Louis XV of France. Internal development. Domestic policy

If we take a closer look at the 59 years of the reign of Louis XV, then they look - with all their weaknesses and shortcomings - as a brilliant era for France in various fields, especially in art, science, literature and spiritual life, as well as in the field of economics. An important role was played by the fact that France during these long years was largely free from external invasions and did not experience the devastating consequences of the war. The contemporaries of the Abbot de Vere and the Duke de Croy regarded the long period of reign as a happy era thanks to the inner peace and its economic and intellectual strength.

Since Louis XV was little musical, he did not really encourage music, although such composers as François Couperin (1668-1733) and Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) worked in France. He liked sculpture and painting, but with genuine passion he devoted himself to architecture and personally encouraged a wide variety of projects. He knew this subject so well that architects could not mislead him in anything, he intervened as a specialist and in all large projects delved into all the details. The time of his reign was a time of a great rise in art and architecture. It is no coincidence that then dominated, especially in the interior decoration, the characteristic style of Louis XV with its refined ornaments and full of fantasy decorations in the Rococo style was named after the king. The most outstanding structures should be called the Neptune Basin and the opera built by Gabriel in 1770 in the Palace of Versailles, one of the most beautiful opera buildings in the world, hereinafter the "small apartments", which were created from 1735 to 1738. The largest completed project was restored from 1751 to 1755, Robert de Cotta castle in Comienne. At the same time, other, smaller castles arose: the small Trianon (Gabriel), Saint-Hubert, Bellevue, etc. Under the auspices of Louis XV, in addition, the "Place Louis XV" (now the Place de la Concorde) was built, one of the largest and most beautiful squares Europe, public buildings of military and surgical schools, the Church of St. Genevieve (now the Pantheon), begun in 1764 and the Church of St. Louis (now the Cathedral), begun in 1745 in Versailles, ministerial buildings, etc.

The art of interior decoration reached a particular heyday thanks to such masters as Germain Boffant and J.A. Russo. At the same time, graceful, magnificent samples of furniture, as well as masterfully written, delicate and refined Rococo paintings by Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean-Marc Nattier appeared.

Louis XV was, as Antoine and Maok and Michel Bernet emphasize, thanks to his violent building activity, his desire to renovate and perfect the interior decoration of premises and his search for refined comfort, the main engine in the era of the heyday of French architecture and the "golden age" of applied art. At the same time, the courtyard and the city of Versailles formed a symbiosis. The king set the tone, and he was followed by the court nobility, which had palaces in this huge world city, in which artists, craftsmen and dealers in works of applied art lived and worked. These artists and craftsmen found wealthy buyers and patrons here. For the castles of Louis, for example, from 1722 to 1774, no less than 850 paintings were bought or orders were made for them, more than a thousand elegant pieces of furniture, which guaranteed a livelihood for a large number of famous cabinetmakers. Since the French style and taste were a model for Europe, masters from Paris and Lyon (silk) supplied their products to almost all the courts of Europe up to Russian St. Petersburg.

The era of Louis XV was a golden age for science, literature and spiritual life. Since Louis XV especially encouraged the natural sciences and medicine, it seems that he was much less than Louis XIV, proved himself to be a patron of literature and philosophy. And yet Voltaire was a court writer for many years. Louis did not patronize writers and poets like his great-grandfather, so that they exalted him and royal power, but his relatively liberal rule - despite outdated censorship restrictions and even persecution - provided them with a wide field of activity. So the time of his reign became the golden age of the French Enlightenment. Soon all of Europe looked to France as the center of spiritual life.

It was then that such French mathematicians and naturalists as d'Alembert, Condorcet, Laplace, Montge, Lavoisier, Buffon, Montgolfier and many others became leading in their disciplines. Great success was achieved by French historians, linguists and art historians who dealt with foreign cultures overseas. Physiocrats published their economic theories and founded the first national economic school, preaching rationalism, individualism and natural law.

