Modeste Gruau

Modeste Gruau was a lawyer and author. He is known for support of Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, a Prussian watchmaker who claimed to be the real Louis XVII.

Biography

Gruau was born in La Chartre-sur-le-Loir.
Gruau was a French attorney who, on 22 December 1824, was appointed prosecutor in Mayenne.
Gruau became the main proponent of Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, who claimed to be Louis XVII. In October 1838, Graua was appointed coadjutor of the Catholic-Evangelical Church, a sect founded by Naundorff. Naundorff named Graua "Count of La Barre".
Between March 1839 and April 1840, Graua wrote for the periodical "The Voice of an Outlaw".
In 1845, Gruau followed Naundorff into exile in the Netherlands. After Naundorff's death in 1845, Gruau continued to support Naundorff's heirs in their claim.

Gruau as purported teenage author

The 1809 work The First Book of Napoleon by "Eliakim the Scribe" is tentatively attributed to Gruau, though Gruau would have been about fourteen years old in 1809. Eliakim is the name of multiple figures in the King James Bible. Nearly 50 years after the publication of The First Book of Napoleon, Grau published works under the pen name of "Eliakim". It remains uncertain whether Modeste Grau authored The First Book of Napoleon in his early teens or whether Grau's pen name "Eliakim" was conflated with a similar pen name of a separate author who wrote under the name "Eliakim the Scribe".