Who ruled before Louis XV?
Louis XV of France
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) on 15 February 1723, the kingdom was ruled by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France.
Cardinal Fleury was his chief minister from 1726 until the Cardinal's death in 1743, at which time the young king took sole control of the kingdom.
Louis XV of France
Louis had been very much in love with the Queen, and they were inseparable in the early years of his reign, but as his family grew and the Queen was constantly pregnant or exhausted by her maternities, he began to look elsewhere. He first became attached to one of the ladies of the Queen's court, Louise Julie de Mailly, who was the same age as he and from an ancient noble family. Without courtship or ceremony he made her his mistress and raised her to the rank of Duchess. The Duke of Luynes commented on the King's behavior: "The King loves women, and yet there is absolutely no gallantry in his spirit." In 1738, after the Queen lost an unborn child, her doctors forbade her to have relations with the King for a time. The King was offended by her refusal and thereafter never shared her bed. Acknowledging that he was committing adultery, Louis refused thereafter to go to confession and to take the sacrament. The Cardinal de Fleury tried to persuade him to confess and to give up his mistress, but without success.
Charles de Vintimille
Charles de Vintimille (1741-1814), "marquis du Luc", was a French aristocrat and governor. He was the illegitimate son of Pauline Félicité de Mailly and king Louis XV of France and known as "Demi-Louis" ('Little Louis') because of his visual resemblance to his biological father Louis XV.
Louis XV of France
On 5 January 1757, as the King was getting into his carriage in the courtyard of the Grand Trianon Versailles, a demented man, Robert-François Damiens, pushed through the King's guards and attacked the King, stabbing him in the side with a small knife. The King's guards seized Damien, and the King ordered them to hold him but not harm him. The King walked up the steps to his rooms at the Trianon, where he found he was bleeding seriously. He summoned his doctor and a priest, and then fainted. Louis was saved from greater harm by the thickness of the winter clothing he was wearing. When the news reached Paris, anxious crowds gathered in the streets. The Pope and the Empress of Austria and King George II, with whom France was at war, sent messages hoping for his swift recovery. Damien was tortured to see if he had accomplices, and was tried before the Parlement of Paris, which had been the most vocal critic of the King. The Parlement demonstrated its loyalty to the King by sentencing Damiens to the most severe possible penalty; On 28–29 March 1757 Damien was executed on the Place de Grève in Paris by drawing and quartering, following which his body was burned on a bonfire. The house where he was born was burned down, his father, wife and daughter were banished from France, and his brothers and sisters were required to change their name.
The King recovered physically very quickly, but the attack had a depressive effect on his spirits. One of his chief courtiers, Duford de Chervrny, wrote afterwards: "it was easy to see that when members of the court congratulated him on his recovery, he replied, 'yes, the body is going well', but touched his head and said, 'but this goes badly, and this is impossible to heal.' After the assassination attempt, the King invited his heir, the Dauphin, to attend all of the Royal Council meetings, and quietly closed down the chateau at Versailles where he had met with his short-term mistresses."
Louis XV of France
The view of many historians is that Louis was unequal to the high expectations of his subjects. Robert Harris wrote in 1987 that, "Historians have depicted this ruler as one of the weakest of the Bourbons, a do-nothing king who left affairs of state to ministers while indulging in his hobbies of hunting and womanizing." Harris added that ministers rose and fell according to his mistresses' opinions, seriously undermining the prestige of the monarchy.
History of France
Louis XIV, known as the "Sun King", reigned over France from 1643 until 1715 although his strongest period of personal rule did not begin until 1661 after the death of his Italian chief minister Cardinal Mazarin. Louis believed in the divine right of kings, which asserts that a monarch is above everyone except God, and is therefore not answerable to the will of his people, the aristocracy, or the Church. Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating a centralized state governed from Paris, sought to eliminate remnants of feudalism in France, and subjugated and weakened the aristocracy. By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchical rule in France that endured until the French Revolution. However, Louis XIV's long reign saw France involved in many wars that drained its treasury.
Louis, Count of Clermont
His eldest brother, Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, was the head of Condé family from 1710 until his death in 1740, and was Louis XV's "Premier Ministre" (prime minister) from 1723 to 1726. He raised his nephew Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé who was an orphan from 1741.
Louis, Duke of Burgundy
Louis, Duke of Burgundy and later Dauphin of France (16 August 1682 – 18 February 1712) was the eldest son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, and father of Louis XV, and briefly heir-apparent to the throne from his father's death in April 1711 to his own death 10 months later. Until he became the official Dauphin of France upon his father's death in 1711, he was known as Le Petit Dauphin to distinguish him from his father, who was known as "le Grand Dauphin". His legitimate male progeny died out in 1883.
Alexis Simon Belle
During the years 1716 to 1719, Belle received many commissions from Jacobites in exile after the unsuccessful rising of 1715. By then, the Old Pretender was himself living in Italy.
During the 1720s, Belle's work was increasingly for the French nobility. He painted the young King Louis XV, and much of his work was engraved, showing that he had by then a high status in France. He painted Louis XV's one-time fiancée Mariana Victoria of Spain, whom he later did not marry; he worked also for Jacobites in France, and as late as 1724 signed a portrait of Marie-Charlotte Sobieska (James Edward Stuart's sister-in-law) "pictor regis Britann" (painter to the king of Britain). In 1731, Belle made two copies of portraits by David of James Edward Stuart's two young sons, Prince Charles Edward Stuart and Prince Henry Benedict Stuart.
Louis XV of France
Louis declared war on England on 9 June 1756, and success seemed certain. A French fleet in the Mediterranean defeated the British at the Battle of Minorca of 1756, and captured that island. The French army greatly outnumbered the British and Prussians on the continent. The French army won the surrender of the British forces of the Duke of Comberland at Closterseven. Another French army invaded Saxony and Hanover, the ancestral home of King George II. However, the best French commander, Maurice de Saxe, had died two years after the War of the Austrian Succession, and the new French commanders, Charles, Prince of Soubise, the Duke D'Estrees and the Duke de Broglie detested each other, and were rarely willing to cooperate.
House of Bourbon
Louis XVI had become the Dauphin of France upon the death of his father Louis, the son of Louis XV, in 1765. He married Marie Antoinette of Austria, a daughter of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, in 1770. Louis intervened in the American Revolution against Britain in 1778, but he is most remembered for his role in the French Revolution. France was in financial turmoil and Louis was forced to convene the Estates-General on 5 May 1789.
Kingdom of France
On the whole, the 18th century saw growing discontent with the monarchy and the established order. Louis XV was a highly unpopular king for his sexual excesses, overall weakness, and for losing Canada to the British. A strong ruler like Louis XIV could enhance the position of the monarchy, while Louis XV weakened it. The writings of the philosophes such as Voltaire were a clear sign of discontent, but the king chose to ignore them. He died of smallpox in 1774, and the French people shed few tears at his passing. While France had not yet experienced the Industrial Revolution that was beginning in Britain, the rising middle class of the cities felt increasingly frustrated with a system and rulers that seemed silly, frivolous, aloof, and antiquated, even if true feudalism no longer existed in France.
Upon Louis XV's death, his grandson Louis XVI became king. Initially popular, he too came to be widely detested by the 1780s. He was married to an Austrian archduchess, Marie Antoinette. French intervention in the American War of Independence was also very expensive.