Diderot and d'Alembert in 1751 - 1780 the 35-volume "Encyclopedia" was published. It published "Information about modern knowledge". Thanks to its anti-clerical and anti-absolutist orientation, the Encyclopedia became the "main work of the French Enlightenment", the journalistic weapon of philosophers. It was these philosophers and thinkers of the era who published the foundational works and proposed ideas that became historical and, among other things, prepared the revolution.

The most outstanding mind among philosophers was Voltaire (1694-1778). From 1726 to 1729 he lived in England and therefore was strongly influenced by English thinkers. He was a writer, playwright, poet, historian, philosopher and popularizer of the ideas of the Enlightenment. Montesquieu had a great influence on the development of society with his "Spirit of the Laws", which put forward the demand for the independence of the judiciary and a certain division of powers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) won great respect as a critic of civilization, writer and teacher. His Social Contract, published in 1762, later greatly influenced revolutionaries, especially the Jacobins. It was Rousseau who spoke about the need to transfer state power into the hands of the people, that is, citizens. The enlightenment philosophers named for example played a significant role in the literature of that time, when traditional authorities were no longer reckoned with and reason was declared the universal judge of all things. The comedy was updated by Pierre Carle de Chambelin de Marivaux (1688-1763), the drama by Michel-Jean Seden (1719-1797), the realistic novel by Alain-René Lesage (1668-1747), the philosophical novel by Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot and Tassot and psychological - by Marivaux and Abbot Prevost (1697-1763).

The reign of Louis was a favorable time not only for the flourishing of the philosophy of the Enlightenment, but to some extent also for internal development and economy, although there were enough difficult situations and conflicts for which the regent laid many foundations.

During the years of the regency of the Duke of Orleans, when the young King Louis XV was already supposed to perform numerous representative duties as the sovereign of the kingdom, many decisive milestones were outlined, which negatively influenced the further development of the monarchy and had dire consequences. Responsible for this was primarily the regent, described in the old study as a "cynical hedonist." In more recent works, along with very free morals, his intelligence and political abilities are also noted.

The reign of the "sun king" Louis XIV (1643 - 1715) became the pinnacle of the "absolute" power of the monarchy in France, however, during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 - 1714), the image of the monarchy within the kingdom was shaken, the leading position of France in Europe was replaced by the balance of the great powers, and the finances of the Bourbon kingdom were exhausted. In fact, the French state in 1715 turned out to be insolvent. Thus, the regent inherited the burden of difficult political problems. He had to find a solution to them.

In his 1714 will, Louis XIV appointed a regency for his then four-year-old heir to the throne and great-grandson of Louis XV. The "Sun King" in it decided that his only nephew, Philip, Duke of Orleans (in the event of the death of Louis XV, he was also his heir), should not receive full regency and too much influence on the young king. However, when the "sun king" died, the ambitious Duke of Orleans wanted an unlimited and complete regency. To get it without conflicts, the Duke considered it necessary to meet the Paris Parliament halfway as the will. He recognized the political role of the Parisian Parliament that it had lost half a century ago. This was to play a negative role in the next 74 years, since the Paris Parliament and the provincial parliaments, that is, the highest courts of the kingdom with their judges from the serving nobility, who inherited or bought their office, invariably opposed reforms and almost constantly blocked them as representatives of the interests of the privileged.

