Louis XV

King of France (r. 1715-1774)

• Born: February 15, 1710
• Birthplace: Versailles, France
• Died: May 10, 1774
• Place of death: Versailles, France

Louis XV was a respected yet largely ineffectual leader. His reign saw the expansion of France’s arts and manufactures and the rise of the Enlightenment. The country also experienced increasing fiscal problems and was embroiled in a number of domestic conflicts and external wars. Louis’s policies helped lead to the downfall of the monarchy under his successor, Louis XVI.

Early Life

Louis (lwee) XV was a great-grandson of his predecessor, Louis XIV. His grandfather, the dauphin, died of smallpox in 1711, and his parents, the duke and duchess de Bourgogne, along with his one living elder brother, all died of measles in February and March, 1712. He thus grew up as an orphan, cared for by his governess, Madame de Ventadour. When Louis XIV died on September 1, 1715, the five-year-old Louis became king.

Louis’s first cousin twice removed, Philippe II, Duke d’Orléans, a nephew of Louis XIV, governed France as regent during the king’s minority. He moved the court back to Paris until June, 1722, when he returned it to Versailles. During this time, Louis first lived at Vincennes and then in Paris at the Tuileries. He was an intelligent, shy, and curious child who did well in his lessons and took seriously his ceremonial duties. At the age of seven, his care passed from Ventadour to a governor and tutor, André Hercule de Fleury, the bishop of Fréjus. The king’s coronation, an affirmation of his rule by divine right, was held in Reims on October 25, 1722; the Regency officially ended and his full rule began on February 16, 1723; the following week, on February 22, this was ceremonially confirmed at the Parlement (royal law court) of Paris.

Life’s Work

In 1725, after a broken engagement to a younger Spanish princess, Louis XV married Marie Leszczyńska, the daughter of Stanisław I Leszczyński, exiled king of Poland. They had eight daughters and two sons; six daughters and one son, Louis the dauphin, survived to maturity. The dauphin, who predeceased his father in 1765, was the father of the next king, Louis XVI. One of Louis’s first independent acts after the marriage was to banish the duc de Bourbon, who had assisted him in governing after the Regency, and to take on Fleury as his chief adviser in 1726. Fleury, who was created a cardinal, remained in that influential position, effectively governing France, until his death in 1743.

After Fleury’s death, Louis decided to reign alone, without a chief minister to share in the top-level decisions. He was not deeply interested in the intricacies of government, however, and left the nuts and bolts of running the country largely to his various ministers. During his reign, France became embroiled in the wars that swept Europe. These included the War of the Polish Succession, in which France supported the queen’s father in his unsuccessful attempt to win back his throne; the War of the Austrian Succession, which brought France very few gains but earned Louis his nickname of “the Beloved” when he recovered from a serious illness while fighting with his army in Lorraine in August, 1744; and the Seven Years’ War, in which France lost most of its North American colonies. The high costs of these wars ultimately contributed to the fiscal crises that were to lead to the revolution.

Under Louis XIV, who maintained a firm personal grip upon the reins of government, the power of the nobility and the parlements had been weakened. Under Louis XV, these groups began to demand more governmental power, and Louis’s reign was fraught with internal problems as the parlementarians attempted to assert more control. Their desire for greater autonomy spilled over into a religious conflict pitting the Jansenists, a Catholic sect whom they tended to support, against the Jesuits, who were supported by France’s more conservative elements. Much of Louis’s reign was marked by persecution of the Jansenists and related unrest: In 1753-1754, Louis banished the entire Parlement of Paris because of their Jansenist leanings. Less than a decade later, in 1762, under parlementarian pressure, the Jesuits were suppressed. Only nine years later, in 1771, the parlements were once more exiled. Such reversals of fortune were a hallmark of Louis’s reign and point to his and his ministers’ lack of a firm policy with regard to legislative and religious matters. France’s economy and trade generally flourished, but most of the population lived in rural poverty.

