Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765)

Louis, Dauphin of France (Louis Ferdinand; 4 September 1729 – 20 December 1765) was the elder and only surviving son of King Louis XV of France and his wife, Queen Marie Leszczyńska. As a son of the king, Louis was a fils de France. As heir apparent, he became Dauphin of France. Although he died before ascending to the throne himself, all three of his sons who made it to adulthood were to later rule France: Louis XVI (reign in 1774–1792), Louis XVIII (1814–1815, again in 1815–1824) and Charles X (1824–1830).

Early life and education

Louis's birth secured the throne and his mother's position at court, which previously had been precarious due to her giving birth to three daughters in a row before the birth of the Dauphin.Template:Sfn He had a younger brother, Philippe, who died as a toddler.Template:Sfn

File:Maria Leszczynska c.jpg

Louis with his mother Maria Leszczynska, c. 1730

Louis was baptised privately and without a name by Cardinal Armand de Rohan.Template:Sfn On 27 April 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 names Louis Ferdinand. His godparents were his cousin Louis, Duke of Orléans, and his great-grandaunt the Dowager Duchess of Bourbon.

Louis's governess was Madame de Ventadour who had previously served as his father's governess.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn When he was seven years old, the Duke of Châtillon was named his governor,Template:Sfn the Count of Muy was named under-governor, and Jean-François Boyer, formerly bishop of Mirepoix, was named preceptor.Template:Sfn

File:Château de Versailles, appartements du Dauphin et de la Dauphine, première antichambre du Dauphin, Louis de France, Louis Tocqué 01.jpg

Louis de France at the age of 9 in a study with a globe and a fortification treatise, by Louis Tocqué

File:The Battle of Fontenoy, 11th May 1745.png

The Battle of Fontenoy by Horace Vernet. The Dauphin is on horseback beside his father.

From an early age Louis took a great interest in the military arts.Template:Sfn He was bitterly disappointed when his father would not permit him to join the 1744 campaign in the War of the Austrian Succession.Template:Sfn When his father became deathly ill with fever at Metz, Louis disobeyed orders and went to his bedside, much to the king's resentment.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The incident resulted in the dismissal of Louis's beloved governor, the Duke of Châtillon.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Later, in 1745, Louis was able to accompany his father on his Flanders campaignTemplate:Sfn and witness the Battle of Fontenoy.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn After Fontenoy, Louis was not allowed to participate in battles, in part due to the king's escalating jealousy and increasingly distant attitude toward his son.Template:Sfn He was very close and protective to his mother and sisters, especially Henriette.Template:Sfn

First marriage

In 1744, Louis XV negotiated a marriage between his 15-year-old son and the 18-year-old Infanta María Teresa Rafaela of Spain, daughter of King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, and first cousin of Louis XV. The marriage contract was signed on 13 December 1744; the marriage was celebrated by proxy in Madrid on 18 December and in person at Versailles on 23 February 1745.Template:Sfn

File:Bal des Ifs-galerie des glaces.jpg

Masked ball at Versailles for the wedding of Louis, Dauphin of France, to María Teresa Rafaela of Spain, 1745.

File:Louis, dauphin of France, son of Louis XV.jpg

Louis, Dauphin of France, in 1750.

Louis and María 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, María Teresa Rafaela died on 22 July 1746.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Louis was only 16 years old. He grieved intensely at the loss of his wife,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn but his responsibility to provide for the succession to the French crown required he marry again quickly.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

In 1746, Louis received the Order of the Golden Fleece from his father-in-law, King Philip V of Spain.

Second marriage

On 10 January 1747, Louis was married by proxy in Dresden to Maria Josepha of Saxony, the 16-year-old younger daughter of Frederick Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland,Template:Sfn and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria. A second marriage ceremony took place in person at Versailles on 9 February.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Children

• Stillborn son (30 January 1748)
• Stillborn son (10 May 1749)
• Marie Zéphyrine of France (26 August 1750 – 2 September 1755); died in childhood.
• Louis Joseph of France, Duke of Burgundy (13 September 1751 – 22 March 1761); died in childhood.
• Stillborn daughter (9 March 1752)
• Xavier of France, Duke of Aquitaine (8 September 1753 – 22 February 1754); died in infancy.
• Louis XVI of France (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793); married Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, known as Marie Antoinette, and had issue.
• Louis XVIII of France (17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824); married Princess Marie Joséphine of Savoy, no issue.
• Stillborn son (1756)
• Charles X of France (9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836); married Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy and had issue.
• Marie Clotilde de France (23 September 1759 – 7 March 1802); married Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia, no issue.
• Stillborn son (1762)
• Élisabeth of France (3 May 1764 – 10 May 1794); died unmarried and without issue.

File:Lagrenee, Louis Jean - Allegory on the Death of the Dauphin - 1765.jpg

Allegory on the Death of the Dauphin by Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, 1765.

Personality

Louis was well educated:Template:Sfn a studious man,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn cultivated, and a lover of music,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn he preferred the pleasures of conversation to those of hunting,Template:Sfn balls, or spectacles.Template:Sfn With a keen sense of morality,Template:Sfn he was very much committed to his wife, Marie-Josèphe,Template:Sfn and disapproved of his father's mistresses.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Family friend Duke de Luynes and Abbe de Proyart noted in their memoirs that like his pious mother, Louis even at a young age,Template:Sfn donated much of his money in supporting various charitable causes for the poor which made him popular with the French populace.Template:Sfn

Very devout,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn he was a fervent supporter of the Jesuits,Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn like his mother and sisters,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and was led by them to have a devotion to the Sacred Heart.Template:Sfn 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.

Later life and death

File:2012--DSC 0253-Cénotaphe-du-grand-Dauphin-par-Coustou-dans-la-cathedrale-de-Sens.jpg

The Tomb of Louis, Dauphin of France & Marie-Josephe of Saxony, in Sens Cathedral.

Kept away from government affairs by his father,Template:Sfn Louis was at the center of the Dévots,Template:Sfn a group of religiously minded men who hoped to gain power when he succeeded to the throne.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Louis died of tuberculosis at Fontainebleau in 1765 at the age of 36,Template:Sfn while his father was still alive, so he never became king of France.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His mother, Queen Marie Leszczyńska, and his maternal grandfather, the former king of Poland, Stanislaus I Leszczyński, Duke of Lorraine, also survived him. His eldest surviving son, Louis-Auguste, duc de Berry, became the new dauphin,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn ascending the throne as Louis XVI in May 1774.Template:Sfn

Louis was buried in the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne in SensTemplate:Sfn at the Monument to the Dauphin of France & Marie-Josephe of Saxony, designed and executed by Guillaume Coustou, the Younger. His heart was buried at Saint Denis Basilica next to his first wife.Template:Sfn

Further reading

• 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 Élisabeth, 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.
• Zieliński, Ryszard, Polka na francuskim tronie, Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1978.

External links

• 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.