Another distant goal of the regent was in the religious field, was associated with the strengthened positions of parliaments and created problems for Louis XV throughout his reign: the rise of the Jansenist, Rigorist and Gallican movements. Jansenism, originally a religious and moral reform movement of the 17th century inside the Catholic Church with strict, ascetic moral foundations, was persecuted by Louis XIV, because over time he developed from a purely religious into a large-scale political movement with a religious basis. It acquired special significance and penetrating power, as it united with rigorism and Gallicanism. Rigorism is a church trend that emerged in 1611, based on the theses of the theologian of the Sorbonne Edmond Richet, which were perceived by the Jansenists. Richet emphasized the largely equal role of all priests as judges in matters of faith and advisers in matters of church discipline and, in accordance with this, the advantage of representative meetings of the clergy (synods, church councils) as opposed to bishops and the pope. These ideas found the more adherents among the chaplains and priests, the more the episcopate appointed by the French king was practically a monopoly of the nobles. Rigorism united with Gallicanism in order to create a national church, but not dependent on the Pope. Since Gallicanism had a legal weapon - the ability to appeal against abuse, these appeals against ecclesiastical authorities (down to the pope and ecclesiastical courts) were now submitted to the highest secular courts, parliaments.

Parliaments thus considered not only the appeals of priests who were condemned or persecuted by their bishops, but also matters of faith - complaints against bulls, prayer books, and the orders of the papacy. Parliamentary councils, mostly close to Jansenism, used their rights to weaken the authority of the noble bishops appointed by the king in favor of the lower clergy. This led to strife and unrest in the dioceses.

Louis XIV, as king of France, certainly did not have a negative attitude towards Gallicanism and even sometimes tried to use it in the most harsh form against the pope, but he saw a danger to royal authority in the Jansenists behaving like Gallican. He not without reason believed that the Jansenists, who fought with such passion against the dogmatic decisions and infallibility of the pope, would also attack the authority of the king. At his request, Pope Clement XI once again condemned in 1713 in the bull Unigenitus Dei 101 the position from the work of the French Jansenist Kesnel. Bulla excited the minds again. But Louis XIV, with the authority of his power, achieved that the Paris Parliament on February 15, 1714 registered the papal charter, which thus became a kind of basic law (constitution) of the monarchy.

After a purely external pacification, passions flared up again after the death of the "sun king" in September 1715. It came to clashes between the Jansenist-Rigorist opponents of the bull and its defenders, primarily the Jesuits.

When the Paris Parliament declared the "Unigenitus Constitution" unacceptable and condemned it as against the freedoms of the Gallican Church, the regent allowed this to happen, apparently expecting the good will of the parliaments on the question of the will. Interested in matters of faith from a young age, he went to meet the opponents of the bull. This led to a small theological war, fueled by pamphlets, and a serious conflict with the pope. The Pope approved only those bishops appointed by the regent who recognized the bull, while the Duke of Orleans rejected this position of the pope as an unacceptable interference with his rights.

While parliaments constantly interfered in matters of theology and church discipline, passions on both sides flared up more and more, so that the regent felt the need to restore calm. In 1720 he ordered to reckon with the bull and not to discuss this issue again. However, this order was not very successful, and the split between the Jansenist, Rigorist and Gallican parties, encouraged by the regent, which had a strong influence both on the highest legal circles and on the clergy and the population of Paris, played an important role in the weakening of the monarchy in the following decades, up to the revolution. ...

Under the regent, the authority of the monarchy also began to decline due to constant demoralizing criticism and systematic exaggeration of the mistakes and weaknesses of the monarch and his entourage, directed primarily by the Jansenist party. If Louis XIV evoked a certain respect, then after his death, under the regent, criticism took on a sharper and at the same time more incorrect and destructive form. Finally, in the field of financial policy, the regent took a step that had dire consequences. He decided on an experiment by the Edinburgh financier John Lowe. John Lowe created a new type of bank in 1716 for the accounting of bills, deposits and the issue of banknotes, in 1717 he founded the Compagnie d'Occident for French North America and issued shares for this. In 1718. Oma was transformed into a royal bank that issued banknotes. In the spring of 1720, he declared banknotes to be the only legal currency for payments over 100 livres. However, as cover was not provided and Lowe succumbed to the temptation to use the printing press more and more, printing 1.5 billion notes in two months, he caused inflation, which he could no longer curb with deflationary measures. So, on December 26, 1720, the bankrupt royal bank was closed, and Lowe fled. Because of the experiment, hundreds of thousands of people lost their fortunes, however, due to inflation, public debts have significantly decreased and the state has received room for maneuver. Some sectors of the economy were even booming.