Louis XV of France
On 29 October 1740, a courier brought the news to the King, who was hunting in Fontainebleau, that the Emperor Charles VI was dead, and his daughter Maria Theresa was set to succeed him. After two days of reflection, Louis declared, "In these circumstances, I don't want to get involved at all. I will remain with my hands in my pockets, unless of course they want to elect a protestant emperor." This attitude did not please France's allies, who saw an opportunity to take parts of the Habsburg empire, or Louis's generals, who for a century had won glory fighting Austria. The King of Prussia had died on 31 May and was succeeded by his son Frederick the Great, a military genius with ambitions to expand Prussia's borders. The elector of Bavaria, supported by Frederick, challenged the succession of Maria Theresa, and on 17 December 1740 Frederick invaded the Austrian province of Silesia. The elderly Cardinal Fleury had too little energy left to oppose this war.
Louis XV of France
French culture and influence were at their height in the first half of the eighteenth century, but most scholars agree that Louis XV's decisions damaged the power of France, weakened the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and made it more vulnerable to distrust and destruction. Scholars point to the French Revolution, which broke out 15 years after his death. Norman Davies characterized Louis XV's reign as "one of debilitating stagnation", characterized by lost wars, endless clashes between the Court and Parlement, and religious feuds. Jerome Blum described him as "a perpetual adolescent called to do a man's job."
War of the Quadruple Alliance
In France, Louis XIV died in 1715 leaving only one infant great-grandchild, Louis XV, as his successor, while Philip V, the only surviving grandchild of Louis XIV, and his sons were excluded from succession to the crown of France by the Treaty of Utrecht.
Louis XV of France
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, better known as Madame de Pompadour, was the most famous and influential of the mistresses of Louis XV. She was the illegitimate daughter of a Paris "fernier-general", and was married to a banker, Charles Guillaume Lenormant d'Étoiles. She was noticed by the King following one of his hunts, and formally met him at a costume ball celebrating carnival in 1745. By July, she was the King's mistress and was formally given the title of the Marquise de Pompadour. For the next twenty years she was the King's confidante and advisor, helping him choose or demote ministers. Her opinions led to the downfall of some very competent ministers, including Machault d'Aurnouville and the Marquis d'Argenson, and to the promotion of a number of incompetent military commanders. Her most successful choice was the promotion of The Duke de Choiseul, who became one of the King's most effective ministers. She ceased to be the King's mistress in 1750 but remained his closest advisor. She was promoted to Duchess in 1752, and Dame of the Queen's Palace in 1756, and was an important patron of music and the arts, as well as religious establishments. She remained close to the King until her death in 1764. He was devastated and remained in seclusion for several weeks after she died.
Louis XV of France
The financial strain imposed by the wars and excesses of the royal court, and the consequent dissatisfaction with the monarchy, contributed to the national unrest that culminated in the French Revolution of 1789. The historian Colin Jones argued in 2011 that Louis XV left France with serious financial difficulties: "The military disasters of the Seven Years' War led to acute state financial crisis.". Ultimately, he wrote, Louis XV failed to overcome these fiscal problems, mainly because he was incapable of pulling together conflicting parties and interests in his entourage. Although aware of the forces of anti-monarchism threatening his family's rule, he did not do anything to stop them.
Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV)
Louis and Maria Teresa Rafaela were well-matched and had a real affection for each other. They had one daughter, Princess Marie Thérèse of France (19 July 1746 – 27 April 1748). Three days after the birth of their daughter, Louis's wife, Maria Teresa Rafaela, died on 22 July 1746. Louis was only 16 years old. He grieved intensely at the loss of his wife, but his responsibility to provide for the succession to the French crown required he marry again quickly.
André-Hercule de Fleury
In May 1715, a few months before the Sun-King's death, Fleury became tutor to Louis' great-grandson and heir, and in spite of a seeming lack of ambition, he acquired an influence over the child that was never broken, fostered by Louis' love and confidence. On the death of the regent Philippe d'Orléans in 1723, Louis XV came of age. Fleury, although already seventy years of age, deferred his own supremacy by suggesting the appointment of Louis Henri, duke of Bourbon, as first minister. Fleury was present at all interviews between Louis XV and his titular first minister, and on Bourbon's attempt to break through this rule Fleury retired from court. Louis made Bourbon recall the tutor, who on 11 July 1726 took affairs into his own hands and secured the exile from court of Bourbon and of his mistress Madame de Prie. He continued to refuse the formal title of first minister, but his elevation to cardinal, in 1726, confirmed his precedence over any others.
Louis XII of France
Louis XII (27 June 1462 – 1 January 1515) was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his cousin Charles VIII, who died without a closer heir in 1498. Louis was the eighth French king from the House of Valois, and the first from the Orléans branch of that dynasty.
Crown of Louis XV of France
The Crown of Louis XV is the sole surviving crown from the French "ancien regime" among the French Crown Jewels.
Louis XV of France
The end of 1765 brought another personal tragedy; his son and heir Louis contracted tuberculosis. He travelled with the King to the Palace of Fontainebleau. The King distracted himself by secluding himself with the astronomer César-François Cassini de Thury and making astronomic calculations, while the doctors tried, without success, to treat his son. The Dauphin died on 20 December 1765. The succession was assured, since the Dauphin had a son, the future Louis XVI, who was of age to rule, but the death put him into a deep depression. He drafted his own will, writing: "If I made errors, it was not from a lack of will, but from a lack of talents, and for not having been supported as I wished to have been, particularly in matters of religion."
Kingdom of France
The reign (1715–74) of Louis XV saw an initial return to peace and prosperity under the regency (1715–23) of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, whose policies were largely continued (1726–1743) by Cardinal Fleury, prime minister in all but name. The exhaustion of Europe after two major wars resulted in a long period of peace, only interrupted by minor conflicts like the War of the Polish Succession from 1733–35. Large-scale warfare resumed with the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48). But alliance with the traditional Habsburg enemy (the "Diplomatic Revolution" of 1756) against the rising power of Britain and Prussia led to costly failure in the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and the loss of France's North American colonies.
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
In 1696, Philippe's granddaughter Maria Adelaide came to the French court from Italy for her marriage to Louis, Duke of Burgundy, who was third in line to the throne. The two were married in 1697 and became the parents of Louis XV.
Louis XV of France
Many historians agreed that in terms of culture and art, France reached a high point under Louis XV. However, he was blamed for the many diplomatic, military and economic reverses. His reign was marked by ministerial instability, while his "prestige was ruined by military failure and colonial losses", concluded Jean-Denis Lepage.
Kingdom of France
When a Seventh European Coalition deposed Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Bourbon monarchy was once again restored. 
The Count of Provence, brother of the Louis XVI, who was guillotined in 1793, was crowned as Louis XVIII, nicknamed "The Desired". Louis XVIII tried to conciliate the legacies of the Revolution and Ancien Régime both, also permitting the formation of a Parliament and constitutional Charter, usually ""Charte octroyée"" ("Granted Charter"). His reign was characterized by disagreements between the Doctrinaires, liberal thinkers who supported the Charter and rising bourgeoisie, and the Ultra-royalists, aristocrats and clergymen who totally refused the Revolution's heritage. However, the peace was granted by and statesmen like Talleyrand and the Duke of Richelieu, as well as King's moderation and prudent intervention. In 1823, the liberal agitations in Spain brought to a French intervention on the royalist's side, who permitted to King Ferdinand VII to reject the Constitution.
Louis X of France
Louis X (4 October 1289 – 5 June 1316), called the Quarreler, the Headstrong, or the Stubborn (), was King of France from 1314 until his death (the twelfth from the House of Capet), succeeding his father Philip IV. After the death of his mother, Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Louis I () from 1305 until his death in 1316.
Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine
In 1715, Louis XIV died aged 77 at the Palace of Versailles. In his will, he divided the regnal prerogatives among relatives and courtiers, allocating to his legitimised son, the Duke of Maine, guardianship of the new king, Louis XV, who was 5 years old. The Parlement of Paris overturned the will's provisions at the request of Elisabeth Charlotte's son, Philippe II, who thus became regent. In her memoirs, Elisabeth Charlotte describes the new era of the Regency. Although no longer outranked by any woman at court and freed from the imagined persecutions of Madame de Maintenon, she did not cease daily complaints to her correspondents about the antics of what she regarded as an increasingly decadent court, about which she wrote:I believe that the histories that will be written about this court after we are gone will be better and more entertaining than any novel, and I am afraid that those who come after us will not be able to believe them and think they are just fairy tales.
Versailles, Yvelines
From May 1682, when Louis XIV moved the court and government permanently to Versailles, until his death in September 1715, Versailles was the unofficial capital of the kingdom of France. For the next seven years, during the "Régence" of Philippe d'Orléans, the royal court of the young King Louis XV was the first in Paris, while the Regent governed from his Parisian residence, the Palais-Royal. Versailles was again the unofficial capital of France from June 1722, when Louis XV returned to Versailles, until October 1789, when a Parisian mob forced Louis XVI and the royal family to move to Paris. Versailles again became the unofficial capital of France from March 1871, when Adolphe Thiers' government took refuge in Versailles, fleeing the insurrection of the Paris Commune, until November 1879, when the newly elected government and parliament returned to Paris. During the various periods when government affairs were conducted from Versailles, Paris remained the official capital of France.
Louis, Duke of Orléans (1703–1752)
His son, Louis Philippe would liked to have married Madame Henriette, the second daughter of Louis XV, but Louis XV refused. The king did not want the House of Orléans to be as powerful as it had been during the regency of Orléans' father. In 1737 he, along with his aunt the Dowager Duchess of Bourbon, were asked to be godparents of the kings son, Louis de France, Dauphin of France (1729–1765).
Louis, Duke of Orléans (1703–1752)
Upon the death of his father on 2 December 1723, the twenty-year-old Louis assumed the hereditary title of Duke of Orléans and became the head of the House of Orléans. He also became the next in line to the throne of France until the birth of Louis XV's first-born son in 1729. This was because King Philip V of Spain, the second son of the Grand Dauphin and uncle of the young king, had renounced his rights to the French throne for himself, and his descendants, upon his accession to the throne of Spain in 1700. Although the Regent had hoped that his son would assume as prominent a role in government as he had, the post of prime minister went to Louis' older cousin, Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, when the Regent died. Constantly trying to consolidate and maintain his power at court, the Duke of Bourbon was always suspicious of Louis' motivations and was frequently opposed to him.
Louis de Pardaillan de Gondrin (1688–1712)
At the time of her first marriage, Marie Victoire, Marquise of Gondrin, was a "dame du palais" to the king's granddaughter-in-law, the Duchess of Burgundy ("duchesse de Bourgogne"), future Dauphine of France and mother of King Louis XV.
Dévots
Though Louis XIV established an absolute monarchy, the "dévots" remained active almost until the French Revolution, being very influential with two heirs to the French throne, Louis, duc de Bourgogne, grandson of Louis XIV, and Louis, Dauphin of France, son of Louis XV, both of whom died early and never reigned.
Louis, Duke of Brittany (1707–1712)
Due to the deaths of his grandfather in 1711 and his father in 1712, he was heir apparent to his great-grandfather as Dauphin of France for three weeks in 1712. Like his parents, he too died of measles and was buried in the Basilica of St Denis. His younger brother became the Dauphin and eventually succeeded as King Louis XV in 1715.
Louis Quinze
The dominant subjects of painting in the early reign of Louis XV were mythology and history, the same as those of Louis XIV. Later in the reign, when Louis began to construct new apartments within the palaces of Versailles and Fontanebleau, his tastes turned more to pastoral scenes and genre painting. Madame de Pompadour, the king's mistress, was also one of the major patrons of the artists of the period.
Louis XV furniture
The earliest furniture designers under Louis XV during the Regency included Claude III Audran, who had been responsible for furniture design under Louis XIV; Pierre Lepautre, who in 1699 became chief designer for Louis XIV, and Gilles-Marie Oppenordt, born in Holland, who became the furniture designer for the Regent. Opponordt's designs in 1714 for the decor of the Hotel de Pomponne on Place des Victoires, featuring curving S and C forms, helped introduce the new style to Parisians. Another important figure in introducing the new style was the painter Watteau, a former pupil of Audran, who, besides his famous paintings, made arabesque designs for the woodwork of the new chateau of La Muette. "
Jean-Antoine de Mesmes (1640–1709)
D'Avaux's diplomatic career was entirely in the service of Louis XIV, who ruled France from the death of Mazarin in 1661 to 1715.
Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon
In September 1715, Philippe d'Orléans, who had just become regent for the 5-year-old king Louis XV, appointed the then 23-year-old duc de Bourbon to his first Regency Council, the highest consultative body in the French government during the king's minority, equivalent to the "Conseil d'en-haut"), appointed by adult kings.
Louise-Jeanne Tiercelin de La Colleterie
Louise-Jeanne Tiercelin de La Colleterie (1746-1779), was a French noblewoman, mistress to Louis XV of France from 1762 to 1765. They had a son Benoît-Louis Le Duc (1764-1837). She reportedly amused the king with her frank ways. In contrast to most other mistresses of the king, she was not married afterwards, but lived as guest in a convent, and became known for her adventurous life style.
Bourbon claim to the Spanish throne
Philip of France, Duke of Anjou, was the second son of Louis, "le Grand Dauphin" and Maria Anna of Bavaria, known as "Dauphine Victoire", a younger brother of Louis, Duke of Burgundy and an uncle of Louis XV of France.
Philip was born at the Palace of Versailles in France. His older brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, was in line to the throne right after his father, "Le Grand Dauphin", thus leaving him and his younger brother, Charles, Duke of Berry little expectation to ever rule over France. However, his fortune (and that of his grandfather Louis XIV) started looking up when the degenerate last monarch of Spain, Charles II, fell ill. Both of Charles's marriages had failed to produce any offspring.
Charles II married Marie Louise of Orléans (1662–1689), eldest daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the only sibling of Louis XIV, and his first wife Princess Henrietta of England. It is likely that Charles was impotent, and no children were born. Marie Louise became deeply depressed and died at 26, ten years after their marriage, leaving 28-year-old Charles heartbroken. Still in desperate need of a male heir, the next year he married the 23-year-old Palatine princess Maria Anna of Neuburg, a daughter of Philip William, Elector of the Palatinate, and sister-in-law of his uncle Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. However, this marriage was no more successful than the first in producing the much-desired heir.
Persecution of Huguenots under Louis XV
The persecution of Huguenots under Louis XV refers to hostile activities against French Protestants between 1715 and 1774 during the reign of Louis XV.
House of Bourbon
Initially, most of the other powers were willing to accept Anjou's reign as Philip V, but Louis's mishandling of their concerns soon drove the English, Dutch and other powers to join the Austrians in a coalition against France. The War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 and raged for 12 years. In the end Louis's grandson was recognized as king of Spain, but he was obliged to agree to the forfeiture of succession rights in France, the Spanish Habsburgs' other European territories were largely ceded to Austria, and France was nearly bankrupted by the cost of the struggle. Louis died on 1 September 1715 ending his seventy-two-year reign, the longest in European history.