Louis’s favorite occupation was hunting, which he pursued at every opportunity in the forests surrounding his numerous palaces. He is widely viewed as a libertine and indeed had a succession of mistresses, although his amorous pursuits were often marked by love and long-standing fidelity. After a long period of faithfulness to his wife succeeded by relationships with four sisters, he took up with Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame d’Étioles, whom he created the Marquise de Pompadour. From 1745 until her death in 1764, the two were first lovers and then friends, and she exerted a great influence upon him.

Louis then took Jeanne Béçu, comtesse du Barry, as his official mistress from 1768 until his death. Despite this, he was religiously deeply faithful and was known for his modesty, being greatly aware of his sins and shortcomings. He had a true love for his children, and he truly loved his subjects as well, although his reign did little to ease their burdens. In addition to his legitimate offspring, Louis had eight illegitimate children, for all of whom he provided.

Although Louis was the victim of a failed assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens at Versailles on January 5, 1757, for most of his reign he lived up to his nickname, being “beloved” by his subjects. The attack was found to be not part of a conspiracy but the work of a single individual who was, despite Louis’s immediate forgiveness of him, brutally tortured and executed as an example against regicide. Louis XV died of smallpox in 1774.

Significance

Louis XV’s reign, reviled during the revolution and subsequently as the epitome of frivolity and despotism, marked the long, slow transition from the high point of absolutist government under Louis XIV to the downfall of the monarchy under Louis XVI. Under Louis XV, although primarily without his direct interest, France was the intellectual and cultural center of Europe: Literature, the arts, and the sciences flourished. The visual arts of the period were known for the delicacy and grace of the rococo style, also called the “Louis XV style,” which rejected the heavy formality of Louis XIV’s time and successively swept the other European courts.

Louis was responsible for the creation of the Petits Appartements, his personal, comfortable, and intimate living space at Versailles, and he was the patron of numerous other architectural projects, including the Panthéon, the Trianon, the École Militaire, and what is today the Place de la Concorde. During a time which, in addition to advances in the arts and sciences, saw the writings of Montesquieu, Denis Diderot, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Louis XV is probably best remembered as having benignly and benevolently presided over the Enlightenment, a period and movement that was to change the course of history.

Bibliography

Antoine, Michel. Le Conseil du roi sous le règne de Louis XV. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1970. A history of the organization of, and the deliberations and decisions undertaken by, the closest advisers of Louis XV during the entirety of his reign. Their competence and their relationship with the king are discussed.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Louis XV. Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard, 1989. A detailed biography of the king by the scholar most responsible for extensive studies into the governmental and administrative aspects of Louis XV’s reign. Includes a lengthy bibliography and an index.

Campbell, Peter R. Power and Politics in Old Regime France, 1720-1745. New York: Routledge, 1996. A history of the politics of the first half of Louis XV’s reign, and the ministries of the duc de Bourbon and Cardinal Fleury. The workings of the court, with its various factions, are illuminated, and the crises of Jansenism and with the Paris Parlement are newly analyzed. Substantial bibliography, appendices, and chronological table of events in the Paris Parlement.

Editors of Time-Life Books. What Life Was Like During the Age of Reason: France, AD 1660-1800. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1999. Aimed at the very general reader, but with a good, basic biography of Louis XV, many color illustrations, glossary, pronunciation guide, and bibliography.

Fantin-Desodoards, Antoine. Louis Quinze. 3 vols. Paris: F. Buisson, 1797. A three-volume study published during the revolutionary years, and thus a comprehensive near-contemporary account of Louis XV’s life. Important early account of how public opinion changed towards the monarchy during the eighteenth century. Includes extensive index.

Garrioch, David. The Making of Revolutionary Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. A synthetic account of life in eighteenth century Paris, focusing on broad social trends and controversial issues in private and public life, including much information on the impact of the policies of Louis XV’s government.

Graham, Lisa Jane. If the King Only Knew: Seditious Speech in the Reign of Louis XV. Charlottesville: University Press of Virgina, 2000. Accounts of five authors imprisoned for seditious libel between 1745 and 1771. Discusses the law, conspiracies, the growth of free speech, and the importance of public opinion during Louis’s reign.

Rogister, John. Louis XV and the Parlement of Paris, 1737-1755. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. An account of Louis’s stormy relationship with the most important French law court during the middle of his reign.