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'Louis, Dauphin of France' (''Louis-Ferdinand de France'' ^[1]) (4 September 1729 – 20 December 1765), was the eldest and only surviving son of King Louis XV of France and his wife, Queen Marie Leszczyńska. He was the father of three kings of France.

Contents

Birth and early life

First marriage

Second marriage

Personality and political role

Death

Ancestry

Notes

Further reading

External link

Birth and early life

Louis was born at the Palace of Versailles. The birth of an heir to the throne had long been awaited since the tragic decimation of the French royal family in the early 1710s (see Louis XV of France). When the fourth pregnancy of Marie Leszczyńska resulted in a son in 1729, there was popular rejoicing. In all the major cities of France there were fireworks (many memorialized in engravings). At Rome and other European courts there were also celebrations, since Louis' birth ensured the French succession. As the heir apparent to the throne of France, he was given the traditional title of Dauphin of France.
According to the custom of the French royal family, Louis was baptised privately and without a name by Cardinal Armand de Rohan. On April 27 1737 when he was seven years old the public ceremony of the other baptismal rites took place. It was at this point that he was given the name Louis. His godparents were Louis, Duke of Orléans and the Dowager Duchess of Bourbon (widow of Louis III, Prince of Condé).
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.
From an early age Louis took a great interest in the military arts. He was bitterly disappointed when his father would not permit him to join the 1744 campaign in the War of the Austrian Succession. When his father became deathly ill with fever at Metz, Louis disobeyed orders and went to his bedside. This rash action, which could have resulted in the deaths of both Louis and his father, resulted in a permanent change in the relations between father and son. Up to this point Louis XV had doted on his son, but henceforth the relationship was more distant.

First marriage

In 1744 Louis XV negotiated a marriage between his fifteen year old son and the nineteen year old Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain, daughter of King Philip V of Spain and his Italian wife, Elisabeth of Parma. The marriage contract was signed December 13 1744; the marriage was celebrated by proxy at Madrid December 18 1744 and in person at Versailles February 23 1745.
Louis and Maria Teresa were well matched and had a real affection for each other. They had one daughter:

★ Marie-Thérèse (19 July 1746 – 27 April 1748).
Three days after the birth of their daughter Louis' wife Maria Teresa died on July 22, 1746. Louis was only sixteen years old. He grieved intensely at the loss of his wife, but his responsibility to provide for the succession to the French crown necessitated that he marry again quickly.
In 1746 Louis received the Order of the Golden Fleece from his father-in-law King Philip V of Spain. ^[2]

Second marriage

On January 10 1747 Louis was married by proxy at Dresden to Princess Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the fifteen year old younger daughter of Frederick Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland and his wife, Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria. A second marriage ceremony took place in person at Versailles on February 9 1747.
Louis and Marie-Josèphe had eight children:

★ Marie-Zéphyrine (26 August 1750–1 September 1755).

★ Louis, Duc de Bourgogne (13 September 1751–22 March 1761).

★ Xavier, Duc de Guyenne (8 September 1753–22 February 1754).

★ Louis-Auguste, Duc de Berry, the future king Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) (guillotined).

★ Louis-Stanislas, Comte de Provence, the future king Louis XVIII (17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824).

★ Charles-Philippe, Comte d'Artois, the future king Charles X (9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836).

★ Marie-Clotilde (23 September 1759 – 7 March 1802), married King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia, Prince of Piedmont.

★ Élisabeth-Philippine (3 May 1764 – 10 May1794), known as ''Madame Élisabeth'' (guillotined).

Personality and political role

Louis was rather plump. He was well educated: a studious man, cultivated, and a lover of music, he preferred the pleasures of conversation to those of hunting, balls, or spectacles. With a keen sense of morality, he was very much committed to his wife, Marie-Josèphe, as she was to him. Very devout, he was a fervent supporter of the Jesuits, like his mother and sisters, and was led by them to have a devotion to the Sacred Heart. He appeared in the eyes of his sisters as the ideal of the Christian prince, in sharp contrast with their father who was a notorious womanizer.
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.

Death

Louis died of consumption at Fontainebleau in 1765 at the age of 36, while his father was still alive, thus never becoming king of France. His mother, Queen Marie Leszczyńska, and maternal grandfather, Stanisław Leszczyński, the Duke of Lorraine, also survived him. His eldest surviving son, Louis-Auguste, Duc de Berry, became the new dauphin, and later ascended the throne as Louis XVI at the death of Louis XV.
Louis was buried in the Cathedral of St Étienne in Sens. His heart was buried at the Basilica of Saint Denis.

Ancestry

Notes

1. The published biographies of this prince (including the earliest ones by Proyart and Rozoir) call him Louis. The same is true of the major genealogical works about the House of Bourbon (including Achaintre and Dussieux) as well as the numerous engravings of this prince. Several modern popular works, including some websites, call him Louis-Ferdinand to distinguish him from his father and his two sons named Louis.
2. Nicolas-Louis Achaintre, ''Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon'' (Paris: Mansut, 1825), II, 149. T. F. Boettger says he received it in 1739. Wikipedia says he received it in 1738.

Further reading

★ Broglie, Emmanuel de. ''Le fils de Louis XV, Louis, dauphin de France, 1729-1765''. Paris: E. Plon, 1877.

★ Dechêne, Abel. ''Le dauphin, fils de Louis XV''. Paris: Librairie du dauphin, 1931.

★ Ducaud-Bourget, François. ''Louis, dauphin de France: le fils du Bien-Aimé''. Paris: Conquistador, 1961.

★ Hours, Bernard. ''La vertu et le secret: le dauphin, fils de Louis XV''. Paris: Champion, 2006.

★ Huertas, Monique de. ''Marie-Josèphe de Saxe: mère de nos trois derniers rois de France et de Madame Elizabeth''. Paris: Pygmalion, 1995.

★ Proyart, Liévin-Bonaventure. ''Vie du dauphin, père de Louis XVI''. Lyon: Bruyset-Ponthus, 1788.

★ Rozoir, Charles du. ''Le dauphin, fils de Louis XV et père de Louis XVI et de Louis XVIII''. Paris: Eymery, 1815.

External link

★ De la Tour's pastels at the Musée l'Écuyer, Saint-Quentin, (in French) the pastel illustrated above described as a study for one of four portraits De la Tour made of the Dauphin (according to a letter of the Marquis de Marigny), of which the only known survivor, at the Louvre is dated 1748. The curators at the Musée l'Écuyer consider the study above to have served perhaps for the first of these portraits, that of 1745.