Birth February 15, 1710
Château de Versailles
Death May 10, 1774
Title King of France
(1715 - 1774)
Coronation October 25, 1722
in Reims Cathedral
Predecessor of Louis XIV
Successor of Louis XVI
C
Son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy
and of
Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy
Spouse Marie Leszczyńska
Children Louise Élisabeth (1727-1759)
Anne Henriette (1727-1752)
Marie Louise (1728-1733)
Louis (1729-1765)
Philippe Louis (1730-1733)
Marie Adélaïde (1732-1800)
Victoire (1733-1799)
Sophie ( 1734-1782)
Thérèse (1736-1744)
Louise (1737-1787)
Of his many mistresses
Louis XV had many children
Mistresses
mistresses
Louis XV called the Beloved, born February 15, 1710 and died May 10, 1774, was King of France from 1715 to 1774.
Childhood
Son of France
Louis XV was born on February 15, 1710 in Versailles. Son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy and Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie, grandson of the Grand Dauphin, great-grandson of Louis XIV, he was titled Duke of Anjou at birth. In accordance with custom, he was brought up until he was 7 years old by a woman, the governess of the Children of France, since 1704 the Duchess of Ventadour.
On April 14, 1711, he lost his grandfather, then in February 1712, his two parents. In March of the same year, the two children of the deceased couple contracted the same disease, a form of measles. The doctors hounded the older brother, formerly Duke of Brittany, who died on March 8. The Duc d'Anjou was saved by his governess, who took him away from the doctors and vigorously refused to be bled. At 2 years old, the Duke of Anjou became the new dauphin.
In 1714, he received a teacher, Abbé Perot. This taught him to read and write, as well as the rudiments of history and geography and, of course, a religious education imbued with Sulpicism. In 1715, the young prince also received a dancing master, then a writing master. It was Madame de Maintenon who was behind all these appointments. She watched over the education of the prince in the shadows. In February 1715, he took part in his first ceremony, the reception of a Persian ambassador at Versailles. At 5 years old, he was considered a handsome child, endowed with a keen intelligence and a good memory, cheerful and a joker. He was particularly drawn to history and geography. A survivor of a decimated family, he found in Madame de Ventadour his only source of affection, calling her "Maman Ventadour", or even "mother" for short.
On September 1, 1715, Louis XIV died, not without having given him his last advice, mainly against war, “the ruin of peoples”. The Duke of Anjou found himself king at the age of five, under the name of Louis XV. The next day, the Duc d'Orléans, nephew of the late king, was appointed regent.
The regency of the Duke of Orléans
On September 3 and 4, 1715, Louis XV performed his first acts as king, first by going to the requiem mass celebrated for the late king, at the chapel of Versailles, then by receiving the assembly of the clergy who had come to celebrate his accession. . On the 12th, he continued on a bed of justice, one of the most solemn ceremonies of the monarchy, on the 14th, on the harangues of the Grand Council, the University of Paris and the French Academy, the following days, on the receptions of ambassadors who came to present their condolences, etc. Despite his young age, he had to bend to the mechanics of the government and the court and play his role of representation.
He continued to be brought up by Madame de Ventadour, who gave him as playmates the son of a Parisian cobbler, and a young Iroquois. In 1717, having reached the age of reason, he left his liseres (a sort of leash used to guide young children) and the hands of women. His education was henceforth entrusted to a governor, the Duke of Villeroy, and a tutor, André Hercule de Fleury, bishop of Fréjus. He was now taught Latin, mathematics, cartography, drawing, the basics of astronomy, but also to hunt. Manual education was not neglected either:in 1717, he learned a little typography, and in 1721, he learned to turn wood. Since 1719 he had music masters. Unlike Louis XIV, he had little affinity for music, and sang out of tune.
As early as 1721, they thought of marrying him. Philip V, his uncle, King of Spain, offered his daughter, the Infanta Marie Anne Victoire, barely 3 years old - Louis XV himself was only 11. Nevertheless, the Regent accepted, and on the 9 January 1722, the two fiancés met on the Bidassoa, as Louis XIV and Marie-Thérèse of Austria had done in 1660. The one who was now called the "Infante-Queen" settled in the Palace of Versailles. In August 1722, Louis XV received confirmation. Villeroy, who was trying to protect the King from the Regent, was dismissed soon after and replaced by the Duc de Charost. It was now up to him to give the king some notions of finance and military strategy.
