by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin; Credit – Wikipedia

Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the eldest of the three sons of Louis, Dauphin of France and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, was born at the Palace of Versailles in France on August 16, 1682, and received the title of Duke of Burgundy. At the time of his birth, Louis’ grandfather Louis XIV was King of France and his father was the heir apparent to the French throne. After Louis’ birth, his father was called Le Grand Dauphin and his son Louis, who was second in the line of succession, 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.

The birth of Louis, Duke of Burgundy; Credit – Wikipedia

Louis had two younger brothers:

• 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, had six children including King Carlos III of Spain
• Charles, Duke of Berry (1686 – 1714), married Marie Louise Élisabeth of Orléans, had three children who all died before they were one month old.

Louis on the right with his parents and his two brothers; Credit – Wikipedia

Louis and his two brothers were placed in the care of the royal governess Louise de Prie de La Mothe-Houdancourt who had also been their father’s governess.  The brothers were then placed under the care of Paul de Beauvilliers as their governor and were tutored by François Fénelon, Archbishop of Cambrai.  When Louis was eight-years-old, his mother died at the Palace of Versailles on April 20, 1690, at the age of 29.

Louis’ wife Marie Adélaïde of Savoy; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1696, when Louis was fourteen-years-old, he was betrothed to Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, the eldest daughter of Vittorio Amadeo II, Duke of Savoy (later King of Sardinia) and of Anne Marie of Orléans, a niece of King Louis XIV. The betrothal was the result of the Treaty of Turin in which Marie Adélaïde’s father agreed to support France in the Nine Years’ War. The treaty also stipulated that eleven-year-old Marie Adélaïde be sent to France to prepare her for her future role. On December 6, 1697, Marie Adelaïde’s twelfth birthday, the young couple were married at the Palace of Versailles.

Wedding of Louis and Marie-Adélaïde; Credit – Wikipedia

Louis and Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy had three sons:

• Louis, Duke of Brittany (1704 – 1705), died from convulsions
• Louis, Duke of Brittany (1707 – 1712), died from measles
• Louis XV, King of France (1710 – 1774), married Marie Leszczyńska, had ten children

In terms of mental ability and willingness to work, Louis surpassed his father. He was considered extremely intelligent and politically gifted. In 1702, at the age of twenty, Louis was permitted to attend the meetings of the King’s Council, something his father had not been allowed to do until he was thirty years old. In 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Louis was given the command of an army in Flanders which managed to capture Ghent and Bruges surprisingly quickly.

In the spring of 1711, Louis, Le Grand Dauphin caught smallpox, apparently from a priest who was distributing Holy Communion after he had visited a smallpox victim, and died on April 14, 1711, at the age of 49. His son Louis, who had been styled Le Petit Dauphin, became the heir to the French throne but in less than a year, he too was dead.

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

On February 12, 1712, Louis’ 26-year-old wife Marie Adélaïde died from measles. Louis dearly loved his wife and stayed by her side throughout her illness. He caught the disease and died six days after her death, on February 18, 1712, aged 29, at the Château de Marly in France. The couple was buried together at the Basilica of St. Denis, the traditional burial site of the Kings of France and the French royal family.

Their five-year-old elder son, the Duke of Brittany, succeeded as Dauphin but he also developed measles. He died three weeks later on March 8, 1712, apparently from being bled to death by the doctors. Louis and Marie Adélaïde’s younger son, the future King Louis XV, also developed measles but survived because of his governess Charlotte de La Motte Houdancourt, Duchess of Ventadour. Deciding that she would not allow her younger charge to be bled by the doctors, Madame de Ventadour locked herself up with three nursery maids and refused to allow the doctors near the boy. The two-year-old survived and became King of France upon the death of his great-grandfather, King Louis XIV, three years later.

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Works Cited

• De.wikipedia.org. (2018). Louis de Bourbon, duc de Bourgogne. [online] Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_Bourbon,_duc_de_Bourgogne [Accessed 31 Oct. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Louis, Duke of Burgundy. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis,_Duke_of_Burgundy [Accessed 31 Oct. 2018].
• En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Marie Adélaïde of Savoy. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Marie_Ad%C3%A9la%C3%AFde_of_Savoy [Accessed 31 Oct. 2018].
• Fr.wikipedia.org. (2018). Louis de France (1682-1712). [online] Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_de_France_(1682-1712) [Accessed 31 Oct. 2018].
• Fraser, A. (2006). Love and Louis XIV. New York: Nan A. Talese Doubleday.