by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Louis of France, Le Grand Dauphin; Credit – Wikipedia

Louis of France was the only child of King Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain to survive childhood. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin of France and was called Le Grand Dauphin after the birth of his son Louis who was called Le Petit Dauphin. However, King Louis XIV outlived both his son and his grandson and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson King Louis XV when he died in 1715.

Louis was born on November 1, 1661, at the Château de Fontainebleau in France and was the eldest of the six children of his parents. All of his siblings died in childhood:

• Anne-Élisabeth of France (born and died 1662)
• Marie-Anne of France (born and died 1664)
• Marie-Thérèse of France, Madame Royale  (1667 – 1672)
• Philippe Charles, Duke of Anjou (1668 – 1671)
• Louis François, Duke of Anjou (born and died 1672)

Louis and his mother; Credit – Wikipedia

Until he was seven years old, Louis was placed under the care of the royal governesses Julie d’Angennes and Louise de Prie de La Mothe-Houdancourt.  Louis was then placed under the care of Charles de Sainte-Maure, Duc de Montausier as his governor and was tutored by Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux who found his pupil a poor student. Apparently, the most enduring thing his tutor was able to teach him was an appreciation for antiques, in particular medals, sculpture, porcelain, and gems. In the long run, Louis’ education taught him more about obedience to his father than the art of governing the Kingdom of France.

Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, Dauphine of France; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1668, seven-year-old Louis was betrothed to his eight-year-old second cousin Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, the eldest daughter of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. Maria Anna Victoria was carefully educated for her future role and looked forward to being the Dauphine of France. Besides her native language of German, she was taught to speak French, Italian, and Latin. The couple married in a proxy ceremony in Munich in the Electorate of Bavaria on January 28, 1680. Louis and Maria Anna Victoria first met on March 7, 1680, the day of their religious wedding at Saint Etienne Cathedral in Châlons-sur-Marne, France. Maria Anna Victoria was the first Dauphine of France since Mary, Queen of Scots married the future King François II of France in 1558.

Louis and Maria Anna Victoria had three children:

• • Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin (1682 – 1712), married Maria Adelaide of Savoy, had three children including the future King Louis XV of France
  • Philippe, Duke of Anjou, later King Felipe V of Spain (1683 – 1746), married (1) Maria Luisa of Savoy, had four sons including King Luis I of Spain and King Fernando VI of Spain (2) Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, had six children including King Carlos III of Spain
  • Charles, Duke of Berry (1686 – 1714), married Marie Louise Élisabeth of Orléans, had three children, all died before they were one month old.

Louis, Maria Anna Victoria, and their family, Credit – Wikipedia

Louis showed little interest in politics. He was not allowed to attend the meetings of the King’s Council until he was thirty years old. However, he was one of the critics of the 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau which revoked the 1598 Edict of Nantes that had granted the Protestant Huguenots the right to practice their religion without persecution. During the Nine Years’ War, Louis proved to be a brave and skilled commander and was given the nominal command of the Siege of Philippsburg in 1688.

Maria Anna Victoria’s ill health had made it difficult for her to carry out her duties. Her father-in-law King Louis XIV was unsympathetic and falsely accused her of hypochondria. She died at the Palace of Versailles on April 20, 1690, at the age of 29. An autopsy revealed several internal disorders that vindicated her complaints of illness.

Mademoiselle de Choin; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1694, Louis secretly married his lover Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin, a lady-in-waiting at the French court. No details of the wedding ceremony are known but in a letter dated July 19, 1694, Louis referred to Marie Émilie as his wife to his father’s second morganatic wife Madame de Maintenon. Marie Émilie was given the title of Dauphine and continued to be officially referred to as Mademoiselle de Choin. The marriage was not officially recognized and Marie Émilie did not participate in court life.

In the spring of 1711, Louis caught smallpox, apparently from a priest who was distributing Holy Communion after he had visited a smallpox victim. Louis had always been healthy and robust, and so his illness shocked the people of Paris, the French court, and the royal family. On April 14, 1711, Louis, Dauphin of France died at the Château de Meudon in France at the age of 49. He was buried in the Basilica of St. Denis, outside Paris. His son Louis, who had been styled Le Petit Dauphin, became the heir to the throne but in less than a year, he too was dead from measles.

Basilica of St. Denis; Credit – By Thomas Clouet – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42109690

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Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Louis, Grand Dauphin. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis,_Grand_Dauphin [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].
• Fr.wikipedia.org. (2018). Louis de France (1661-1711). [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_France_(1661-1711) [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].
• Fraser, A. (2006). Love and Louis XIV. New York: Nan A. Talese Doubleday.
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Anna_Victoria_of_Bavaria [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].