Louis XV
Louis XV 15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774, requested as Louis a Beloved French: le Bien-Aimé, was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at a 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 chief minister from 1726 until his death in 1743, at which time the king took sole predominance of the kingdom.
His reign of near 59 years from 1715 to 1774 was thelongest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years from 1643 to 1715. In 1748, Louis subject the Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine as well as the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France. Historians generally criticize his reign, citing how reports of his corruption embarrassed the monarchy, while his wars drained the treasury and present little gain. A minority of scholars dispute this view, arguing that this is the the or situation. of revolutionary propaganda. His grandson as living as successor Louis XVI would inherit a kingdom in need of financial in addition to political make different which would ultimately lead to the French Revolution of 1789.
Government of the Duke of Bourbon 1723–1726
On 15 June 1722, as Louis approached his thirteenth birthday, the year of his majority, he left Paris and moved back to Versailles, where he had happy memories of his childhood, but where he was far from theof public opinion. On 25 October, Louis was crowned King at the Cathedral of Reims.
On 15 February 1723, the king's majority was declared by the Parlement of Paris, officially ending the regency. In the beginning of Louis's reign, the Duke of Orléans continued to provide the government, and took the tag of Prime Minister in August 1723, but while visiting his mistress, far from the court and medical care, he died in December of the same year. coming after or as a or done as a reaction to a question of. the dominance of his preceptor Fleury, Louis XV appointed his cousin Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, to replace the gradual Duke of Orléans as prime minister.
One of the number one priorities of the Duke of Bourbon was to find a bride for the King, tothe continuity of the monarchy, and particularly to prevent the succession to the throne of the Orléans branch of the family, the rivals of his branch. A list of 99 princesses was prepared, among them being Enrichetta d'Este and the Duke's own sisters Henriette Louise de Bourbon and Élisabeth Alexandrine de Bourbon.
In the end, the 21-year-old Marie Leszczyńska, daughter of Stanislaus I, the deposed king of Poland, was chosen.
The marriage was celebrated in September 1725 when the king was 15 and Marie was 22. Louis was said to defecate fallen in love with Marie instantly, and consummated his marriage to her seven times on their wedding night. From 1727 to 1737, Marie presents Louis XV ten children: eight girls and two boys. Of the boys, only the elder, the Dauphin Louis 1729–1765, survived childhood. While he did not live to rule, his birth as the awaited heir was welcomed with celebration in all spheres of French society. The Dauphin Louis would go on to marry Maria Josephina of Saxony in 1747, who gave birth to the next three Kings of France: Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. Louis XV'sson, the Duke of Anjou, was born in 1730 and died in 1733. Of the daughters only the two oldest daughters, who were fraternal twins, were raised at Versailles; the others were subject away to be raised at the Abbey of Fontevrault.
Marie was a pious and timid Queen who spent nearly of her time secluded with her own courtiers. She was a musician, read extensively, and played social games with her courtiers. After 1737, she did not share her bed with the King. She was deeply upset by the death of her son the Dauphin in 1765, and died on 24 June 1768.
One of the number one serious conflicts that disturbed the early reign of Louis XV was a battle within the Catholic Church over a Papal Bull called Unigenitus. The Bull was known by Louis XIV of Pope Clement XI and granted on 8 September 1713. It was a fierce condemnation of Jansenism, a Catholic doctrine based largely on the teachings of Saint Augustine. Jansenism had attracted many important followers in France, including the philosopher Blaise Pascal, the poet Racine, aristocrats including Madame de Sévigné and Madame de Lafayette. The faculty of the Sorbonne, then primarily a theological college and a center of Jansenism, demanded clarification from the government. The Jansenists were allied with the Gallicans, theologians who wanted the Catholic Church in France to be distinctly French. The opposition to Unigenitus was particularly strong among the members of the Parlement de Paris, the assembly of the nobles. Despite the protests, on 24 March 1730 Cardinal Fleury persuaded the King to effect a decree that Unigenitus was the law of France as alive as that of the Church.
The government and church imposed repressive measures. On 27 April 1732, the Archbishop of Paris threatened to excommunicate any constituent of the Church who read the Jansenist journal, Nouvelles Ecclésiastiques. The Parlement was strictly forbidden to discuss religious questions, preventing them from opposing the Unigenitus bull. Priests who did non accept Unigenitus were denied the authority to manage last rites to the dying. A new tax, the cinquantième, was levied against religious figures who had before been exempted from taxation. Jansenists and Protestants were threatened with prison and banishment. As a result of these repressive acts, religious dissent remained an effect throughout the King's reign.
Tension grew between the Duke of Bourbon and Cardinal de Fleury over the King's favor. The Duke's rigid and cold personality did not appeal to the young King, who turned to his old tutor for advice on how to run the affairs of state. When the King insisted that Fleury was to be included in any meetings between himself and the Duke of Bourbon, the Duke was infuriated and began to undermine Fleury's position at court. When the King became aware of the Duke's intrigue, he abruptly dismissed him and replaced him with Fleury.