Louis of France was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and
his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne,
he was styled Dauphin. He became known as Le Grand Dauphin after the birth of
his own son, Le Petit Dauphin. As he died before his father, he never became
king. He was the paternal grandfather of Louis XV.
Biography Louis was born on 1 November 1661 at the
Château de Fontainebleau, the eldest son of the king and queen of France. As a
Fils de France he was entitled to the style of Royal Highness. He was baptised
on 24 March 1662 at the chapel of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and
given his father's name of Louis. At the ceremony, Cardinal de Vendôme and the
Princess of Conti acted as proxies for the godparents, Pope Clement IX and
Queen Henrietta Maria of England. The latter was Louis's grand-aunt. For this
ceremony, Jean-Baptiste Lully composed the motet Plaude Laetare Gallia.
When Louis reached the age of seven, he was removed from the care of women and
placed in the society of men. He received Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de
Montausier, as his governor and was tutored by Jacques Bénigne Bossuet,
Bishop of Meaux, the great French preacher and orator, without positive
result: 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. Monseigneur,
as the heir to the throne was now known, had 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 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, 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. It was said that when Louis was an
adult, he could pass a whole day simply tapping his cane against his foot in an
armchair. 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. Louis' father considered various
European royal daughters as possible wives for him, such as Anna Maria Luisa
de' Medici, and Louis' cousin Marie Louise d'Orléans, daughter of Philippe,
Duke of Orléans and Princess Henrietta of England. According to various
reports, Marie Louise and Louis were in love, having grown up with each other.
However, Louis XIV used Marie Louise to forge a link with Spain and forced her
to marry the invalid Charles II of Spain, the Dauphin's own half-uncle.
Louis was 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. 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
Conseil d'en haut, Louis did not play an important part in French politics.
Nonetheless, as the heir to the throne, he was constantly surrounded by cabals
battling for future prominence. Apart from the minor political role he played
during his father's reign, Louis engaged in more leisurely pursuits and was
esteemed for his magnificent collection of art at Versailles and Meudon. Louis
XIV purchased Meudon for him from the widow of Louvois. The Dauphin employed
Jules Hardouin Mansart and the office of the Bâtiments 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 surrounded by his two half-sisters Marie Anne de Bourbon
and the Princess of Condé, both of whom he loved dearly. These three made up the
main part of the Cabal de Meudon which opposed the Dauphin's son Louis and his
Savoyard wife, the Duchess of Burgundy. Louis is said to have hunted wolves to
extinction in the Île-de-France. During the War 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 of Marshal de Duras and Vauban, in taking one of the bridgeheads across
the Rhine, Philippsburg, which was surrounded by marshes. Louis' courage
was shown when he visited the soldiers in the inundated trenches under heavy
fire to observe the progress of the siege. Montausier, his former governor,
wrote to him thus: "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."
Louis' 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 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. In order to improve the chances of a Bourbon
succession, Louis gave up his rights in favour of his second son, Philip, Duke
of Anjou, who, as second son, was not expected to succeed to the French
throne, thus keeping 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 did indeed leave 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
signed with William III of England, even though that Treaty had awarded Naples,
Sicily and Tuscany to him. Louis died of smallpox on 11 April 1711,
at the age of 49, predeceasing his father.
Marriages Louis married Duchess Maria Anna of
Bavaria on 7 March 1680. She was known in France as Dauphine Marie Anne
Victoire. The couple had three sons, although the marriage was not a close
one. She died in 1690. After the death of his first wife, Louis secretly
married his lover Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin in 1695. His new wife did not
acquire the status of "Dauphine", and the marriage remained without surviving
issue. Pregnant at the time of her marriage, Mlle. de Choin gave birth to a
son, who was secretly sent to the countryside; the child died aged two, in
1697, without receiving a name. Legend has it that a prophecy told at
his birth said that he would be "son of a king, father of a king, but never a
king". This was thought to be fulfilled as he was the son of Louis XIV of France
and father of Philip V of Spain, but did not himself become king.
Legacy The Delphin Classics was a large edition
of the Latin classics, edited in the 1670s for Louis Thirty-nine scholars
contributed to the series, which was edited by Pierre Huet, with assistance
from several co-editors including Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet and Anne Dacier.
= Issue= Louis de France, Duke of Burgundy and
later Dauphin of France; married second cousin Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy
and had the future Louis XV of France; Philippe de France, Duke of Anjou,;
became King of Spain in 1700; married second cousin Princess Maria Luisa of
Savoy and had issue; married again Elisabeth Farnese and had issue such as
the future Dauphine of France, Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain;
Charles de France, Duke of Berry, Alençon and of Angoulême Count of
Ponthieu; married his first cousin Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans and had issue
but none survived over a year; Thus, through Burgundy and Anjou, Louis
ensured the continuation of the senior Bourbon line on the throne of France and
the establishment of the cadet Spanish Bourbon dynasty respectively.
Besides his unnamed child with Mme de Choin, Louis had two illegitimate
daughters with Françoise Pitel: Anne Louise de Bonbour - wife of Anne
Errard d'Avaugour; Charlotte de Fleury - wife of Gérard
Michel de La Jonchère. With another mistress, Marie Anne
Caumont de La Force, he had one daughter:
Louise Émilie de Vautedard - wife of Nicolas Mesnager.
Ancestry Louis's paternal grandparents were Louis
XIII of France and Anne of Austria; he was descended, on his mother's side,
from Philip IV of Spain and Élisabeth of France. Louis XIII and Élisabeth de
Bourbon were siblings, as were Anne of Austria and Philip IV, who were the
children of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. That means that he
had only four great grandparents instead of the usual eight, and that his parents
had the same coefficient of coancestry as if they were half-siblings.
= Patrilineal descent= Titles, styles, honours and arms
= Titles and styles= 1 November 1661 - 14 April 1711 His
Royal Highness the Dauphin of France References
Sources 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 :
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. See also
Plaude Laetare Gallia