The reign of Louis XIV was so long that he outlived both his son and eldest grandson. He was succeeded by his great-grandson Louis XV. Louis XV was born on 15 February 1710 and was thus aged only five at his ascension, the third Louis in a row to become king of France before the age of thirteen (Louis XIII became king at 9, Louis XIV at almost 5 and himself at 5). Initially, the regency was held by Philip, Duke of Orléans, Louis XIV's nephew, as nearest adult male to the throne. This "Regence" was seen as a period of greater individual expression, manifested in secular, artistic, literary and colonial activity, in contrast to the austere latter years of Louis XIV's reign.
Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV)
Kept away from government affairs by his father, Louis was at the center of the "Dévots", a group of religiously-minded men who hoped to gain power when he succeeded to the throne.
Louis XV of France
After Fleury's death in January 1743, his war minister, the Duke of Noailles, showed the King a letter that Louis XIV had written to his grandson, Philip V of Spain; it counseled: "Don't allow yourself to be governed; be the master. Never have a favorite or a prime minister. Listen, consult your Council, but decide yourself. God, who made you King, will give you all the guidance you need, as long as you have good intentions." Louis followed this advice and decided to govern without a prime minister. Two of his ministers took the most prominent positions in his government; the finance minister, Jean Baptiste de Machault D'Arnouville, and the minister of the armies, Comte d'Argenson.
History of Paris
Louis XIV died on 1 September 1715. His nephew, Philippe d’Orléans, the regent for the five-year-old King Louis XV, moved the royal residence and government back to Paris, where it remained for seven years. The king lived in the Tuileries Palace, while the regent lived in his family's luxurious Parisian residence, the Palais-Royal (the former Palais-Cardinal of Cardinal Richelieu). The regent devoted his attention to theater, opera, costume balls, and the courtesans of Paris. He made one important contribution to Paris intellectual life. In 1719, he moved the Royal library to the Hôtel de Nevers near the Palais-Royal, where it eventually became part of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France). On 15 June 1722, distrustful of the turbulence in Paris, the regent moved the court back to Versailles; afterwards, Louis XV visited the city only on special occasions.
One of the major building projects in Paris of Louis XV and his successor, Louis XVI, was the new church of Sainte Geneviève on top of the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève on the Left Bank, the future Panthéon. The plans were approved by the king in 1757 and work continued until the French Revolution. Louis XV also built an elegant new military school, the École Militaire (1773), a new medical school, the École de Chirurgie (1775), and a new mint, the Hôtel des Monnaies (1768), all on the Left Bank.
Louis XI of France
Louis developed his kingdom by encouraging trade fairs and the building and maintenance of roads. Louis XI pursued the organization of the kingdom of France with the assistance of bourgeois officials. In some respects, Louis XI perfected the framework of the modern French Government which was to last until the French Revolution. Thus, Louis XI is one of the first modern kings of France who helped take it out of the Middle Ages.
Victoire of France (1733–1799)
Marie Louise Thérèse Victoire de France was born at the Palace of Versailles. Unlike the older children of Louis XV, Madame Victoire was not raised at the Palace of Versailles. Rather, she was, in June 1738, sent to live at the Abbey of Fontevraud with her younger sisters, because the cost of raising them in Versailles with all the status they were entitled to was deemed too expensive by Cardinal Fleury, Louis XV's chief minister. She remained there till 1748 when she was 15.
Marie Antoinette
Upon the death of Louis XV on 10 May 1774, the Dauphin ascended the throne as King Louis XVI of France and Navarre with Marie Antoinette as his Queen. At the outset, the new queen had limited political influence with her husband, who, with the support of his two most important ministers, Chief Minister Maurepas and Foreign Minister Vergennes, blocked several of her candidates from assuming important positions, including Choiseul. The queen did play a decisive role in the disgrace and exile of the most powerful of Louis XV's ministers, the Duke of Aiguillon.
Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV)
Louis died of tuberculosis at Fontainebleau in 1765 at the age of 36, while his father was still alive, so he never became king of France. His mother, Queen Marie Leszczyńska, and his maternal grandfather, the former king of Poland, Stanisław I Leszczyński, Duke of Lorraine, also survived him. His eldest surviving son, Louis-Auguste, duc de Berry, became the new dauphin, ascending the throne as Louis XVI at the death of Louis XV, in May 1774.
List of historical opera characters
King Louis XV of France
Crown of Louis XV of France
All of France's about 20 crowns of the Ancient Regime, kept in the Basilica of Saint-Denis, including the one of Saint Louis and the one said of Charlemagne, were destroyed in 1793 during the French revolution. The crown of Louis XV was the only one to survive and counts, with those of the 19th century, among the only six remaining French crowns.
Louis XV of France
The foreign affairs post had been left vacant by Choiseul, who acted as his own foreign minister. Following the dismissal of Choiseul, the King encouraged his cousin and ally Charles III of Spain to settle the crisis over the Falkland Islands with the aim of avoiding a war. Due to Choiseul's sole focus on a war with Britain, he had completely ignored the rest of Europe. France did not even have an ambassador in Vienna, and Russia and Prussia divided up an old French ally, Poland, without protest from France. Another ally of France, Sweden, also risked being divided between Russia and Prussia upon the death of its King in 1771. The Prince Royal, Gustav III of Sweden, was staying in Paris at the time. He had a long meeting with Louis XV, who promised to support him. With French funding, and assistance from Louis's personal secret intelligence service, the "Secret de Roi", Gustave III returned to Stockholm. On 19 August 1772, at his command, the Swedish royal guard imprisoned the Swedish Senate, and two days later he was proclaimed King by the Diet. Russia and Prussia, occupied with the division of Poland, protested but did not intervene.
Marie Adélaïde of Savoy
Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, Princess of Savoy (6 December 1685 – 12 February 1712) was the wife of Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy. She was the eldest daughter of Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and of Anne Marie d'Orléans. Her betrothal to the Duke of Burgundy in June 1696 was part of the Treaty of Turin, signed on 29 August 1696. She was the mother of the future King Louis XV of France. Styled as Duchess of Burgundy after her marriage, she became Dauphine of France upon the death of her father-in-law, Le Grand Dauphin, in 1711. She died of measles in 1712, followed by her husband a week later.
Palais-Royal
At the death of Louis XIV in 1715, his five-year-old great-grandson succeeded him. The Duke of Orléans became Regent for the young Louis XV, setting up the country's government at the Palais-Royal, while the young king lived at the nearby Tuileries Palace. The Palais-Royal housed the magnificent Orléans art collection of some 500 paintings, which was arranged for public viewing until it was sold abroad in 1791.
Adélaïde of France (1732–1800)
From April 1774, Madame Adélaïde and her sisters attended to their father Louis XV on his deathbed until his death from smallpox on 10 May. Despite the fact that the sisters never had the disease and the male members of the royal family, as well as the Dauphine, were kept away because of the high risk of catching the illness, the "Mesdames" were allowed to attend to him until his death, being female and therefore of no political importance because of the Salic Law even if they died. After the death of Louis XV, he was succeeded by his grandson Louis Auguste as Louis XVI, who referred to his aunts as "Mesdames Tantes".
Early modern period
For much of the reign of Louis XIV, who was known as the "Sun King" (French: "le Roi Soleil"), France stood as the leading power in Europe, engaging in three major wars—the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession—and two minor conflicts—the War of Devolution, and the War of the Reunions. Louis believed in the Divine Right of Kings, the theory that the King was crowned by God and accountable to him alone. Consequently, he has long been considered the archetypal absolute monarch. Louis XIV continued the work of his predecessor to create a centralized state, governed from the capital to sweep away the remnants of feudalism that persisted in parts of France. He succeeded in breaking the power of the provincial nobility, much of which had risen in revolt during his minority called the Fronde, and forced many leading nobles to live with him in his lavish Palace of Versailles.
