| Louis | |
|---|---|
| Dauphin of France | |
%2c_dit_le_Grand_Dauphin_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) Portrait byHyacinthe Rigaud, 1697 | |
| Born | (1661-11-01)1 November 1661 Château de Fontainebleau,France |
| Died | 14 April 1711(1711-04-14) (aged 49) Château de Meudon, France |
| Burial | 28 April 1711 Royal Basilica of Saint Denis, France |
| Spouses | |
| Issue Detail | |
| House | Bourbon |
| Father | Louis XIV |
| Mother | Maria Theresa of Spain |
| Signature |  |
Louis, Dauphin of France (1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711), commonly known asle Grand Dauphin, was the eldest son of KingLouis XIV and his spouse,Maria Theresa of Spain andheir apparent to the French throne. He became known as the Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son,Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the Petit Dauphin. He and his son died before his father and thus never became king. Instead, his grandson became KingLouis XV at the death of Louis XIV, and his second son inherited the Spanish throne asPhilip V through his grandmother, founding the SpanishBourbon line.
Louis was born on 1 November 1661 at theChâteau de Fontainebleau, the eldest son ofLouis XIV andMaria Theresa of Spain (who were double-first cousins to each other). As aFils de France ("Son of France") he was entitled to the style ofRoyal Highness. He was baptised on 24 March 1662 at the chapel of theChâteau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and given his father's name of Louis. At the ceremony,the Cardinal de Vendôme and thePrincess of Conti acted as proxies for the godparents,Pope Clement IX andHenrietta Maria of England. The latter was Louis's great-aunt. It was for this occasion thatJean-Baptiste Lully composed the motetPlaude Laetare Gallia.
He was initially under the care of royal governesses, among them beingJulie d'Angennes andLouise de Prie de La Mothe-Houdancourt. When Louis reached the age of seven, he was removed from the care of women and placed in a society of men. He receivedCharles de Sainte-Maure, as his governor and was tutored by the great French preacher and oratorJacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux, seemingly without acceptable results.
TheDuke of Saint-Simon wrote in hisMémoires that the Monseigneur, who had neither vices nor virtues, was devoid of any wisdom and knowledge and "radically incapable of acquiring any" and that aside from being very lazy, he was without imagination or any capacity for thinking, as well as devoid of any taste, apathetic and "born to boredom".[1] Saint-Simon, who for many years had placed all his hopes for a future enlightened government of France inthe eldest son of the Grand Dauphin, admitted that on the day that the prince died, he had flashes of joy crossing his mind at the thought that he would soon be gone, both himself and France having all to gain from the unexpected death of the Grand Dauphin, adding that "to his extreme shame" he couldn’t help having fleeting moments of anxiety during that day at the thought that the sick prince might survive his illness.[2]
Philippe Erlanger writes the following in his book about the life of Louis XIV:
Louis XIV secretly nursed the same suspicious jealousy of the Grand Dauphin that Louis XIII had once shown to himself. No prince could have been less deserving of such feelings.
TheMonseigneur, as the heir to the throne was now known to have inherited his mother's docility and low intelligence. All his life he remained petrified with admiration of his formidable father and stood in fear of him even while lavish proofs of 'affection' were showered upon him. The best way for theMonseigneur to do someone an injury was to commend him to the royal favour. He knew it, and did not conceal it from his rare petitioners.
Louis XIV saw to it that his son's upbringing was quite the opposite of his own. Instead of a devoted mother and an affectionate and likeable tutor, the Dauphin had the repellent and misanthropic Duc de Montausier, who ruthlessly applied the same methods that had so disturbed Louis XIII. They annihilated his grandson.
Bossuet overwhelmed his backward pupil with such splendid lessons that the Dauphin developed a lasting horror of books, learning and history. By the age of eighteen, theMonseigneur had assimilated almost none of the knowledge amassed to so little purpose, and the apathy of his mind was second only to that of his senses.[3]
He was very indolent. As an adult, his favorite amusement was lying stretched in a sofa tapping the point of his shoes with a cane.[4] Nonetheless, his generosity, affability, and liberality gave him great popularity in Paris and with the French people in general. Louis was one of six legitimate children of his parents. The others all died in early childhood; the second longest-lived,Marie Thérèse of France, died at the age of five when Louis was 11.
According to John B. Wolf, Louis XIV had a low opinion of his son, writing:
...indolent, fatuous, and dull, only the saving grace of his bourgeois morals kept him from outraging the pious people about him. Like his father he enjoyed the hunt, but that was about the only way in which this disappointing son resembled his father.[5]
Being especially interested in geopolitical ties his son could help him form, the King considered various European royal daughters as possible wives for his heir, such asAnna Maria Luisa de' Medici and Louis' cousinMarie Louise d'Orléans, daughter ofPhilippe I, Duke of Orléans andHenrietta of England. According to various sources, Marie Louise and Louis were in love and had grown up with each other. However, Louis XIV decided to use Marie Louise to instead forge a link with Spain and made her marry the invalidCharles II of Spain, the Dauphin's half-uncle.