The bankruptcy of the Royal Bank pushed France into a severe state crisis. Confidence in all kinds of government securities and paper money was undermined, as was faith in public credit institutions.

This continued for many years, until finally, under Napoleon I, the Bank of France was founded.

When Louis XV on 23 February 1723, at the age of 13, came of age, first alongside the ambitious Cardinal Dubois, the Duke of Orléans remained the dominant figure in the kingdom. He even assumed the post of prime minister after the death of the cardinal in August 1723, which was unusual for such a high-ranking member of the royal family. However, when the former regent on 12.2 of the same year was struck, the post of first minister was taken over for three years by another prince of the blood, the "very nosy" 31-year-old head of the House of Condé, Duke de Bourbon. During the duke, who profited well from Lowe's experiment, the dominant figures were the financier and supplier of the army Paris-Duvernay and the metress of the duke the Marquis de Pry. However, when the prime minister, under the influence of this lady, was going to fight against Austria and Spain, he was dismissed, on the initiative of a member of the Council of State, who had a very strong influence on the 16-year-old king. Fleury's main goal was to preserve peace both in France and abroad. Although the young king declared that he would rule himself, following the example of his great-grandfather Louis XIV, the leading figure in France was 73-year-old Fleury, a "wise old man" who earned the young king's unlimited and always respected trust. Fleury was content with the title of Minister of State and resigned his duties as Prime Minister, although he performed them in practice like few others.

Fleury, born in 1653 in Loschdev (Languedoc), the son of a tax collector, was at first a priest; despite his relatively simple bourgeois origins, in 1698 he became bishop of the small southern French diocese of Frejus, then Aumonier of the Versailles court, and in 1714, on the recommendation of the Jesuits, educator of Louis XV. This was due to the further rise of Fleury to power. Naturally kind and meek, with good manners, this man with an iron will and perseverance knew how to hide his ambition. Since he avoided court intrigues, he had no enemies for a long time. Not a genius, but a wise, moderate, diligent and very talented statesman with a brilliant memory, he economically managed the public funds entrusted to him and worked with an extremely small staff of employees, numbering no more than 3-4 secretaries with assistants for each. And in his personal life, this clergyman was moderate and economical, avoided, as was then customary, enriching his own family and did not engage in patronage, like his predecessors, Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin, who became famous and rich in their posts. Fleury donated a significant part of his income for alms. Most willingly, he rested at the seminar of the "Sulpicia" in Issil-Mulino.

On 08/20/1726, Louis XV achieved the cardinal rank for his trusted statesman, as the French monarchs used to do for their ministers, for example, Richelieu and Mazarin. For Fleury, who was of humble background, this was a great honor, since the cardinals were equal in rank to the princes of the blood, sometimes even to the crown princes. Fleury managed to provide his country with a long external and internal peace and avoid enemy invasion of the kingdom. An era of significant economic recovery began in France. He was very successful in encouraging trade, so that during this time and in the subsequent decades of the reign of Louis XV, foreign trade increased greatly. An essential prerequisite for economic prosperity, along with peace and the end of major epidemics, was the stabilization of the French currency. After it was under Louis XV and the regent that state manipulations with currency were often used as a means of skimming the cream of the money, on June 15, 1726, it was established once and for all that 1 louis equals 24 livres, and 1 ecu - 6 livres. Public debts decreased, and in 1738 the Comptroller General (Minister of Finance) Philibert Orry presented a balanced, deficit-free budget, the only one in the entire French 18th century.

The influence of the cardinal was also pacifying in internal religious and constitutional legal discussions. He silenced the pathetic Jansenist agitation and curbed the "Ultramontans", got the bull Unigenitus 24.3. 1730 became state law and reduced the political influence of parliaments.