History of the Palace of Versailles
Towards the end of his reign, Louis XV, under the advice of Ange-Jacques Gabriel, began to remodel the courtyard façades of the palace. With the objective revetting the entrance of the palace with classical façades, Louis XV began a project that was continued during the reign of Louis XVI, but which did not see completion until the 20th century.
Petit appartement du roi
The petit appartement du roi () of the Palace of Versailles is a suite of rooms used by Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. Located on the first floor of the palace, the rooms are found in the oldest part of the palace dating from the reign of Louis XIII. Under Louis XIV, these rooms housed the king’s collections of artworks and books, forming a museum of sorts. Under Louis XV and Louis XVI, the rooms were modified to accommodate private living quarters. At this time, the rooms were transformed and their decoration represent some of the finest extant examples of the "style Louis XV" and "style Louis XVI" at Versailles (Kimball, 1943).
Ancien Régime
The quarter century after the Treaty of Utrecht was a peaceful, with no major wars, and only a few secondary military episodes of minor importance. The main powers had exhausted themselves in warfare, with many deaths, disabled veterans, ruined navies, high pension costs, heavy loans and high taxes. In 1683 indirect taxes had brought in 118,000,000 livres; by 1714 they had plunged to only 46,000,000. Louis XIV, with his eagerness for warfare, was gone, replaced by a small sickly child who was the last Bourbon survivor, and his death had the potential to throw France into another round of warfare. He was Louis XV and he lived until the 1770s. France's main foreign policy decision-maker was Cardinal Fleury. He recognized that France needed to rebuild, so he pursued a peace policy. France had a poorly designed taxation system, whereby tax farmers kept much of the money, and the treasury was always short. The banking system in Paris was undeveloped, and the treasury was forced to borrow at very high interest rates. London's financial system proved strikingly competent in funding not only the English forces, but its allies as well. Queen Anne was dead, and her re-successor King George I was a Hanoverian who moved his court to London, but never learned English and surrounded himself with German advisors. They spent much of their time and most of their attention on Hanoverian affairs. He too was threatened by instability of the throne, for the Stuart pretenders, long supported by King Louis XIV, threatened repeatedly to invade through Ireland or Scotland, and had significant internal support from the Tory faction. However Sir Robert Walpole was the dominant decision-maker, 1722-1740, although the role was not yet called prime minister. Walpole strongly rejected militaristic options, and promoted a peace program. He and Cardinal Fleury agreed, and signed an alliance. The Netherlands was much reduced in power, and followed along with England. In Vienna, Austria (formally the Holy Roman Empire) the Habsburg emperors were bickering with the new Bourbon King of Spain, Philip V, over Habsburg control of most of Italy. Relations with France therefore were undramatic.
Rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin
The frequent stays of Louis XV in Paris led to the building of splendid homes such as that of Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin, the Duke of Antin (1665–1736). Son of the marquise de Montespan, the duke was the superintendent of the Bâtiments du Roi, or buildings of the king. His residence faced this street and his name became associated with it as early as 1712.
Précis du siècle de Louis XV
Précis du siècle de Louis XV ("Short history of the Age of Louis XV") is a historical work by the French philosopher and author Voltaire, first published in its own right 1768. Celebrating the progress of Enlightenment ideas and the retreat of prejudice, it comments on cultural, economic and technological progress made in France during the reign of Louis XV of France.
Parlement
After 1715, during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, the parlements repeatedly challenged the crown for control over policy, especially regarding taxes and religion. The Parlement had the duty to record all royal edicts and laws. Some, especially the Parlement of Paris, gradually acquired the habit of refusing to register legislation with which they disagreed until the king held a "lit de justice" or sent a "lettre de jussion" to force them to act. Furthermore, the parlements could pass "arrêts de réglement", which were laws that applied within their jurisdiction. In the years immediately before the start of the French Revolution in 1789, their extreme concern to preserve "Ancien Régime" institutions of noble privilege prevented France from carrying out many simple reforms, especially in the area of taxation, even when those reforms had the support of the king.
Louis XV furniture
The style had three distinct periods. During the early years (1715-1730), called the Regency, when the King was too young to rule, furniture followed the massive, geometric Style Louis XIV style. From 1730 until about 1750, the period known as the first style, it was much more asymmetrical, ornate and exuberant, in the fashion called "rocaille". From about 1750 to the King's death in 1774, a reaction set in against the excesses of the rocaille. The Second Style of Louis XV showed the influences of neo-classicism, based on recent archeological discoveries in Italy and Greece. it featured Roman and Greek motifs. The later furniture false eatured decorative elements of Chinoiserie and other exotic styles.
Sophie of France (1734–1782)
From April 1774, Madame Sophie and her sisters attended to the their father Louis XV on his deathbed until his death from smallpox on 10 May. Despite the fact that the sisters never had smallpox, and the male members of the royal family, as well as the crown princess, was kept away because of the high risk of catching the illness, the "Mesdames" were allowed to attend to him until his death, being female and therefore of no political importance because of the Salic Law. After the death of Louis XV, he was succeeded by his grandson Louis Auguste as Louis XVI, who referred to his aunts as "Mesdames Tantes". The sisters were in fact infected by their father and fell ill with smallpox (which they however recovered from), and were kept in quarantine on a little house near the Palace of Choisy, to which the court evacuated after the death of the king until recovery.
Tories (British political party)
James Butler, Louis XV's Master of Horse, toured England ostensibly for purchasing bloodstock but in reality to gauge the health of Jacobitism in England, visiting leading Tories. Before he left for England. the French king briefed him personally to assure Tory leaders that all of their demands would be met. In November 1743 Amelot told Sempill officially that Louis XV was resolved to restore the House of Stuart and that he was planning a French invasion headed by the Pretender's son, Charles Edward Stuart. The "Declaration of King James" (written by Tory leaders) was signed by the Pretender on 23 December. This was to be published in the event of a successful French landing. However, the Whig government was informed by a spy of the intended French invasion and King George told Parliament on 15 February 1744 that a French invasion was planned, assisted by "disaffected persons from this country". The House of Commons passed a loyal address by 287 to 123. The Tories' insistence for the House to divide on this occasion seemed to the government a design by the Tories "to show the French what numbers in the House they might depend on". The Tories also opposed increasing the armed forces, it being noted "that none of the leaders amongst the Tories, either on this occasion or that of the King's first message, showed the least sign of zeal or affection to the Government".
Hyacinthe Rigaud
He was one of the most important portrait painters during the reign of King Louis XIV. His instinct for impressive poses and grand presentations precisely suited the tastes of the royal personages, ambassadors, clerics, courtiers, and financiers who sat for him. Rigaud owes his celebrity to the faithful support he received from the four generations of Bourbons whose portraits he painted; namely King Louis XIV, next his son Louis, Grand Dauphin, then the King's grandson (the Grand Dauphin's son) Louis, Duke of Burgundy (also called the Petit Dauphin), and finally the Grand Dauphin's grandson (the Petit Dauphin's son), who became the next king—Louis XV, who succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV in 1715. He garnered the core of his clientele among the richest circles as well as among the bourgeois, financiers, nobles, industrialists and government ministers, also courting all the major ambassadors of his time and several European monarchs. His œuvre reads as a near-complete portrait gallery of the chief movers in France from 1680 to 1740. Some of that œuvre (albeit a minority) also includes those of more humble origins – Rigaud's friends, fellow artists or simple businessmen.