The Reign
The ministry of the Duke of Bourbon
On October 25, 1722, the king entering his thirteenth year, the age of majority (since an ordinance of 1374 by Charles V), he was crowned and consecrated in Reims. It was the end of the Regency, but the Duke of Orleans remained the most important person in the kingdom after the king. Cardinal Dubois was confirmed as Prime Minister, but he died in August 1723. The Duc d'Orléans followed shortly after. It was then the Duke of Bourbon who replaced him with the young king. To amuse himself, as almost all the members of his family had done, Louis XV threw himself headlong into the hunt. On November 3, 1724, the royal hunt of Saint-Hubert brought together a hundred trumpets, more than 900 dogs and a thousand horses.
The king becoming an adult, and able to procreate, raised the question of the heir to the throne. The Infanta-Queen was then only six years old. In 1725, the decision was taken to send her back to Spain, and to look for a new bride. One hundred names of European Princesses were presented and only eight were retained. It was, for lack of anything better, and to the great disappointment of the court, Marie Leszczyńska, the daughter of the dethroned King of Poland Stanislas Leszczyński. The marriage was celebrated on September 5, 1725 in Fontainebleau. The two newlyweds then seemed very attached to each other, and the marriage was consummated the same night.
As soon as the court returned to Versailles, Louis XV decided to get rid of the Duke of Bourbon, who was extremely unpopular. Bishop de Fleury then left the court, determined to be recalled. Indeed, a few days later, Louis XV had him recalled, and exiled the Duke of Bourbon to his lands, in Chantilly. On June 16, 1726, Louis XV took Fleury as Prime Minister.
The ministry of Cardinal de Fleury
From 1726 until his death in 1743, the cardinal ruled France with the king's consent. This is the most peaceful and prosperous period of the reign of Louis XV, despite some troubles with the Parliament of Paris and the Jansenists. After the human and financial losses suffered at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, Fleury's government was often described as "restorative". It is difficult to determine exactly the degree of intervention of the king in the decisions of Fleury, but it is certain that Louis XV supported his former tutor against the intrigues of the court and the conspiracies of his ministers.
With the help of the controllers general of finances Michel Robert Le Peletier des Forts (1726-1730) and especially Philibert Orry (1730-1745), Fleury managed to stabilize the French currency (1726) and ended up balancing the kingdom's budget in 1738 Economic expansion was at the heart of the government's concerns. The communication routes were improved, with the completion in 1738 of the Saint-Quentin canal, linking the Oise to the Somme, later extended to the Scheldt and the Netherlands, and mainly the systematic construction of a road network. throughout the national territory. The engineering corps of the Ponts et Chaussées built a set of modern roads, starting from Paris according to the star pattern which still forms the framework of the current national roads. By the middle of the 18th century, France had acquired the most modern and extensive road infrastructure in the world. Trade was also stimulated by the Board and Board of Trade. France's foreign maritime trade soared from 80 million to 308 million pounds between 1716 and 1748. However, the rigid laws enacted earlier by Colbert did not allow industry to take full advantage of this economic progress.
The power of the absolute monarchy was exercised during the repression of Jansenist and Gallican opposition. The commotion caused by the illuminati of the Saint-Médard cemetery in Paris (the Convulsionnaires de Saint-Médard a group of Jansenists who claimed that miracles happened in the cemetery) ceased in 1732. On another front, after the exile of 139 parliamentarians in the provinces, the parliament of Paris had to register the papal bull Unigenitus and was henceforth forbidden to deal with religious affairs.
With regard to foreign affairs, Fleury sought peace at all costs, practicing a policy of alliance with Great Britain while reconciling with Spain. In September 1729, after her third pregnancy, the queen finally gave birth to a boy, Louis of France, who immediately became dauphin. This arrival of a male heir, who ensured the continuity of the dynasty, was welcomed with immense joy and celebrated in all spheres of French society, and also in most European courts. The royal couple was very united at the time, showed mutual love and the young king was extremely popular. The birth of a boy also removed the risk of a succession crisis and the likely clash with Spain that would have resulted.
In 1733, despite Fleury's pacifist policy, the king, persuaded by his Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Germain Louis Chauvelin (1727-1737), finally intervened in the War of the Polish Succession, to try to bring his father-in-law back Stanislas Leszczynski on the throne of Poland. The half-hearted intervention of France failed to reverse the tide of the war, and Stanislas did not regain his throne. At the same time, France decided to recover the Duchy of Lorraine, Duke François III being expected to marry the daughter of the Emperor of the Holy Empire:Charles VI, which would have brought Austrian power to the gates of the kingdom of France. French troops quickly occupied Lorraine and peace returned in 1735. By the Treaty of Vienna (November 1738), Stanislas obtained the Duchy of Lorraine in compensation for the loss of his Polish throne (with the objective that the duchy be integrated into the Kingdom of France on his death through his daughter), while the former Duke Francois III became heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. This inexpensive war, compared to the exorbitant human and financial demands of Louis XIV's campaigns, was a great success for French diplomacy. The annexation of Lorraine, effective in 1766 on the death of Stanislas, was the last territorial expansion of the kingdom of France on the continent before the Revolution.