To pursue this conciliatory but firm policy, Fleury formulated a strong government, whose members Louis XV appointed at the suggestion of the cardinal. The post of chancellor was held by Henri-François d'Agessot, a capable jurist close to Jansenism, the foreign policy department was headed by Chauvelen, the stubborn, brilliant former president of the Paris Parliament, the finance ministry from 1726 to 1730 - le Peletier and from 1730 to 1745 - Orry, "Clumsy, cruel, massive, thrifty", War Office - le Blanc, from 1728 to 1740 - d'Angerville. The main members of the government came from the service, not the military nobility. In addition, the government then had very good and capable intendants in the provinces. Croy's contemporary assessed Fleury's era in the following way: "He always ruled with great kindness, and France was never as peaceful as under him."

Thus, Fleury's era was a "golden age" for France, when the country became rich, however, the state remained largely poor, since the rich and wealthy upper strata, privileged, but also the rising bourgeoisie were not adequately admitted to the means, so how Fleury did not carry out truly decisive reforms in this area and thus did not change the structure of the regime, despite all its shortcomings. This was, as one can now judge, the weakness of this otherwise happy era.

The decades after the death of Cardinal Fleury in 1743 are rightfully considered the era of independent rule by Louis XV. He held the threads of government in his hands and fulfilled the duties of the "absolute" monarch as a typical bureaucrat who, being shy, fearful of the public, ruled his kingdom from his desk and in writing. The considerable restraint of this bureaucrat, who, with all his mobility, passion for hunting and a large number of metress, carried out a consistent policy of government not publicly and without using propaganda, led to the fact that other persons, such as the metress, especially the Marquis, came to the fore in the public consciousness. de Pompadour, as well as ministers like the Duke de Choiseul. Therefore, his role in older studies is exaggerated, although it is quite possible to prove his strong influence in many areas on the timid, self-doubting monarch.

This is especially true of Madame de Pompadour, so that in literature they often speak of the Pompadour era or the "Pompadour France". She went down in history as a "typical personification" of the royal metressa. A very ambitious, power-hungry, beautiful, educated young woman became the Marquise de Pompadour and was officially introduced to the court as a noble person. Like none of her predecessors or followers, she was "full of a wild determination not to let anyone push her out of her place once won." However, she was not able to direct high politics and sketch out its main lines. This was left for himself by the monarch. However, the royal metressa succeeded, albeit indirectly, through a strong influence on the personal politics of Louis XV, to play an important political role, which, however, was rarely positive and happy. The Marquise sought the appointment of her favorites to important posts and the monarch's gift of distinctions, incentives and pensions. Since she herself could not judge their talents, she without distinction promoted flatterers, capable and incapable, who considered her intercession the best way to win the favor of the monarch. Thus, in France at that time, unworthy people often received important posts, and competent and strong-willed people were fired as a result of the intervention of Pompadour. Ultimately, these political actions had very negative consequences for the internal and external development of France.

It was publicly condemned that a woman from bourgeois circles had acquired such a positive influence on the king and his personnel policy. She was charged with the lavish and luxurious lifestyle exposed for all to see, and extravagance, and boastful patronage. So, it is reported that Pompadour spent about 4 million on her holidays, and 8 million livres on patronage. All of this damaged the king's reputation and gave the witty slanderers a welcome pretext for attacks.

How could the fact that the king, as the researchers show, financially did not spoil Pompadour too much and gave her only a couple of thousand livres a month, while she, the business daughter of a financier, thanks to her connections with the financial world, had significant funds and took large loans. The extravagance and huge expenses of Madame Pompadour were blamed on the king, and this at a time when the monarchy was experiencing great financial difficulties and urgently needed to raise taxes and carry out decisive financial reforms. The influence of Pompadour had a negative impact on political morality, although the Marquis tried to win the favor of the writers and philosophers-educators, encouraging them. She supported the Encyclopedia and the party of philosophers against the Jesuits, Jansenists and the Sorbonne, secured the post of royal historiographer, member of the Academy and chamberlain for Voltaire, started various construction projects and gave out large sums for them.

