Louis XV

Louis XV was born on 15 February 1710 at the age of five he became King of France replacing his great grandfather Louis XIV.  Until he came of age the country was run by a Regent.  Thirteen years later Louis would become ruler of France.  He would marry Marie Leszczyńska, daughter of Stanisław I, the deposed king of Poland.  By September 1729 she had given birth to a son (after two daughters).

Throughout his reign Louis and France became intertwined in foreign affairs.  In 1733, France became involved in the War of the Polish Succession ultimately failing in their ambition to return Louis’ father in law to the throne.  France would fight alongside Prussia against Britain and Austria in the War of the Austrian Succession.  They then fought Britain and Prussia whilst being allied to the Austrians in the Seven Years War (1756-1763).  This last war saw them lose territory across the globe including Canada and India to the their bitter rival Britain.

Louis would be characterised and criticised as Marquise de Pompadour's Madame du Barry as having a weakness for women.  His mistresses such as Madame Pompadour and Madame Du Barry would have money lavished on them to spend on property, dresses and jewellery.  As a result of the wars and his lavish spending France found itself slipping towards economic problems.  Throughout his reign Louis struggled to modernise the French tax system and end the privileges the First and Second Estate received.  He faced constant opposition from the Parlement system who opposed this intrusion.  On his death in 1774 of smallpox he left his grandson to rule France with underlying structural problems.

Comte de Segur on Louis XV.  Memoirs of Louis Philippe Comte de Segur, The Folio Society, London (1960) p8-9

Born in 1753, my infancy, and the early days of my youth, were spent under the reign of Louis XV.  This good, but weak monarch was, in his youth, the object of an enthusiasm which was too little deserved; and in his old age, of severe reproaches which were equally exaggerated.  Heir to the absolute power of Louis XIV, he reigned sixty years without having been accused of a single act of cruelty, a fact very rare and for that reason very remarkable in the annals of arbitrary power.

The first years of his reign were distinguished by the victories of Racoux, Lawfeld, and Fontenoy; but he was merely present at these battles, which were decided, fought, and won by his generals.

Holding the reins of the state with a weak hand, he was ever governed either by his ministers or his mistresses.  The Duc d'Orléans, Regent of France, Cardinal Dubois, the Duc de Bourbon, and Cardinal de Fleury, governed the state for a long time in his name.

The disorder of the finances, caused by the ambition of Louis XIV, and increased by the follies into which the Scotsman Law (John Law Director General of finances who was seen as responsible for the Mississippi Bubble) led the Regent, cannot reasonably be laid to his charge; and his youth must equally absolve him from the blame due to the excessive licentiousness which prevailed during the time of the Regency.

Indeed, that licentiousness may, in some degree, explain or excuse his excessive passion for women, and the shameful debaucheries which tarnished his life; for there never did exist any prince who did not participate more or less in the errors and weakness of his age.

Germaine De Staël  gives her thoughts on Louis XV.  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p42

The weak character of Louis XV, and the endless errors resulting from that character, naturally strengthened the spirit of resistance.  People saw on the one hand Lord Chatham at the head of England, surrounded by parliamentary speakers of talent, all ready to acknowledge his pre-eminence, while in France, the meanest of the royal mistresses obtained the appointment and removal of ministers.  Public spirit was the ruling principle in England; accident and miserable intrigues decided the fate of France. Yet Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Buffon, profound thinkers and superior writers, belong to the country that was thus governed; and how could the French avoid envying England, when they might say with truth, that it was to her political institutions that she owed her superiority.  For they saw among themselves as many men of talent as their neighbours, although the nature of their government prevented them from turning these talents to so much account.

Germaine De Staël  offers more thoughts on Louis XV.  Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p45

There is extant a letter of Louis XV to the Duchess of Choiseul, in which he says: “I have had a great deal of trouble with the parlements during my reign; but let my grandson be cautious of them, for they may put his crown in danger.”  In fact, in following the course of events during the eighteenth century, we easily perceive that it was the aristocratic bodies in France that first attacked the royal power; not from any intention of overturning the throne, but from being pressed forward by public opinion, which acts on men without their knowing it, and often leads them on in contradiction to their interest.  Louis XV bequeathed to his successor a general spirit of discontent among his subjects, the necessary consequence of his endless errors.  The finances had been kept up only by bankrupt expedients: the quarrels of the Jesuits and Jansenists had brought the clergy into disrepute.  Banishments and imprisonments, incessantly repeated, had failed in subduing the opposition of the parlement.