Shortly after this result, French mediation in the conflict between the Holy Empire and the Ottoman Empire resulted in the Treaty of Belgrade (September 1739), which ended the war with an advantage for the Ottomans, traditional allies of the French against the Habsburgs since the beginning of the 16th century. As a result, the Ottoman Empire renewed the French capitulations, which affirmed the commercial supremacy of the kingdom in the Middle East. After all these successes, the prestige of Louis XV, arbiter of Europe, reached its peak.
In 1740, the death of Emperor Charles VI and the accession of his daughter Maria Theresa triggered the War of the Austrian Succession. The old Cardinal de Fleury no longer had the strength to oppose it and the king succumbed to the pressure of the anti-Austrian court party:he entered the war in 1741 by allying himself with Prussia. This conflict was to last seven long years. France had again entered a warlike cycle typical of the reign of Louis XIV. Fleury died before the end of the war, in January 1743. The king, finally following the example of his predecessor, then decided to govern without a prime minister.
First signs of unpopularity
When Cardinal de Fleury died in 1743, the king was 33 years old. He had known happy years with his Polish queen, who adored him and was entirely devoted to him. A child was born almost every year. However, the queen eventually got tired of these repeated pregnancies, as much as the king got tired of his wife's unconditional love. Also, most of their children were female, which eventually upset the king. Of their ten children, they had only two boys, and only one survived, the dolphin. In 1734, for the first time, the queen complained to her father about the king's infidelities. The king fell in love with Madame de Mailly, then with his younger sister Madame de Vintimille, then on his death with another of their sisters, Madame de Châteauroux. The queen then took refuge in religion and works of charity.
A year after Fleury's death, an event occurred which was to mark the personality of the king and the rest of French political life. Louis XV had left to lead his armies engaged on the eastern front in the War of Austrian Succession. In August 1744, in Metz, he fell seriously ill and his doctors predicted imminent death. The people, who adored their king, gave him the nickname "Beloved", and prayers multiplied throughout the country for his salvation. His mistress, Madame de Châteauroux, who had accompanied him, had to leave him while the queen arrived in haste.
Under pressure from the devout party, Monseigneur de Fitz-James, the king's first chaplain, refused to give him absolution without a public confession of his sins, in which the king appeared as an immoral person, unworthy of bearing the title of King. Very Christian. Spread throughout the country by the clergy, the royal confession tarnished the prestige of the monarchy. The king escaped death, but his guilt drove him even further towards adultery.
The Marquise de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour, whom she met in 1745 at a masked ball given on the occasion of the Dauphin's marriage, became the most famous and honorable mistress of her reign. Daughter of a financial agent, she was quite beautiful, cultured, intelligent and sincerely attached to the king, but had the disadvantage of being a commoner, of bourgeois origin, which the court and the people did not forgive Louis XV. The mistresses of Louis XIV, chosen from the upper echelons of the aristocracy, had been generally well accepted, especially since they exercised no influence on the government, with the exception of Madame de Maintenon. The fact that the king compromised himself with a commoner caused a scandal. Soon there appeared offensive songs and pamphlets called "Poissonades" (the surname of the Marquise de Pompadour being Poisson), which mocked her as in the following example:
"Leech girl and leech herself
Fish of extreme arrogance
Spread in this castle without fear or dread
The substance of the people and the shame of the King”
Despite these criticisms, the Marquise de Pompadour had an undeniable influence on French artistic development during the reign of Louis XV. A true patron, the Marquise amassed an impressive collection of furniture and works of art in her various properties. She was responsible for the development of the Sèvres porcelain factory, and her commissions ensured the subsistence of many artists and craftsmen. It also played an important role in architecture, being at the origin of the construction of the Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde), and the Military School of Paris, carried out by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, one of his proteges. The Marquise also defended the Encyclopedia project against attacks from the Church. In her own way, she was representative of the evolution of mentalities during this Age of Enlightenment, although she did not completely manage to convert the king to her views. The display of all this luxury in his estates earned him much reproach, although his very wealthy family also provided financial aid to the government and saved the monarchy from bankruptcy.
The Marquise de Pompadour was officially housed on the third level of the Palace of Versailles, above the king's apartments. She organized intimate suppers there with selected guests, where the king forgot the obligations of the court that bored him. In fragile health, and supposedly frigid, the Marquise became from 1750 a simple friend and confidante, after having been a lover. However, she managed to maintain her privileged relationship with the king until his death, which is exceptional in the annals of royal mistresses.