Louis was eventually engaged to his second cousin,Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, when he was seven. She was a year older than Louis and, upon arriving at the French court, was described as being very unattractive. Nonetheless, she was a very cultured princess, and made a good first impression as she was able to speak French fluently.
They were married by proxy in Munich on 28 January 1680; the couple met for the first time on 7 March 1680 inChâlons-sur-Marne.
Although he was permitted at first to attend and later to participate in theConseil d'en haut, Louis did not play an important part inFrench politics. Nonetheless, as the heir to the throne, he was constantly surrounded by cabals battling for future prominence. Apart from the minor political role that he played during his father's reign, Louis engaged in more leisurely pursuits and was esteemed for his magnificent collection of art atVersailles andMeudon. Louis XIV purchased Meudon for him from the widow of Louvois. The Dauphin employedJules Hardouin Mansart and the office of theBâtiments du Roi but most particularly his long-term "house designer",Jean Bérain, head of the Menus Plaisirs, to provide new decors. He lived quietly at Meudon for the remainder of his life and was surrounded by his two half-sistersMarie Anne de Bourbon and thePrincess of Condé, both of whom he loved dearly. The three made up the main part of theCabal de Meudon, which opposed the Dauphin's sonLouis and his Savoyard wife, theDuchess of Burgundy.
During theWar of the Grand Alliance, he was sent in 1688 to the Rhineland front. Before leaving the court, Louis was thus instructed by his father:
In sending you to command my army, I am giving you an opportunity to make known your merit; go and show it to all Europe, so that when I come to die it will not be noticed that the King is dead.
There, Louis succeeded, under the tutelage ofMarshal de Duras andVauban, in taking one of the bridgeheads across theRhine,Philippsburg, which was surrounded by marshes. Louis's courage was shown when he visited the soldiers in the inundated trenches under heavy fire to observe the progress of the siege.[6] Montausier, his former governor, wrote to him:
I shall not compliment you on the taking of Philippsburg; you had a good army, bombs, cannons and Vauban. I shall not compliment you because you are brave. That virtue is hereditary. But I rejoice with you that you have been liberal, generous, humane, and have recognised the services of those who did well.[7]
Louis's capture of Philippsburg prevented the large gathering Imperial Army from crossing theRhine and invadingAlsace.
Louis's position in theConseil d'en haut gave him an opportunity to have his voice heard in the years and in the crises leading up to theWar of the Spanish Succession. From his mother, Louis had rights and claims to the Spanish throne. His uncleCharles II of Spain had produced no descendants and, as he lay dying, had no heir to whom he could pass the throne. The choice of a successor was essentially split between the French and Austrian claimants. To improve the chances of a Bourbon succession, Louis gave up his and his eldest son's rights in favour of his second son, Philip, Duke of Anjou (laterPhilip V of Spain), who, as the second son, was not expected to succeed to the French throne, which would thus keep France and Spain separate. Moreover, in the discussions in theConseil d'en haut regarding the French response to Charles II's last will and testament, which indeed left all Spanish possessions to Anjou, Louis persuasively argued for acceptance. He opposed those who advocated a rejection of the will and the adherence to thePartition Treaty, which was signed withWilliam III of England, even though the treaty had awardedNaples,Sicily andTuscany to him.
Louis died ofsmallpox on 14 April 1711, at the age of 49, and so predeceased his father.
Louis marriedDuchess Maria Anna of Bavaria on 7 March 1680. She was known in France asDauphine Marie Anne Victoire. Although the marriage was not a close one, the couple had three sons. TheDauphine died in 1690 and in 1695 Louis secretly married his loverMarie Émilie de Joly de Choin. His new wife did not acquire the status ofDauphine of France, and the marriage remained without surviving issue. Pregnant at the time of her marriage, de Choin gave birth to a son, who was secretly sent to the countryside; the child died at age two, in 1697, without having been publicly named.[8]
Thus, through his two older sons Burgundy and Anjou, Louis ensured, respectively, the continuation of the senior Bourbon line on the throne of France and the establishment of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty.
Besides his unnamed child with Mme de Choin, Louis had two illegitimate daughters withFrançoise Pitel:[9][10][better source needed]
With another mistress, Marie Anne Caumont de La Force, he had one daughter:[10]
Louis's paternal grandparents wereLouis XIII of France andAnne of Austria; he was descended, on his mother's side, fromPhilip IV of Spain andÉlisabeth of France. Louis XIII and Élisabeth were siblings (the children ofHenry IV of France andMarie de' Medici), as were Anne of Austria and Philip IV, who were the children ofPhilip III of Spain andMargaret of Austria. That means that he had only four great-grandparents instead of the usual eight, and that his double-cousin parents had the same coefficient of co-ancestry (1/4) as if they were half-siblings.
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Louis, Grand Dauphin Cadet branch of theCapetian dynasty Born: 1 November 1661 Died: 14 April 1711 | ||
| French royalty | ||
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| Vacant Title last held by Louis | Dauphin of France 1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711 | Succeeded by |
The first generation are the children ofHenri IV; these males held the rank ofSon of France orGrandson of France; | ||
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