At first, she was closely associated with a group consisting of the financiers of Paris, Tensen and Marshal Richelieu, which had a strong influence on the composition of the government. However, a general crisis of credibility led to a government crisis and growing internal tensions, conflict and anxiety. Attempts by the Minister of Finance d'Arnouville (1745-1754) to decisively reform the structures of an unusable and unjust tax and financial system, as well as to increase the taxation of the privileged and thereby give the monarchy the necessary financial resources, encountered a revolt of the nobility and the resistance of the clergy and collapsed, as Louis XV retreated ... Especially dangerous for him was the prolonged, reaching obstruction, opposition of the higher courts, parliaments, a struggle that did not affect the constitutional basis of the kingdom and was for the crown a life-and-death struggle.

The councils of parliaments and other higher courts formed a close-knit layer of the upper service nobility, which was related to the military nobility and belonged to the richest landowners and the most prosperous townspeople. They either bought their posts or inherited them and could hold them from the age of twenty with minimal legal knowledge. They became "an instrument of the noble and landowning reaction." Despite this, judges close to Jansenism became popular as opposition to the "despotism" of the king and his government. Through agitation and influencing public opinion, especially in Paris, the Councils of Parliaments, who dreamed of a "government of judges" in France, tried to systematically defend their positions against the government. At the same time, certain groups practiced "real ideological terrorism" in relation to their fellow judges. Ultimately, the parliaments formed the strongest of the three opposing groups that at that time were fiercely fighting in the kingdom: the clergy - the Jesuits, the parliamentary Jansenists and the educational philosophers. The obstruction of parliaments caused the greatest harm to the monarchy.

While the strife between the Jansenists and the Jesuits caused a moral crisis and social problems deepened, political difficulties intensified when the Comptroller General had to impose a new tax to save public finances. In this situation, Robert François Damien, who had served for a long time in the service of Jansenist-minded parliamentary councils, made a single-handed attempt on Louis XV, however, only by wounding him.

In response to this assassination attempt, under the influence of Pompadour, the king dismissed both his finance minister (a victim to the privileged) and the Jesuit friend Count d'Argenson, who was firmly in charge of the Parisian police (a concession to the Jansenists). However, due to the resignation of even hated but capable ministers, strong people in the government, the situation has become even more difficult and unstable. The noble, enlightened free mason, the Duke of Choiseul, came to the fore. He was the favorite of Pompadour, a haughty, energetic, but windy and controversial person who, since 1758, held various positions in the government for 12 consecutive years. All concessions to public opinion and the opposing higher courts did not materialize, their resistance to all reforms of the monarchy, which was in a difficult financial situation, increased even more. Although such capable general controllers as Bertin (1759 - 1763) and L'Averdi (1763 - 1768) made great efforts, conducted polls throughout the kingdom and through diplomats - in all the major states of Europe in order to obtain materials to justify the reform, everything went to pieces ... They prepared a general cadastre for the whole of France in order to unify the tax system and received detailed information on the tax systems of various European countries in order to use their experience. Parliaments and the public opinion directed by them strongly opposed "ministerial despotism." At this time, one of the most significant and rarest events of the reign of Louis XV takes place: the destruction of the Jesuits. As already mentioned many times, the Jesuits in France were hated as the biggest opponents of the Jansenists, as the “agents” of the pope and defenders of the “absolute” monarchist power in Paris and the Jansenist-minded strata, both philosophers and free masons. Thus, the Jansenists constantly sought to destroy the Society of Jesus. When in 1758, after an attempt on the life of the Portuguese king, his prime minister, the free mason Pombal, laid the blame on the Jesuits, this was unheard of in Paris and was accompanied by harsh reproaches and accusations of the order, which numbered 111 colleges, 9 novices and 21 seminaries in France. respect for Louis XV, and the "party of the pious" at court, led by the Dauphin. Choiseul, who “wanted to get parliamentary support for higher taxes by destroying the Jesuits,” suggested taking action against the Jesuits. He was supported by Madame de Pompadour. She could not forgive the Society of Jesus for its harsh criticism of her lifestyle.