Persecution of Huguenots under Louis XV
As Louis XV was only 12 years old at his coronation, France came under the rule of a regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. He was not interested in continuing the persecution of Protestants. While the kingdom's laws did not change, their application diminished. Protestants began once more to celebrate their religion, especially in regions such as Languedoc, the Dauphiné, Guyenne, and Poitou. Nevertheless, there remained those who advocated rigor in the treatment of the Protestants. Prominent among these was the Archbishop of Rouen, Louis III de La Vergne de Tressan, who was the grand almoner to the Regent. He argued with both the Regent and his most influential minister, Cardinal Dubois, in favour of severe measures against the Protestants. They rejected his ideas.
Palace of Versailles
Louis XIV died in 1715, and the young new King, Louis XV, just five years old, and his government were moved temporarily from Versailles to Paris under the regency of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. In 1722, when the King came of age, he moved his residence and the government back to Versailles, where it remained until the French Revolution in 1789. Louis XV remained faithful to the original plan of his great-grandfather, and made few changes to the exteriors of Versailles. His main contributions were the construction of the Salon of Hercules, which connected the main building of the Palace with the north wing and the chapel (1724–36); and the royal opera theater, designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, and built between 1769 and 1770. The new theater was completed in time for the celebration of the wedding of the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI, and Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria. He also made numerous additions and changes to the royal apartments, where he, the Queen, his daughters, and his heir lived. In 1738, Louis XV remodeled the king's "petit appartement" on the north side of the Cour de Marbre, originally the entrance court of the old château. He discreetly provided accommodations in another part of the palace for his famous mistresses, Madame de Pompadour and later Madame du Barry.
Early modern France
For most of the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715), France was the dominant power in Europe, aided by the diplomacy of Richelieu's successor (1642–1661) Cardinal Mazarin and the economic policies (1661–1683) of Colbert. Colbert's attempts to promote economic growth and the creation of new industries were not a great success, and France did not undergo any sort of industrial revolution during Louis XIV's reign. Indeed, much of the French countryside during this period remained poor and overpopulated. The resistance of peasants to adopt the potato,according to some monarchist apologists, and other new agricultural innovations while continuing to rely on cereal crops led to repeated catastrophic famines long after they had ceased in the rest of Western Europe. Prior to Louis XIV's reign, French soldiers frequently went into battle barefoot and with no weapons. On the other hand, France's high birthrate until the 18th century proved beneficial to its rulers since it meant the country could field larger armies than its neighbors. In fact, the king's foreign policy, as well as his lavish court and construction projects, left the country in enormous debt. The Palace of Versailles was criticized as overly extravagant even while it was still under construction, but dozens of imitations were built across Europe. Renewed war (the War of Devolution 1667–1668 and the Franco-Dutch War 1672–1678) brought further territorial gains (Artois and western Flanders and the free county of Burgundy, left to the Empire in 1482), but at the cost of the increasingly concerted opposition of rival powers.
French culture was part of French hegemony. In the early part of the century French painters had to go to Rome to shed their provinciality (Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain), but Simon Vouet brought home the taste for a classicized baroque that would characterise the French Baroque, epitomised in the Académie de peinture et de sculpture, in the painting of Charles Le Brun and the sculpture of François Girardon. With the Palais du Luxembourg, the Château de Maisons and Vaux-le-Vicomte, French classical architecture was admired abroad even before the creation of Versailles or Perrault's Louvre colonnade. Parisian salon culture set standards of discriminating taste from the 1630s, and with Pascal, Descartes, Bayle, Corneille, Racine and Molière, France became the cultural center of Europe. In an effort to prevent the nobility from revolting and challenging his authority, Louis implemented an extremely elaborate system of court etiquette with the idea that learning it would occupy most of the nobles' time and they could not plan rebellion. By the start of the 18th century, the nobility in France had been effectively neutered and would never again have more power than the crown. Also, Louis willingly granted titles of nobility to those who had performed distinguished service to the state so that it did not become a closed caste and it was possible for commoners to rise through the social ranks. The king sought to impose total religious uniformity on the country, repealing the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The infamous practice of dragonnades was adopted, whereby rough soldiers were quartered in the homes of Protestant families and allowed to have their way with them. Scores of Protestants fled France, costing the country a great many intellectuals, artisans, and other valuable people. Persecution extended to unorthodox Catholics like the Jansenists, a group that denied free will and had already been condemned by the popes. Louis was no theologian and understood little of the complex doctrines of Jansenism, satisfying himself with the fact that they threatened the unity of the state. In this, he garnered the friendship of the papacy, which had previously been hostile to France because of its policy of putting all church property in the country under the jurisdiction of the state rather than of Rome.
Louis XV of France
According to Kenneth N. Jassie and Jeffrey Merrick, contemporary songs, poems, and public declarations typically portrayed a king as "master", unblemished "Christian", and benevolent provider ("baker"). Young Louis' failings were attributed to inexperience and manipulation by his handlers. Jassie and Merrick argued in 1994 that the king's troubles mounted steadily, and the people blamed and ridiculed his debauchery. The king ignored the famines and crises of the nation. The people reviled the king in popular protest, and finally celebrated his death. The monarchy survived—for a while—but Louis XV left his successor with a damaging legacy of popular discontent.
History of France
Louis XIV died in 1715 and was succeeded by his five-year-old great grandson who reigned as Louis XV until his death in 1774. In 1718, France was once again at war, as Philip II of Orléans's regency joined the War of the Quadruple Alliance against Spain. King Philip V of Spain had to withdraw from the conflict, confronted with the reality that Spain was no longer a great power of Europe. Under Cardinal Fleury's administration, peace was maintained as long as possible.
Louis XV of France
Louis's Controller-General of Finances Michel Robert Le Peletier des Forts (1726–1730), stabilized the French currency, though he was expelled for enriching himself in 1730. His successor, Philibert Orry, substantially reduced the debt caused by the War of the Spanish Succession, and simplified and made more fair the tax system, though he still had to depend upon the unpopular "dixieme", or tax of the tenth of the revenue of every citizen. Orry managed, in the last two years of Fleury's government, to balance the royal budget, an accomplishment never again repeated during the rest of the reign.
List of big-game hunters
Louis XV (1710–1774) was King of France from 1715 to 1774. To the King hunting was an all-absorbing affair, in 1722 he drove from his coronation to his first hunt in the Villers-Cotterêts forest and by 1725 he hunted 276 days in the year and in that same year he was at the death of 362 kills, having ridden 3,121 leagues (12,166 km) behind his hounds. The King hunted with a huge pack of hounds called "The Great Pack", made up of 40 to 90 couples (80 to 180 hounds) of different breeds, the number increasing during his reign. The pack was actually three packs divided between the game hunted, wild boar, wolf and red deer, and employed a staff of over 500 noblemen (each being on duty for 3 months at a time) and 250 horses, with a further 2,000 horses available for the use by the King, his courtiers and guests. Between 1743 and 1767 the kills of red deer alone by the Great Pack was 2,651 stags.
