Louis, Dauphin of France (Louis Ferdinand; 4 September 1729 – 20 December 1765) was the elder and only surviving son of King Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszczyńska. As the son of the king, Louis was a fils de France. As heir apparent, he became Dauphin of France. Although he died before ascending to the throne himself, all three of his sons who made it to adulthood would go on to be King: Louis XVI (r. 1774–1792), Louis XVIII (r. 1814–1815, 1815–1824) and Charles X (r. 1824–1830).

Early life and education

Louis's birth secured the throne and his mother's position at court, which previously had been precarious due to her giving birth to three daughters in a row before the birth of the Dauphin. He had a younger brother, Philippe, who died as a toddler. thumb|left|200px|Louis with his mother [[Maria Leszczynska, c. 1730]]

Louis was baptised privately and without a name by Cardinal Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan. On 27 April 1737 when he was seven years old the public ceremony of the other baptismal rites took place. It was at this point that he was given the names Louis Ferdinand. His godparents were his cousin Louis, Duke of Orléans, and his great-grandaunt the Dowager Duchess of Bourbon.

Second marriage

On 10 January 1747, Louis was married by proxy in Dresden to Maria Josepha of Saxony, the 16-year-old younger daughter of Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria. A second marriage ceremony took place in person at Versailles on 9 February.

Children

  • Miscarriage or false pregnancy* (15 March 1748)
  • Miscarriage or false pregnancy* (30 January 1748)
  • Miscarriage* (10 May 1749)
  • Marie Zéphyrine (26 August 1750 – 1 September 1755); died in childhood.
  • Louis Joseph of France, Duke of Burgundy (13 September 1751 – 22 March 1761); died in childhood.
  • Miscarried or Stillborn daughter* (9 March 1752)
  • Xavier of France, Duke of Aquitaine (8 September 1753 – 22 February 1754); died in infancy.
  • Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793); married Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria and had issue.
  • Louis XVIII (17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824); married Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy, had two miscarried children.
  • Miscarriage or false pregnancy* (25 October 1756)
  • Charles X of France (9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836); married Maria Theresa of Savoy and had issue.
  • Clotilde, Queen of Sardinia (23 September 1759 – 7 March 1802); married Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia, no issue.
  • Miscarriage, stillbirth, or false pregnancy* (1762)
  • Élisabeth (3 May 1764 – 10 May 1794); died unmarried.

thumb|Allegory on the Death of the Dauphin by [[Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, 1765.]]

Personality

Louis was well educated: a studious man, cultivated, and a lover of music, he preferred the pleasures of conversation to those of hunting, balls, or spectacles. With a keen sense of morality, he was very much committed and faithful to his wife, Marie-Josèphe, and disapproved of his father's mistresses. Family friend Duke de Luynes and Abbe de Proyart noted in their memoirs that like his pious mother, Louis even at a young age, donated much of his money in supporting various charitable causes for the poor which made him popular with the French populace.

Very devout, he was a fervent supporter of the Jesuits, like his mother and sisters, and was led by them to have a devotion to the Sacred Heart. He appeared in the eyes of his sisters as the ideal of the Christian prince, in sharp contrast with their father, who was a notorious womanizer.

Later life and death

left|thumb|The [[:File:2012--DSC 0253-Cénotaphe-du-grand-Dauphin-par-Coustou-dans-la-cathedrale-de-Sens.jpg|Tomb of Louis, Dauphin of France & Marie-Josephe of Saxony, in Sens Cathedral.]]

Kept away from government affairs by his father, Louis was at the center of the Dévots, a group of religiously minded men who hoped to gain power when he succeeded to the throne.

Louis died of tuberculosis at Fontainebleau in 1765 at the age of 36, while his father was still alive, so he never became king of France. His mother, Queen Marie Leszczyńska, and his maternal grandfather, the former king of Poland, Stanislaus I Leszczyński, Duke of Lorraine, also survived him. His eldest surviving son, Louis-Auguste, duc de Berry, became the new dauphin, ascending the throne as Louis XVI in May 1774.

Louis was buried in the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne in Sens at the Monument to the Dauphin of France & Marie-Josephe of Saxony, designed and executed by Guillaume Coustou, the Younger. His heart was buried at the Saint Denis Basilica, next to his first wife.

Ancestry

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Dechêne, Abel, Le dauphin, fils de Louis XV. Paris: Librairie du dauphin, 1931.
  • Ducaud-Bourget, François. Louis, dauphin de France: le fils du Bien-Aimé. Paris: Conquistador, 1961.
  • Hours, Bernard. La vertu et le secret: le dauphin, fils de Louis XV. Paris: Champion, 2006.
  • Huertas, Monique de, Marie-Josèphe de Saxe: mère de nos trois derniers rois de France et de Madame Élisabeth, Paris: Pygmalion, 1995.
  • Proyart, Liévin-Bonaventure. Vie du dauphin, père de Louis XVI, Lyon: Bruyset-Ponthus, 1788.
  • Rozoir, Charles du, Le dauphin, fils de Louis XV et père de Louis XVI et de Louis XVIII, Paris: Eymery, 1815.
  • Zieliński, Ryszard, Polka na francuskim tronie, Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1978.
  • De la Tour's pastels at the Musée l'Écuyer, Saint-Quentin, (in French) the pastel illustrated above described as a study for one of four portraits de la Tour made of the Dauphin (according to a letter of the Marquis de Marigny), of which the only known survivor, at the Louvre is dated 1748. The curators at the Musée l'Écuyer consider the study above to have served perhaps for the first of these portraits, that of 1745.