After 1750, Louis XV engaged in a series of short-lived sentimental and sexual affairs, the best known being that with Marie-Louise O'Murphy. A pavilion in the deer park of Versailles was used to shelter these ephemeral loves. Popular legend has exaggerated the events that took place there, contributing to clouding the reputation of the sovereign. This image of a king monopolized by his female conquests will never leave him and will taint his memory, although he was hardly different from François Ier or Henri IV from this point of view.
First attempt at reform
All these love affairs did not prevent Louis XV from working, but he lacked the inexhaustible energy of his great-grandfather. During the 17 years of Fleury's government, he had formed his judgment but had not been able to forge his will. Determined to run the kingdom alone, he did his best to follow the instructions of his grandfather:"Listen, consult your Council, but decide". However, he did not have enough self-confidence to apply this precept effectively. His political correspondence reveals his deep knowledge of public affairs and the soundness of his reasoning. On the other hand, he had difficulty deciding, and when he had to, was brutal.
Friendly and understanding with his ministers, at least on the surface, his disgrace fell suddenly, without warning, on those he felt had done him wrong. His leadership was flexible, with the ministers having great independence, but it was difficult for them to know whether their actions suited the sovereign. Most government work was done in committees in which the king did not participate, the latter sitting in the Conseil d'en haut, created by Louis XIV, in charge of state secrets concerning religion, diplomacy and war. Various parties clashed, that of the devotees, led by the Count d'Argenson, Secretary of State for War, opposed to that of the philosophical party led by Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville, comptroller general of finances, and supported by the Marquise de Pompadour, who acted like a minister without portfolio. Supported by powerful financiers (Pâris-Duverney, Montmartel...), she obtained from the king the appointment of certain ministers (Bernis, secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1757) as well as their dismissal (Orry, comptroller general of finances in 1745 Maurepas, Secretary of State for the Navy in 1749). On his advice, the king approved the tax justice policy of Machault d'Arnouville. In order to make up for the kingdom's deficit, which amounted to 100 million pounds in 1745, Machault d'Arnouville created a tax levying one-twentieth of income, which also concerned the privileged (edict of Marly, 1749). This breach in the privileged status of the nobility and the clergy, normally exempt from tax, was a first in the history of France, although it had already been envisaged by visionary minds like Vauban at the time of Louis XIV. This new tax was greeted with hostility by the provincial states, which still had the power to decide their tax policy. The clergy and parliament also violently opposed the new tax. Pressed by his entourage and by the court, Louis XV abandoned the game and exempted the clergy from it in 1751. Finally, the “twentieth” ended up merging into an increase in size, which did not affect the privileged classes. It was the first defeat of the "tax war" waged against the privileged.
Following this attempt at reform, the parliament of Paris, seizing on the pretext of the quarrel between the clergy and the Jansenists, addressed remonstrations to the king (April 1753). The parliament, made up of privileged aristocrats and ennobled commoners, proclaimed itself the "natural defender of the fundamental laws of the kingdom" against the arbitrariness of the monarchy.
Foreign policy
Abroad, the king's policy was becoming incoherent. This period was dominated by the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) which had begun under the government of Fleury. This war pitted the French and the Prussians against the Austrians, the British and the Dutch. The last part of the war was marked by a series of French victories:Battle of Fontenoy (1745), Battle of Rocourt (1746), Battle of Lawfeld (1747). In particular, the Battle of Fontenoy, won by Marshal de Saxe, is considered one of the most striking victories of the French against the British. Following this episode, France occupied all the territory of present-day Belgium (at that time the most prosperous region of Europe), and Louis XV was not far from realizing the old French dream of establishing the northern border of the country along the Rhine.
However, with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, France returned all of its conquests to Austria, to the amazement of the people and the surprise of the European powers. Louis XV, who did not have the belligerent temperament of his predecessor, was satisfied with a hexagonal kingdom, which he called his pre-square. He preferred to cultivate his backyard rather than trying to expand it. Louis declared that he had made peace "as a king and not as a merchant". His gesture was hailed in Europe, of which he became the arbiter. However, in France its popularity suffered greatly. The people had forgiven Louis XIV his taxes, his mistresses and his lavish spending, as long as he was victorious in war. In the same way, for Louis XV, the incident of Metz (1744) counted for little in the eyes of the population compared to the victories of the war of Austrian succession. But the news of the abandonment of the southern Netherlands to Austria was greeted with disbelief and bitterness. The Parisians then used the expression “beast as peace”. As such, we can consider that 1748 was marked by the first manifestation of French public opinion, driven by an emerging nationalism that the monarch had not understood. After that year, its popularity continued to decline.
