Louis, Grand Dauphin
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House | Bourbon |
Father | Louis XIV |
Mother | Maria Theresa of Spain |
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Louis, Dauphin of France (1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711), commonly known as le Grand Dauphin, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. 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 kings. Instead, his grandson became King Louis XV at the death of Louis XIV, and his second son inherited the Spanish throne as Philip V through his grandmother.
Biography
Louis was born on 1 November 1661 at the
He was initially under the care of royal governesses, among them being
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.
The Monseigneur, 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 the Monseigneur 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, the Monseigneur 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.[1]
He was very indolent. As an adult, his favorite amusemnt was laying stretched in a sofa tapping the point of his shoes with a cane
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.[3]
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 as
Louis was eventually engaged to his second cousin,
They were married by proxy in Munich on 28 January 1680; the couple met for the first time on 7 March 1680 in Châlons-sur-Marne.
Political and military role
Although he was permitted at first to attend and later to participate in the
During the
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 of
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.[5]
Louis's capture of Philippsburg prevented the large gathering Imperial Army from crossing the Rhine and invading Alsace.
Louis's position in the Conseil d'en haut gave him an opportunity to have his voice heard in the years and in the crises leading up to the War of the Spanish Succession. From his mother, Louis had rights and claims to the Spanish throne. His uncle Charles 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 (later Philip 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 the Conseil 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 the Partition Treaty, which was signed with William III of England, even though the treaty had awarded Naples, Sicily and Tuscany to him.
Louis died of smallpox on 14 April 1711, at the age of 49, and so predeceased his father.
Literary tribute
- The Delphin Classics were a large edition of the Latin classics, edited in the 1670s for Louis (Delphin is the adjective derived from dauphin) and known for being written (unlike some other treatments) entirely in that language. Thirty-eight scholars contributed to the series, which was edited by Pierre Huet, with assistance from several co-editors including Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and Anne Dacier.
Marriages
Louis married
Issue
- Louis XV of France;
- Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain;
- Charles, Duke of Berry (31 July 1686 – 5 May 1714), Duke of Berry, of Alençon and of Angoulême, Count of Ponthieu; married Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans and had issue but none survived over a year.
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 with
- Anne Louise de Bourbon (1695 – August 1716) – wife of Anne Errard d'Avaugour;
- Charlotte de Fleury (6 February 1697 – 1750) – wife of Gérard Michel de La Jonchère.
With another mistress, Marie Anne Caumont de La Force, he had one daughter:[8]
- Louise Émilie de Vautedard (1694–1719) – wife of Nicolas Mesnager.
Ancestry
Louis's paternal grandparents were
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References
- ^ Erlanger, Philippe, Louis XIV, translated from the French by Stephen Cox, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1970, p. 177. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 79-109471
- ^ Pardoe, Julia (1855). Louis the Fourteenth, and the Court of France in the Seventeenth ..., Volumen2. Harper & brothers. p. 269. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
- ^ John B. Wolf, Louis XIV (1968) p 606
- ^ Dunlop, Ian, Louis XIV, Pimlico London, 2001, p.309
- ^ Dunlop, 309.
- ^ Genealogy Database by Daniel de Rauglaudre
- ^ Genealogy Database by Daniel de Rauglaudre[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b Marek, Miroslav. "Complete Genealogy of the House of Capet". Genealogy.EU.[self-published source]
- ^ a b c d e f g h Anselm de Guibours (1726). Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France [Genealogical and chronological history of the royal house of France] (in French). Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Paris: La compagnie des libraires.
- ^ Wurzbach, Constantin von, ed. (1860). Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 6. p. 152 – via Wikisource. .
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
- Tricoire, Damien. "Attacking the Monarchy’s Sacrality in Late Seventeenth-Century France: The Underground Literature against Louis XIV, Jansenism and the Dauphin’s Court Faction." French History 31.2 (2017): 152–173.
- Wolf, John B. Louis XIV (NY: 1968).
In French
- Lahaye, Matthieu, Louis, Dauphin de France. Fils de roi, père de roi, jamais roi, DEA directed by Joël Cornette, University of Paris VIII, 2005.
- Lahaye, Matthieu, Louis Ier d'Espagne (1661–1700) : essai sur une virtualité politique, Revue historique, Numéro 647, PUF, Paris, Novembre 2008.
- Lahaye Matthieu, Le fils de Louis XIV. Réflexion sur l'autorité dans la France du Grand Siècle, thèse sous la direction de Joël Cornette à l'Université Paris VIII, 2011.
- Lahaye Matthieu, Le fils de Louis XIV. Monseigneur le Grand Dauphin, Seyssel, Champ Vallon, 2013.