The Order itself presented this opportunity to the Paris Parliament. After losing an important debt process, he appealed to a higher authority, that is, to the Paris Parliament, although he should have known the hostile Jansenist attitude of his judges. The Jesuits lost the process in the highest instance, and the parliament, on behalf of the parliamentary council, began to consider the issue of the "danger" of the order. At the same time, they did not hesitate to use poorly translated and distorted quotations from the works of foreign Jesuits as evidence. Parliaments accused the Jesuits of calling for the assassination of the king and in 1761 adopted a decision to ban brotherhoods and close colleges.

While Chancellor Lamoignon, the Crown Prince and even Louis XV himself wanted the Jesuits' tackle and negotiated with the Holy See to change the rules of the order, parliaments presented them with a fait accompli. The Parliament of Rouen on 12 February 1762 was the first to deliver the “final verdict”; other high courts joined it and immediately ordered the closure of the collegia. Louis XV, finding himself in a hopeless position, retreated. Since the Jesuits have always been ardent defenders of the monarchy, the victory of their opponents was "a heavy blow to the royal authority." Even the enemies of the Jesuits, the educators Voltaire and d'Alembert, criticized this prohibition as the fruit of "fanaticism," and Voltaire, himself a student of the Jesuits, emphasized that they never called for murder or taught "dangerous principles."

If Choiseul and, under his influence, Louis XV believed that by sacrificing the Jesuits, they would get the consent of parliaments to raise taxes, then they were greatly mistaken. This victory made the parliaments even more self-confident.

The Seven Years War, which ended in 1763, brought the French monarchy not only the loss of numerous territories and a decline in prestige, but also devastating debts. The colossal debt after 1763 (in 1764 2325.5 million livres) had disastrous consequences for the state treasury of France, which, due to the high costs of servicing the state debt, practically lost its freedom of action. Aggravated financial problems turned into a protracted severe crisis of the regime with immediate and long-term political and financial consequences. Ultimately, debt fueled inflation and high interest rates, which led to an economic crisis.

Every attempt by the government to carry out reforms has drawn vetoes and outrage from the Supreme Courts. The kingdom became ungovernable as every measure was rejected as "arbitrary" or "violation of fundamental laws." At the same time, the serving nobility sitting in the supreme courts worked together with the princes and the military nobility, which Choiseul had to endure.

If the king did not want to submit to the privileged and practically renounce, but wanted to modernize his state and make it efficient, he had to act. 60-year-old Louis finally gathered all his will, sent Choiseul into retirement and supported the reformers.

The most significant personalities of the time of the reforms were the Comptroller General (Minister of Finance) Abbot Terrey (1769-1774) and Chancellor Rene M.Sh.A. de Maupu (1770-1774). The Parliament of Brittany, having instituted proceedings against the local representative of the king, the governor of the Duke of d'Eguillon and depriving him of the peerage by its power, opposed the king himself and his absolute monarchical power and opposed him with the rule of parliamentary councils desired by the judges. The conflict was pushed to the extreme by both sides. When the king and council of state overturned the peerage as against the king's authority and withdrew the case from the Rennes parliament, the latter continued to push for its verdict and was joined by other parliaments supported by the princes of the blood. It got to the point of general indignation. After bitter controversy and numerous refusals by the parliament, and especially the Paris one, to obey the highest royal judicial representatives, Mopu exiled 130 parliamentarians with their families to the province. Their positions and property were requisitioned for disobedience and refusal to work. The province also sent 100 parliamentarians into exile. Mopu drastically reformed the higher courts, abolished the sale of judicial seats, and introduced a free trial. New members of parliaments received content and became irreplaceable. The organization of the courts was streamlined and they began to function normally. This act of the king, considered by many to be revolutionary, provoked a sharp and violent reaction from a large segment of society, under the influence of parliamentarians, princes and Choiseul. the Minister of Finance, Abbot Terrey, a firm, energetic man who wanted to save the state, had no easier. He reduced state pensions and funds provided to the crown, and sought to introduce a uniform, rationally increased land tax by creating a general cadastre. In addition, he increased the general rent.