Reversal of alliances
Moreover, in 1756, the king effected an impromptu change of alliance, breaking with the traditional Franco-Prussian alliance. A new European conflict was in preparation, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle being only a kind of truce. The British and French were already fighting in North America, without a declaration of war. In 1755, the British seized 300 French merchant ships in violation of international treaties. A few months later, on January 16, 1756, the United Kingdom and Prussia signed a treaty of "neutrality". In Paris and Versailles, the philosophical party and the Marquise de Pompadour were disappointed by this betrayal of King Frederick II of Prussia, who had previously been considered an enlightened sovereign, a friend of philosophers. Frederick II had even welcomed Voltaire to Potsdam when the latter found himself in disgrace following the maneuvers of the devout party. But it seems that Frederick II was driven by political motives with the aim of consolidating Prussian power. He had already abandoned his French allies by signing a separate treaty with Austria in 1745. The Marquise de Pompadour resented Frederick II, who held her in the greatest contempt, going so far as to call one of his dogs "Pompadour". ". During the same period, French officials began to perceive the relative decline of the Austrian Empire, which no longer posed the same danger as at the beginning of the Habsburg dynasty, in the 16th and 17th centuries, when they controlled Spain. and most of Europe. Prussia now appeared as the most threatening emerging power. It was in this context that the Marquise de Pompadour and the philosophical party convinced the king of the interest of this reversal of alliances. By the Treaty of Versailles signed on April 1, 1756, the king, against the advice of his ministers, allied himself with Austria by ending two centuries of conflict with the Habsburgs.
At the end of August 1756, Frederick II invaded Saxony without a declaration of war and easily defeated the ill-prepared Saxon and Austrian armies. The fate of the elector family of Saxony was particularly brutal, the electress Marie Joseph succumbing to mistreatment. These abuses shocked Europe and particularly France. The Dauphin's wife, daughter of the Elector and Electress of Saxony, had a miscarriage on hearing the news. Louis XV was forced to go to war. In the meantime, Great Britain had already declared war on France on May 18, 1756. This will be the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), which will have important consequences in Great Britain and France.
Assassination attempt
Within the kingdom, discontent grew, fueled by the lifestyle of the court and what was perceived as the king's incompetence to govern. Putting it in a historical perspective, it appears that Louis XV was not incompetent, although he certainly lacked will. On the other hand, the expenses of the court were not particularly high, compared to those of the previous French monarchs, or even other European courts, such as that of Russia which spent astronomical sums to build the palaces of Saint Petersburg. . Yet such was the perception of the people of France, also influenced by the violent campaign against the Marquise de Pompadour.
Perhaps it was this context that prompted Robert François Damiens to try to kill the king. On January 5, 1757, Damiens entered the Palace of Versailles, among the thousands of people trying to obtain royal audiences. Around 6 p.m., the king was returning from visiting his daughter and was about to enter his carriage to return to the Trianon, when Damiens crossed the hedge of guards and hit him with a penknife. Louis XV was wearing thick winter clothes and the blade only penetrated one centimeter between the 4th and 5th ribs. However, there were fears of possible poisoning. Damiens was tortured on several occasions to find out if he had any accomplices, but it appears that this man, a servant of members of the Paris parliament, was a lunatic who had above all heard a lot of critical speeches against the king.
Louis XV was rather forgiving, but this was the first attempted murder of a French monarch since the assassination of Henri IV by Ravaillac in 1610, and he had to accept a trial for regicide. Judged by the Parliament of Paris, Damiens was executed on March 28, 1757 on the Place de Grève, in appalling conditions. The hand that had held the penknife was burned with sulphur, then his limbs and chest were cut before introducing molten lead, his four limbs were torn off by horses (quartering) and his trunk was finally thrown into the flames. A huge crowd attended this spectacle, the balconies of the houses of the Place de Grève were rented for up to 100 pounds (more than 500 euros today) to the women of the aristocracy.
The king was already so unpopular that the surge of sympathy caused by this attempted murder quickly disappeared with the execution of Damiens, whose inhumanity was harshly condemned by the philosophical party. Louis XV lui-même n’y était pas pour grand-chose, les détails de cette horrible mise à mort ayant été élaborés par le parlement de Paris, peut-être avec le souci de se réconcilier avec le monarque. Mais plus que tout, le peuple ne pardonnait pas au roi de ne pas s’être séparé de la Pompadour. L’ambassadeur d’Autriche écrivait à Vienne :« le mécontentement public est général. Toutes les conversations tournent autour du poison et de la mort. Le long de la galerie des glaces apparaissent des affiches menaçant la vie du roi ».
Louis XV, qui avait conservé un calme royal le jour de la tentative d’assassinat, parut profondément affecté et déprimé dans les semaines qui suivirent. Toutes les tentatives de réformes furent abandonnées. Sur la proposition de la marquise de Pompadour, il renvoya deux de ses ministres les plus décriés, le comte d’Argenson (secrétaire d’État à la guerre) et Machault d’Arnouville (Garde des Sceaux et précédemment contrôleur général des finances), et introduisit Choiseul dans le gouvernement.
