Louis XV

Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), also called Louis the Beloved, was France’s king from 1 September 1715 until his death. He took over from his great-grandfather Louis XIV when he was just five years old. Because he was not yet considered mature—the legal age was 13—his grand-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent until 1723. After that, Cardinal Fleury acted as chief minister from 1726 until he died in 1743, at which point Louis XV began ruling on his own.

His reign lasted nearly 59 years, making it the second-longest in French history, behind only Louis XIV’s 72-year rule. In 1748, Louis gave back the Austrian Netherlands, which France had won at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Following the disastrous Seven Years’ War, he surrendered New France in North America to Great Britain and Spain in 1763. He also added the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic to France. Most historians view his reign harshly, arguing that his incompetence and extravagance weakened the country, drained the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and hurt France’s standing abroad. A smaller group of scholars contends that he was actually popular while alive, but that revolutionary propaganda later tarnished his image. When he died, his grandson and successor Louis XVI inherited a kingdom on the verge of financial collapse and desperate for political reform, setting the stage for the French Revolution in 1789.

**Early life and the Regency (1710–1723)**

Louis XV was the great-grandson of Louis XIV and the third son of the Duke of Burgundy (1682–1712) and his wife Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, the eldest daughter of Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. Born at the Palace of Versailles on 15 February 1710, he was immediately given the title Duke of Anjou. At first, it seemed unlikely he would ever become king. Louis XIV’s eldest son and heir, the Grand Dauphin, was expected to take the throne after the old king. Next in line were the Grand Dauphin’s eldest son (Louis’s father, the Petit Dauphin) and then Louis’s older brother, also named Louis, the Duke of Brittany. But disease changed everything. On 14 April 1711, the Grand Dauphin died of smallpox. Less than a year later, on 12 February 1712, Louis’s mother died of measles, followed six days later by his father, who had refused to leave her side while she was ill. With both the Grand and Petit Dauphins gone, Louis’s older brother became the new Dauphin. Just over two weeks later, on 7 March, both brothers caught measles. Doctors treated them with bloodletting. On the night of 8–9 March, the five-year-old Dauphin died from the illness and the treatment combined. The governess of the younger Louis, Madame de Ventadour, hid the two-year-old Duke of Anjou in a palace closet and cared for him alone, forbidding the doctors to bleed him. He survived, though he was very ill. When Louis XIV finally died on 1 September 1715, the five-year-old Louis, trembling and crying, inherited the throne against all odds.

Under a royal ordinance from 1374, a regent had to govern France until a king turned 13. The regent was usually the king’s closest adult relative—often his mother or an uncle. But Louis’s mother was dead, and his only uncle was already king of Spain, so the job went to his great-uncle Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. Louis XIV had distrusted Philippe, a famous soldier whom the late king considered an atheist and libertine, privately calling him a “braggart of crimes.” Louis XIV wanted his favorite but illegitimate son, the Duke of Maine (son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan), to control the government. Because of changes Louis XIV had made to succession laws, Maine could legally become king if the legitimate line died out. In August 1714, just before his death, the king rewrote his will to limit the regent’s power. It created a Regency Council of fourteen members to govern until the new king came of age. Philippe was named president of this council, but the Duke of Maine and at least seven of his allies were also members. Decisions were to be made by majority vote, meaning Maine’s party could always outvote Philippe, effectively letting Maine rule for eight years.

Philippe saw the trap. The Parlement of Paris, an assembly of nobles where Philippe had many friends, was the only body that could annul part of the dead king’s will. Right after Louis XIV’s death, Philippe asked the Parlement to do so. In return for their support, he agreed to restore the Parlement’s *droit de remontrance*—the right to challenge a king’s decisions—which Louis XIV had abolished. This right weakened the monarchy and started a conflict between the Parlement and the king that contributed to later troubles.