleon's only son, the Duke of Reichstadt, who was held a captive by his maternal grandfather, the Emperor of Austria. Fearing that he would emulate his father or be used by a Napoleonic conspiracy to capture the French throne, the Duke was kept in ignorance of his father's identity, as well as of the basic facts of recent European history; and an attempt was also made to debauch his morals, in order to discredit his name if he did escape. This play traces the attempt of a French soldier to penetrate the Austrian palace where the boy was kept, as part of a failed attempt to free him from his "prison"; and the awakening of the younger Napoleon to an awareness of his deadly family heritage. First-rate political drama by two accomplished writers

French writer Charles Desnoyer provides a striking interpretation of the life of Joan of Arc, who singlehandedly saves the French state at the cost of her own life. Joan leaves her native village over the objections of her father to see King Charles VII, who has yet to be crowned. She convinces the monarch to back her God-given visions and, with an army at her side, defeats the invading English and allows the king to be anointed as the true ruler of France. But Joan is betrayed through the treachery of French noblemen, and is condemned as a heretic by the forces of King Henry VI. She declines to recant, and is ultimately burned at the stake, thereby creating a martyr who will inspire the French forces to their ultimate victory.