Louis XV is remembered mainly for his romance with Mrs. Pompadour and marriage with a Polish woman. However, this ruler held the record in a completely different field. At 31, when many men are just starting to think about marrying, he was already a grandfather! And it's in a totally twisted family.
The heir of the sun king became monarch at the age of 5. At that time, not only did he have a father, but also a mother. The closest French relative, the Duke of Orleans, was appointed regent. If the young Ludwik died childless, the Orléansian would become king. The regent, however, did not neglect the marriage of his charge, betrotting him at the age of 11 to a three-year-old Spanish infanta, brought to Versailles.
Two years later, the Prince of Orleans died, and the regency was taken over by another royal relative, Louis IV de Condé. He was more interested than his predecessor in extending the royal line. Louis XV's health was often inadequate, so the new regent decided that he should find a mature spouse who would be immediately able to give birth.
12-year-old Louis XV waiting for the woman of his life (painting by Alexis Simon Belle, source:public domain).
The urgent search for the king's other half led to his marriage with Maria Leszczyńska, 7 years her senior, daughter of Stanisław Leszczyński, the ex-king of Poland, who lived in exile.
A simple, healthy girl would quickly give France an heir. By the way, Louis IV de Condé, known as the Condeus, expected the new queen to be eternally grateful to him until the end of his days. Two birds with one stone!
beget a son as soon as possible
The wedding took place in 1725, when Maria was 22 years old, and the king was 15. Today we would probably assume that a Polish woman molested a minor . In fact, the pious Leszczyńska could rather consider herself a demoralized side ...
Maria Leszczyńska could think of her husband as a king and a child at the same time ... (painting by Jean-Marc Nattier, source:public domain).
Louis XV came to his wife's bedroom every evening, spending a lot of time with her there. And they weren't playing checkers at all. No wonder Maria became pregnant a year after her marriage. The 17-year-old king of France became a father - twins right away!
Maria was inconsolable that she gave birth to two daughters instead of a son, but Louis XV did not hide his joy. The childbirth commented with the words: I gave a double shot at the bull's eye! And he did not stop trying to get a male heir.
A year later, Maria Leszczyńska also gave birth to a daughter. It was not until 1729 that the long-awaited male descendant was born. Ludwik was then 19 years old and already had four children.
Proud Leszczyńska with her son, a tiny dolphin. Only the 19-year-old daddy is missing in the painting ... (Alexis Simon Belle's painting, source:public domain).
Baby, grow up!
In 1739, the rapprochement between France and Spain led to a decision on a marriage between the families. Ludwika Elżbieta, the elder of Louis XV's twin daughters, and Filip, brother of her father's former fiancée stood on the wedding carpet. Filip was 19, and Ludwika Elżbieta - 12, which was already considered a sufficient age to enter into a relationship.
The enormous feast on their wedding day, organized by Paris - colorful illuminations over the Seine and a great ball in the city hall - did not fit the tragedy of a little girl who left her family home prematurely. The already tearier farewell to my father was appropriate for the moment.
It was good practice in ruling families for such young spouses to wait a few years before commencing regular marriage. Philip, however, apparently broke this unwritten rule, because just two years after the wedding, the young spouse gave birth to a child.
Two young ladies who had an extraordinary bond - 21-year-old Ludwika Elżbieta and her 7-year-old daughter Izabela (painting by Jean-Marc Nattier, source:public domain).
Ludwika Elżbieta was only 14 years old when on the last day of 1741 she gave birth to her firstborn daughter, Izabela.
Become my sister, little daughter!
The king became a 31-year-old grandfather, and his beloved daughter ... was traumatized. Although a few years later she gave birth to two more children, she complained about her husband all her life and spent every possible moment with her parents.
Ludwika Elżbieta felt very closely connected with her first child, but it was not a maternal bond at all. She treated Izabela rather like a little sister - she liked to play with her dolls and pamper her. The bond between the two girls was so strong that when Ludwika Elizabeth suddenly died in 1759, Izabela fell into a deep depression that did not leave her for the rest of her life.
Marriage is not happiness
Joseph II - a husband who loved but did not understand his wife (source:public domain).
Louis XV took care to ensure his granddaughter a good marriage. In 1760, at the age of 18, Isabella married the heir to the imperial throne, Joseph Habsburg, who fell in love with his wife. However, Izabela was unable to reciprocate his feelings.
Her story can be easily compared to the fate of the famous Empress Sissi - Izabela was also a beautiful woman, unhappy with her husband who loved her but did not understand her. If she had sincere affection for someone in the Habsburg family, it was Józef's younger sister, Maria Krystyna.
Maria Teresa, the elder of Izabela's daughters, died when she was only 7 years old. Even after her death, the jubilant great-grandfather had children (source:public domain).
Remorse and depression led Izabela to suicidal thoughts, which she confessed in letters to her young sister-in-law. Izabela, however, died of natural causes in the second childbirth, leaving her husband in inconsolable grief.
The family is mourning so much
After his wife's death, Józef wanted to marry her younger sister, believing that only with Izabela's "copy" he would be happy. But she was already someone else's fiancée. Forced by the circumstances, the Habsburg decided to marry another aristocrat, but it did not last long. Being an emperor, he radically changed the front. He decided that he would assign the task of extending the family to his younger brothers, and he would live his days as a widower on the imperial throne.
In France, it would be in vain to find people equally devastated by the death of Isabella. Her grandfather, Louis XV, for many years after the death of his granddaughter, attended secret meetings with young ladies, often younger than her.
Maria Leszczyńska, on the other hand, was concerned with the fate of her father more than the loss of her granddaughter. Maybe Stanisław Leszczyński was already 85 years old, but just ... he was looking for a new, young wife ...