La fin de la guerre
L’ascension de Choiseul, sous l’influence de la marquise de Pompadour, marque une certaine victoire du parti philosophique. Fait pair de France, le nouvel homme fort du gouvernement autorise la publication de l’Encyclopédie et contribue à la dissolution des jésuites. Il réforme la structure de la marine et de l’armée et essaye d’étendre les colonies françaises dans les antilles.
Avec le désastre de Rossbach et les nombreuses défaites dans les colonies, Choiseul, successivement à la tête de la diplomatie et du ministère de la guerre et de la marine, cherche à arrêter rapidement la guerre. Le traité de Paris (1763), reconnaît une importante défaite française, avec la perte du Canada et de l’Inde au profit des Britanniques.
Dissolution des jésuites
L’opposition aux jésuites était autant alimentée par les jansénistes, les gallicans que les philosophes et encylopédistes. Après la faillite de l’établissement jésuite de la Martinique, dirigée par le père Antoine La Valette, le parlement, saisi par les créanciers, confirma en appel le 8 mai 1761 un jugement ordonnant le paiement des dettes sous peine de saisie des biens des jésuites.
Il s’ensuivit toute une série d’actions qui allaient aboutir à leur disparition. Sous la direction de l’abbé Chauvin, le 17 avril 1762, la constitution de l’ordre fut épluchée par le parlement, on mit en exergue des écrits de théologiens jésuites, afin de les accuser d’enseigner toutes sortes d’erreurs et de considérations immorales. Le 6 août, un arrêt ordonnait la dissolution de l’ordre, mais un délai de huit mois leur fut accordé par Louis XV. Après avoir refusé un compromis, ils furent contraint de fermer leurs collèges le 1er avril 1763, puis, le 9 mars 1764, ils durent renoncer à leurs vœux sous peine de bannissement. À la fin novembre 1764, Louis XV signa un acte de dissolution de l’ordre dans tout le royaume.
Fin de règne
La fin du règne de Louis XV fut marquée par l’arrivée de Madame du Barry, sa nouvelle favorite, officiellement présentée à la cour en 1769. Le ministre Choiseul montra ouvertement son hostilité pour la maîtresse royale. Le roi, convaincu de l’incapacité de Choiseul à faire face à la fronde du parlement, finit par le renvoyer en 1770. Il fut remplacé de fait par René Nicolas de Maupeou, devenu Garde des Sceaux de France en 1768, qui s’appliqua à restaurer l’autorité royale. Les membres du parlement s’étant mis en grève, Maupeou les fit arrêter par des mousquetaires en exigeant qu’ils reprennent leur service. Devant leur refus ils furent exilés. Il entreprit alors une réforme structurelle fondamentale. La justice, jusqu’alors administrée par des magistrats dont la charge était héréditaire, devint une institution publique, avec des fonctionnaires payés par l’État.
Le 26 avril 1774 se déclarèrent les symptômes de la petite vérole, alors que Louis XV était au Petit Trianon.
Le parlement de Paris envoya le dimanche 1er mai 1774, Nicolas Félix Vandive, conseiller notaire secrétaire Maison et Couronne de France, greffier au Grand Conseil, pour s’enquérir de la santé du roi, comme nous l’apprend en son fameux journal le libraire parisien Siméon-Prosper Hardy :« la nouvelle cour du Parlement n’avoit pas manqué, suivant l’usage ordinaire, de députer le nommé Vandive, l’un des premiers principaux commis au greffe de la Grand Chambre et de ses notaires secrétaires, pour aller à Versailles savoir des nouvelles de la santé du Roi. Mais ce secrétaire ne pouvoit rendre compte de sa mission à l’inamovible compagnie que le mardi suivant, attendue la vacance accoutumée du lundi 2 mai ».
Il mourut de ces suites (septicémie aggravée de complications pulmonaires) le 10 mai 1774, à 15 heures 30, à Versailles, dans l’indifférence du peuple et la réjouissance d’une partie de la cour. Il laissa le trône à son petit-fils, le futur Louis XVI.
