Eleazar Williams
1853
Meet Eleazar Williams, a man who lived a life more mysterious than any fiction. While this 1853 portrait by Giuseppe Fagnani shows a dignified clergyman in a dark coat and crisp white cravat, Williams famously claimed to be the lost French prince Louis XVII, who was supposed to have died in a Paris prison as a child. He spent years trying to convince the French royal family of his royal blood, adding a layer of royal intrigue to this otherwise serene, oval-framed likeness. Whether he was a genuine heir or a masterful impostor remains one of history's delightful unsolved puzzles.