Louis XV

Lore & Background

Louis XV was born at the Palace of Versailles on 15 February 1710, the third son of the Duke of Burgundy (1682–1712) and Marie Adélaïde of Savoy. Disease steered the line of succession forward three generations: on 14 April 1711 the Grand Dauphin died of smallpox; on 12 February 1712 his mother died of measles, followed six days later by his father; on 7 March 1712 both Louis and his elder brother contracted measles. The elder brother, age five, died from the disease and bloodletting treatment on the night of 8–9 March. The governess Madame de Ventadour saved the two-year-old Duke of Anjou by hiding him in a palace closet and forbidding doctors to bleed him. When Louis XIV died on 1 September 1715, Louis, at age five, inherited the throne. His great-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, became Regent after having Louis XIV's will annulled by the Parlement of Paris, restoring its droit de remontrance. The young king was moved from Versailles to Paris, living at the Château de Vincennes from September 1715 until January 1716, then the Tuileries Palace. In February 1717, at age seven, he was taken from Madame de Ventadour and placed under the governor François de Villeroy, who taught him court etiquette, horseback riding, and hunting. In 1717, Tsar Peter the Great greeted him by picking him up under the arms and giving him a kiss. In 1720 and 1721, Villeroy had him dance in public ballets, which terrified the shy Louis. His tutor, Abbé André-Hercule de Fleury, instructed him in Latin, Italian, history, geography, astronomy, mathematics, drawing, and cartography. Beginning in 1720, he attended meetings of the Regency Council.

Reader's Guide

Louis XV's reign saw both territorial gains and losses. In 1748, he returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Great Britain and Spain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France. Historians generally criticize his reign, maintaining that his incompetence and extravagance weakened France, depleted the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and diminished the country's reputation internationally. However, a minority of scholars argue that he was popular during his lifetime, but that his reputation was later blackened by revolutionary propaganda. His grandson and successor Louis XVI inherited a kingdom on the brink of financial disaster and gravely in need of political reform, laying the groundwork for the French Revolution of 1789. During the Regency, an economic crisis disrupted France when John Law's Banque Générale Privée, later Banque Royal, issued paper money and the Mississippi Company scheme collapsed in 1720. In 1719, France allied with Britain and the Dutch Republic against Spain, defeating it on land and sea; a Franco-Spanish treaty was signed on 27 March 1721. A proposed marriage between Louis and his cousin Mariana Victoria of Spain was arranged in 1721, but she was sent back to Spain in 1725.

Did You Know?

• Louis XV was saved from bloodletting by his governess Madame de Ventadour, who hid him in a palace closet when his elder brother died from the same treatment.
• He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at age five after a series of deaths from smallpox and measles eliminated his grandfather, father, and elder brother.
• His reign of almost 59 years (1715–1774) was the second longest in French history, exceeded only by Louis XIV's 72 years.
• In 1717, Tsar Peter the Great greeted the seven-year-old king by picking him up under the arms and giving him a kiss, contrary to protocol.
• He sponsored the first complete and accurate map of France, the Cartes de Cassini, and created departments in physics (1769) and mechanics (1773) at the Collège de France.