Enfants légitimes
Marie Leszczyńska donna à Louis XV dix enfants, dont trois moururent en bas-âge :
1. 14 août 1727 :Louise Élisabeth (1727-1759) et Anne Henriette (1727-1752), jumelles, surnommées respectivement Madame (en tant que fille aînée du roi) ou Madame Première (puis Madame Infante) et Madame Seconde (puis Madame Henriette)
2. 28 juillet 1728 :Marie Louise, Madame Troisième (puis Madame Louise) (†19 février 1733)
3. 4 septembre 1729 :Louis, dauphin († 20 décembre 1765)
4. 30 août 1730 :Philippe Louis, duc d’Anjou (†7 avril 1733)
5. 23 mars 1732 :Marie Adélaïde, Madame Quatrième (puis Madame Troisième, puis Madame Adélaïde) (†27 février 1800)
6. 11 mai 1733 :Victoire Louise Marie Thérèse, Madame Quatrième (puis Madame Victoire) (†7 juin 1799)
7. 27 juillet 1734 :Sophie Philippe Élisabeth Justine, Madame Cinquième (puis Madame Sophie) (†3 mars 1782)
8. 16 mai 1736 :Thérèse Félicité, Madame Sixième (puis Madame Thérèse) (†28 septembre 1744)
9. 15 juillet 1737 :Louise Marie, Madame Septième (puis Madame Louise), en religion sœur Marie-Thérèse de Saint-Augustin († 23 décembre 1787).
Favorites, maîtresses et enfants adultérins
Louis XV, comme Louis XIV, eut également un certain nombre d’enfants adultérins de nombreuses maîtresses. Ses quatre premières maîtresses furent quatre sœurs, quatre des cinq filles de Louis III de Mailly, Marquis de Nesle et de Mailly, Prince d’Orange.
Tous ses enfants adultérins, autres que Louis de Vintimille, naquirent de jeunes filles non mariées, appelées les « petites maîtresses ». Hanté par les mauvais souvenirs liés aux bâtards de son arrière-grand-père, Louis XV se refusa toujours à les légitimer. Il subvint à leur éducation et s’arrangea pour leur donner une place honorable dans la société, mais ne les rencontra jamais à la cour.
Seuls furent légitimés Louis de Vintimille et l’Abbé de Bourbon.
Ses maîtresses et favorites furent :
* Louise-Julie de Mailly-Nesle, comtesse de Mailly (1710-1751), épouse en 1726 son cousin Louis-Alexandre, comte de Mailly. Elle devient maîtresse en 1733, favorite en 1736, et est supplantée en 1739 par sa sœur Pauline. Elle rentre en grâce en 1741, mais est renvoyée de la cour en 1742 à la demande de sa sœur Marie-Anne;
* Pauline Félicité de Mailly-Nesle, comtesse de Vintimille (1712-1741), maîtresse de Louis XV elle épouse en 1739 Jean-Baptiste, Comte de Vintimille (1720-1777). Elle est mère de :
o Charles de Vintimille (1741-1814) dit le Demi-Louis car il ressemblait beaucoup à Louis XV, Marquis du Luc, , Madame de Pompadour tenait assuré qu’il était de naissance royale que souffrant de n’avoir pas d’enfants avec le roi et désirer de porter des petits enfants en commun, elle nourrit en 1751 de le marier à sa fille Alexandrine; Il épousera (1764) Adélaïde de Castellane (1747-1770), dont postérité;
* Diane Adélaïde de Mailly-Nesle, duchesse de Lauraguais (1713-1760);
* Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle, marquise de La Tournelle, duchesse de Châteauroux (1717-1744).
* Hortense de Mailly-Nesle, marquise de Flavacourt, fut aussi pendant un temps soupsonnée de liaison intime avec le roi, mais cette hypothèse fut rapidement écartée au profit de ses quatre sœurs.
* Marquise de Pompadour de son vrai nom Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, (1721-1764), fille d’un financier véreux exilé en 1725. Elle épouse en 1741 Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d’Étiolles et a deux enfants dont Alexandrine Le Normant d’Étiolles (1744-1754) qui est élevée en princesse et anoblie Mlle de Crécy. Elle devient de 1745 à 1751 la maîtresse du roi, et est honorée en 1752 du tabouret et des prérogatives de duchesse. Elle est dame du palais de la reine en 1756, mais doit quitter Versailles quelque temps en 1757 suite à une cabale;
* Comtesse du Barry (Jeanne Bécu 1743-guillotinée en 1793) :fille naturelle d’Anne Bécu, couturière, et de Jean-Baptiste Gomard de Vaubernier. Elle mène une vie modeste à Paris et se livre à la prostitution sous le nom de Mlle Lange. Elle devient en 1768 la maîtresse du roi auquel Jean, comte du Barry (dont elle a été la maîtresse) l’a présentée. Louis XV lui fait épouser la même année Guillaume du Barry (frère de Jean), puis la présente à la Cour en 1769. Elle avait dit un jour à Louis XV :« La France, ton café fout le camp ! » - car tel était le surnom qu’elle donnait à son royal amant -. Elle se retire en 1774 de la Cour, puis émigre en Grande-Bretagne en 1792 pour y cacher ses diamants :elle est arrêtée au retour et condamnée à mort pour avoir dissipé les trésors de l’État, conspiré contre la République et porté le deuil de Louis XVI. Avant d’être guillotinée à Paris, elle supplia :« Encore un moment, messieurs les bourreaux. »;
* Marie-Louise O’Murphy (1737-1815) dite Mlle de Morphise, fille de Daniel O’Murphy d’origine irlandaise elle épouse :1°) Jacques Pelet de Beaufranchet en 1755, 2°) François Nicolas Le Normand en 1759, et 3°) Louis-Philippe Dumont en 1798, député du Calvados à la Convention, dont elle divorcera la même année. Elle est la mère de :
o Agathe Louise de Saint-Antoine de Saint-André (née le 20 juin 1754 à Paris-1774) qui épousera en 1773 René-Jean-Mans de La Tour du Pin (1750-1781), Marquis de la Charce.