Louis Philippe I
Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848. His father Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans had taken the name "Philippe Égalité" because he initially supported the French Revolution. However, following the deposition and execution of his cousin King Louis XVI, Louis Philippe fled the country. His father denounced his actions and voted for his death, but was imprisoned and executed that same year. Louis Philippe spent the next 21 years in exile before returning during the Bourbon Restoration. He was proclaimed king in 1830 after his cousin Charles X was forced to abdicate by the July Revolution. The reign of Louis Philippe is known as the July Monarchy and was dominated by wealthy industrialists and bankers. He followed conservative policies, especially under the influence of French statesman François Guizot during the period 1840–48. He also promoted friendship with Britain and sponsored colonial expansion, notably the French conquest of Algeria. His popularity faded as economic conditions in France deteriorated in 1847, and he was forced to abdicate after the outbreak of the French Revolution of 1848. He lived out his life in exile in the United Kingdom. His supporters were known as Orléanists, as opposed to Legitimists who supported the main line of the House of Bourbon.
List of French monarchs
From 21 January 1793 to 8 June 1795, Louis XVI's son Louis-Charles was the titular King of France as Louis XVII; in reality, however, he was imprisoned in the Temple throughout this duration, and power was held by the leaders of the Republic. Upon Louis XVII's death, his uncle (Louis XVI's brother) Louis-Stanislas claimed the throne, as Louis XVIII, but only became "de facto" King of France in 1814."
Louise Élisabeth of France
Marie Louise Élisabeth of France (Marie Louise Élisabeth; 14 August 1727 – 6 December 1759) was a French princess, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and his Queen consort, Maria Leszczyńska, and the elder twin of Anne Henriette de France. She married Infante Philip, younger son of Philip V of Spain, who inherited the Duchy of Parma from his mother in 1748, thereby founding the House of Bourbon-Parma. In secondary sources she is referred to also as "Louise Élisabeth of France". She functioned as the de facto ruler of the Duchy of Parma between 1748 and 1759.
Louis XV of France
Between 1727 and 1737, the Queen gave birth to two sons and eight daughters. The first son, born 4 September 1729, became the "dauphin" and heir to the throne, though he did not live to rule. The second son, the Duke of Anjou, born in 1730, died in 1733. Only the two oldest daughters were raised at Versailles; the others were sent away to be raised at the Abbey of Fontevrault. The first-born daughter, called Madame Premiere, was married to the infant Philip of Spain, the second son of Philip of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese.
Marie Leszczyńska
In 1723, the Duke of Bourbon had become the Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. The Regent was highly dominated by his lover, Madame de Prie. There were long-ongoing negotiations of a marriage between Marie and the now widowed Duke of Bourbon: Madame de Prie favored the match, as she did not perceive the reputedly unattractive Marie as a threat to her. The marriage negotiations, however, were soon overshadowed when a marriage for King Louis XV was given priority. That same year, the young king fell ill and, fearing the consequences of the unmarried king dying without an heir, the Duc suggested getting the young King married as soon as possible. Louis XV was already engaged, to Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, who had been brought to France as his future queen some years earlier and was referred to as the Infanta-Queen. However the Infanta was still a child, and could not be expected to conceive for several years; while Louis XV, being fifteen, had already hit puberty. After Louis fell seriously ill, there was a great fear that he would die before he had time to have an heir to the throne. Should that happen, the throne would pass to the Orléans line. This was an undesirable prospect for the Duke of Bourbon, who himself would in fact have preferred that the throne should pass to the Spanish line rather than to the Orléans line. The engagement between Louis XV and the Spanish Infanta was broken, and the latter was sent back to Spain, much to the chagrin of the Spanish. The Duke of Bourbon and Madame de Prie began negotiations for the immediate marriage of the King to Marie.
Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara
He was born at Colorno, in the Duchy of Parma. His mother was Françoise de Chalus (bap. Château de Châlus-Chabrol, Châlus, Haute-Vienne, 24 February 1734 - Paris, 7 July 1821, daughter of Gabriel de Châlus, seigneur de Sansac, and Claire Gérault de Solages), one of the ladies-in-waiting of Elizabeth, Duchess of Parma and Chamberlain-Major of Princess Marie Adélaïde of France. 
Her husband was a nobleman of Spanish descent Don Jean François, 1er duc de Narbonne-Lara Grandee of Spain 1st Class, Lieutenant General of the Army, Commander in Name of the King of the Dioceses of Castres, Albi and Lavaur, 1st Gentleman of the House of H.R.H. the Duke of Parma (Aubiac, Lot-et-Garonne, 27 December 1718 - 12 August 1806), son of François de Narbonne-Lara, seigneur d' Aubiac, and second wife Olympie Angélique de Goth. They married 10 July 1749, and had an older son Philippe, the 2e duc de Narbonne-Lara, without issue. 
However, it is alleged that Louis XV himself was the real father. The coevals attribute the count's paternity to the King of France Louis XV for, according to documents of the Military Archive, the comte Jean François de Narbonne-Lara had been wounded 8 years earlier in the War of the Austrian Succession (1747) becoming from that moment on unable of having any offspring. The baptism of Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara is another indication of that paternity. His wife became thus the King's mistress, and not only his name was also Louis but also his countemporaries always remarked about the similarities between Louis and the King.
Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV)
Louis' governess was Madame de Ventadour who had previously served as his father's governess. When he was seven years old, the Duke of Châtillon was named his governor, the Count of Muy was named under-governor, and Jean-François Boyer, formerly bishop of Mirepoix, was named preceptor.
Gardens of Versailles
Rather than expend resources on modifying the gardens at Versailles, Louis XV – an avid botanist – directed his efforts at Trianon. In the area now occupied by the "Hameau de la Reine", Louis XV constructed and maintained "les jardins botaniques" – the botanical gardens. In 1750, the year in which "les jardins botaniques" were constructed, the "Jardinier-Fleuriste", Claude Richard (1705–1784), assumed administration of the botanical gardens. In 1761, Louis XV commissioned Ange-Jacques Gabriel to build the Petit Trianon as a residence that would allow him to spend more time near the "jardins botaniques". It was at the Petit Trianon that Louis XV fell fatally ill with smallpox; on 10 May 1774, the king died at Versailles (Marie, 1984; Thompson, 2006).
Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV)
Louis, Dauphin of France (4 September 1729 – 20 December 1765) was the elder and only son of King Louis XV of France and his wife, Queen Marie Leszczyńska to survive to adulthood. He had a younger brother, Philippe, who died as a toddler. As a son of the king, Louis was a "fils de France". As heir apparent, he became Dauphin of France. However, he died before ascending to the throne. Three of his sons became kings of France: Louis XVI (reign: 1774–1792), Louis XVIII (reign: 1814–1815; 1815–1824) and Charles X (reign: 1824–1830).
Louis XV of France
In June 1744, the king left Versailles for the front in order to take personal command of his armies fighting in the War of the Austrian Succession. This otherwise popular move was marred by the king's indiscreet decision to bring along Marie-Anne de Mailly. In August, the king fell gravely ill in Metz. Death appeared imminent, and public prayers were held all across France to ask God to save the king from death. The king's chaplain refused to give him absolution unless the king renounced his mistress, which he did; Marie-Anne left the court but was reunited with the King a few months later. The king's confession was distributed publicly, which embarrassed him and tarnished the prestige of the monarchy. Although Louis' recovery earned him the epithet "well-beloved" from a public relieved by his survival, the events at Metz diminished his standing. The military successes of the War of the Austrian Succession inclined the French public to overlook Louis' adulteries, but after 1748, in the wake of the anger over the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, pamphlets against the king's mistresses were widely distributed and read.
Louis, Grand Dauphin
Louis of France (1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711) was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin. He became known as Le Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son, "Le Petit Dauphin". As he died before his father, he never became king. His grandson became Louis XV of France.