* Françoise de Châlus (1734-1821), duchesse de Narbonne-Lara, fille de Gabriel de Châlus, seigneur de Sansac, elle épousera en 1749 Jean-François, duc de Narbonne-Lara. Elle est la mère de :
o Philippe, duc de Narbonne-Lara (1750-1834) qui épouse en 1771 Antoinette Françoise Claudine de La Roche-Aymon, et de
o Louis, Comte de Narbonne-Lara (1755-1813) qui épousera en 1782 Marie Adélaïde de Montholon, dont postérité.
* Marguerite Catherine Haynault (1736-1823), fille de Jean-Baptiste Haynault, entrepreneur de tabac elle épouse en 1766 Blaise d’Arod, Marquis de Montmélas. Elle est la mère de :
o Agnès Louise de Montreuil (1760-1837), qui épousera en 1788 Gaspar d’Arod (1747-1815), Comte de Montmélas, dont postérité, et de
o Anne Louise de La Réale (1763-1831) qui épousera en 1780 le Comte de Geslin (1753-96).
* Lucie Madeleine d’Estaing (1743-1826), sœur naturelle de l’amiral d’Estaing, elle épousera en 1768 François, Comte de Boysseulh. Elle est la mère de :
o Agnès Lucie Auguste (1761-1822) qui épousera en 1777 Charles, Vicomte de Boysseulh (1753-1808), et de
o Aphrodite Lucie Auguste (1763-1819) qui épousera en 1784 Louis Jules, Comte de Boysseulh (1758-1792).
* Anne Couffier de Romans (1737-1808) Baronne de Meilly-Coulonge, elle est la fille d’un bourgeois, Jean Joseph Roman Coppier. Elle entretient une liaison avec le roi de 1754 à 1765, et épousera en 1772 Gabriel Guillaume de Siran, Marquis de Cavanac. Elles est la mère de :
o Louis Aimé de Bourbon (1762-1787), dit l’abbé de Bourbon le seul enfant bâtard que Louis XV légitimera en 1762.
* Louise Jeanne Tiercelin de La Colleterie (1746-1779) dite Mme de Bonneval. Elle est la mère de :
o Benoît Louis Le Duc (1764-1837), abbé.
* Irène du Buisson de Longpré ( décédée en 1767), fille de Jacques du Buisson, seigneur de Longpré, elle épousera en 1747 Charles François Filleul, conseiller du roi. Elle est la mère de :
o Julie Filleul (1751-1822), qui épousera 1°) Abel François Poisson en 1767, Marquis de Vandières, de Marigny, de Ménars, etc., frère de Madame de Pompadour; 2°) François de La Cropte Marquis de Bourzac en 1783 dont elle divorcera en 1793.
* Catherine Éléonore Bénard (1740-1769), fille de Pierre Bénard, écuyer de la bouche du roi. Elle épouse en 1768 Joseph Starot de Saint-Germain, fermier général qui sera guillotiné en 1794. Elle est la mère de :
o Adélaïde de Saint-Germain, Comtesse de Montalivet (1769-1850) qui épousera en 1797 Jean-Pierre Bachasson, Comte de Montalivet (1766-1823), dont postérité.
* Marie Thérèse Françoise Boisselet (1731-1800), qui épouse en 1771 Louis-Claude Cadet de Gassicourt. Elle est la mère de :
o Charles Louis Cadet de Gassicourt (1769-1821), qui épouse en 1789 Madeleine Félicité Baudet (1775-1830), dont postérité.
Louis XV ne compta donc en tout que treize enfants adultérins (c’est sans doute plus que 13 enfants illégitimes) car le nombre de liaisons de Louis XV est la première des difficultés auxquelles on se heurte. la naissance royale n’est certaine que pour 8 enfants (3 garçons et 5 filles). Il faut noter que Madame de Pompadour fit toujours des fausses couches, et que les naissances d’enfants naturels cessèrent après la mort de celle-ci.