Louis XVIII of France
On 27 April 1774, Louis XV fell ill after contracting smallpox and died a few days later on 10 May, aged 64. Louis Stanislas' elder brother, the Dauphin Louis Auguste, succeeded their grandfather as King Louis XVI. As eldest brother of the King, Louis Stanislas received the title Monsieur. Louis Stanislas longed for political influence. He attempted to gain admittance to the King's council in 1774, but failed. Louis Stanislas was left in a political limbo that he called "a gap of 12 years in my political life". Louis XVI granted Louis Stanislas revenues from the Duchy of Alençon in December 1774. The duchy was given to enhance Louis Stanislas' prestige, however, the appanage generated only 300,000 livres "per annum", an amount much lower than it had been at its peak in the fourteenth century.
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), known as Louis the Great (') or the Sun King ('), was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who reigned as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. Starting on 14 May 1643 when Louis was 4 years old, his reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in European history. In the age of absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's France was a leader in the growing centralisation of power.
Crown of Napoleon
The "Crown of Napoleon" was used until his second overthrow in 1815. King Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI, was installed on the throne as King of France following Napoleon's overthrow. In contrast both to his brother and to Napoleon, the new king opted not to have a coronation. When his brother, Charles X became king in 1824, he reinstated the traditional monarchical coronation in Reims and was crowned using the remaining pre-revolutionary French royal crown, the Crown of Louis XV. No more French coronations, either imperial or royal, followed Charles X's overthrow in 1830.
Marie Anne de Bourbon
Upon the death of Louis XIV on 1 September 1715, a regency was established and her brother-in-law, the Duke of Orléans was named as regent (1715–1723). In 1721, Marie Anne was made responsible for the education of Louis XV's future bride, the Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, who arrived in France at the age of three. The young Infanta was nicknamed "l'Infante-reine" ('the Queen-Infanta'). However, because of the infanta's age, the marriage did not take place and the little girl was sent back to Spain four years later, in 1725, an event which caused friction between her father King Philip V of Spain and the youthful Louis XV. After the departure of the seven-year-old "Infante-reine", Marie Anne then retired from court and spent her remaining years residing on her various estates.
Louis XV of France
For much of his lifetime Louis XV was celebrated as a national hero. Edmé Bouchardon's equestrian statue of Louis was originally conceived to commemorate the monarch's victorious role in the War of the Austrian Succession. He portrayed the king as peacemaker. It was not unveiled until 1763, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War. Designed as a symbol of loyalty to the king, Bouchardon's work was used by the Crown for a public relations event staged to restore public confidence in a monarchy in decline. It used art as propaganda on a grand scale. This statue was located on the "Place Louis XV" and was torn down during the Revolution.
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII (; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who was King of France from 1610 to 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.
Descendants of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
A member of the House of Bourbon, he is the founder of the current House of Orléans. His heirs formed a junior collateral branch of the royal dynasty. They include the second duke, who governed France during the minority of Louis XV in the Regency era; one French monarch, Louis Philippe I; and the Orléanist pretenders to the French throne still flourishing in the 21st century. The accumulation of the vast wealth which the House of Orléans would possess and use to influence both politics and court life (until it was confiscated during the French Revolution) began with Philippe, a lifelong beneficiary of his brother's largesse.
Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon (1696–1750)
Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon (2 November 1696 – 20 November 1750) was a French princess of the Blood and member of the courts of Louis XIV and his successor Louis XV of France. She never married, but she had many illegitimate children.
Louise de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier
Through her daughter Suzanne, Louise was an ancestress of King Louis XV of France. Through her granddaughter Charlotte of Bourbon, Louise was an ancestress of the House of Hanover, which reigned in Great Britain from 1714 to 1901, and from which descends the current British Royal Family.
18th-century French art
In France, the death of Louis XIV in September 1715 led to a period of licentious freedom commonly called the Régence. The heir to Louis XIV, his great grandson Louis XV of France, was only 5 years old; for the next seven years France was ruled by the regent Philippe II of Orléans. Versailles was abandoned from 1715 to 1722. Painting turned toward "fêtes galantes", theater settings and the female nude. Painters from this period include Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret and François Boucher. One of the best places in the UK to see examples of French visual and decorative arts of the Rococo and neoclassical periods is in the Wallace Collection, a free national gallery in London.
Louis XI of France
Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (), was King of France from 1461 to 1483, the sixth from the House of Valois. He succeeded his father Charles VII.
List of French monarchs
The Bourbon Restoration came to an end with the July Revolution of 1830, which deposed Charles X and replaced him with Louis-Philippe I, a distant cousin with more liberal politics. Charles X's son Louis signed a document renouncing his own right to the throne only after a 20-minute argument with his father; because he was never crowned he is disputed as a genuine king of France. Louis's nephew Henry was likewise considered by some to be Henry V, but the new regime did not recognise his claim and he never ruled.
Crown of Louis XV of France
In 1885 the French Third Republic decided to sell the Crown Jewels. Given its historic importance, the crown of Louis XV was kept, though its precious stones were replaced by glass.
International relations, 1648–1814
In sharp contrast to the hyperactive Louis XIV, his successor was largely uninterested in the complex diplomacy and warfare during his long reign that officially started as a child in 1715; his active role began in 1722 and lasted to 1774. Louis XIV, with his eagerness for warfare, was gone, replaced by a small sickly child who was the last Bourbon survivor, and his death had the potential to throw France into another round of warfare. He was Louis XV and he lived until the 1770s. France’s main foreign policy decision-maker was Cardinal Fleury. He recognized that France needed to rebuild, so he pursued a peace policy. France had a poorly designed taxation system, whereby tax farmers kept much of the money, and the treasury was always short. The banking system in Paris was undeveloped, and the treasury was forced to borrow at very high interest rates.
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as "the Desired" (le Désiré), was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a period in 1815 known as the Hundred Days. He spent twenty-three years in exile, from 1791 to 1814, during the French Revolution and the First French Empire, and again in 1815, during the period of the Hundred Days, upon the return of Napoleon I from Elba.
Louis XV of France
In the last years of his reign, the court of Versailles was a theater of manners. Marie-Antoinette, a resident since her marriage, had difficulty disguising her dislike for the King's mistress, Madame du Barry. The King constructed a set of luxurious rooms for Madame du Barry on the floor above his offices; Madame du Barry also reigned in the Petit Trianon, which the King had built for Madame de Pompadour, and in the Pavillon de Louveciennes, also built for Madame de Pompadour. The Court was divided between those who welcomed Madame du Barry, and those of the older aristocracy, such as the Duc de Choiseul plus Marie-Antoinette, who scorned her. The King continued his grand construction projects, including the opera theater of the Palace of Versailles, completed for the celebration of the wedding of the Dauphin and Marie-Antoinette, and the new Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde) in Paris, whose centerpiece was an equestrian statue of the King, modeled after that of Louis XIV on the Place Vendôme.
Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon
At the death of the king in 1715, however, the Parlement de Paris annulled Louis XIV's will and named Maine's brother-in-law, Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, as Régent for the child king. Upset with this and the role played by the "duc d'Orléans" in reducing the status of the legitimised children of Louis XIV from the rank of "Princes du Sang" (which Louise Bénédicte had enjoyed since birth) to mere peers of France, Louise Bénédicte induced her husband to join in the Cellamare Conspiracy in the hope of transferring the regency to King Philip V of Spain, the uncle of Louis XV. The plot was named after Antonio del Giudice, Duke of Giovinazzo, "Prince of Cellamare", who was the Spanish ambassador to France.