These tough, but necessary for the survival of the state, measures of the two reform ministers made them the target of vicious attacks and insults, in short, they were "mixed with mud." At the same time, they could mainly count only on the support of the king, who had lost the last remnants of popularity, since the Jansenist circles, who had lost their old enemy - the Jesuits, now attacked a new enemy - the "despotism" of the government and the king. Despite this, the king declared: "I will never deviate from my course."

30th King of France
Louis XIII the Just (fr. Louis XIII le Juste; September 27, 1601, Fontainebleau - May 14, 1643, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) - King of France since May 14, 1610. From the Bourbon dynasty.

The reign of Maria de Medici
He ascended the throne at the age of 8 after the assassination of his father, Henry IV. During Louis 'youth, his mother Maria de' Medici, as regent, departed from the policy of Henry IV, having entered into an alliance with Spain and betrothed the king to the Infanta Anna of Austria, daughter of Philip III. This aroused the fears of the Huguenots. Many nobles left the court and began to prepare for war, but the court made peace with them on May 5, 1614 at Sainte-Menehould. The marriage with Anna took place only in 1619, but the relationship between Louis and his wife did not work out and he preferred to spend time in the company of his minions Luin and Saint-Mar, in which rumor saw the king's lovers. Only at the end of the 1630s, relations between Louis and Anna improved, and in 1638 and 1640 their two sons were born, the future Louis XIV and Philip I of Orleans.

Richelieu reign
A new era began, after Louis's long hesitation, only in 1624, when Cardinal Richelieu became minister and soon took control of affairs and unlimited power over the king into his own hands. The Huguenots were pacified and lost La Rochelle. In Italy, the French house of Nevers was assured of the succession to the throne in Mantua, after the War of the Mantuan Succession (1628-1631). Later, France acted very successfully against Austria and Spain.

Internal opposition was becoming less and less meaningful. Louis destroyed the designs against Richelieu by the princes (including his brother, Gaston of Orleans), nobles and the queen mother, and constantly supported his minister, who acted for the good of the king and France. So, he gave Richelieu complete freedom against his brother, Duke Gaston of Orleans, during the conspiracy of 1631 and the rebellion of 1632. In practice, this support of Richelieu was limited to the personal participation of the king in the affairs of government.

After Richelieu's death (1642), his place was taken by his pupil Cardinal Mazarin. However, the king survived his minister by only a year. Louis died a few days before the victory at Rocroix.

In 1829, a monument (equestrian statue) was erected in Paris on the Place des Vosges to Louis XIII. It was erected on the site of a monument erected by Richelieu in 1639, but destroyed in 1792 during the revolution.

Louis XIII - artist
Louis was a passionate music lover. He played the harpsichord, skillfully wielded a hunting horn, sang the part of the first bass in the ensemble, performing polyphonic courtly songs (airs de cour) and psalms.

He began to study dance from childhood and in 1610 made his official debut in the Dauphin court ballet. Louis performed noble and grotesque roles in court ballets, and in 1615 he performed the role of the Sun in the Ballet Madame.

Louis XIII - the author of courtly songs and polyphonic psalms; his music also sounded in the famous Merleson Ballet (1635), for which he composed dances (Simphonies), invented costumes, and in which he himself performed several roles.

31st King of France
Louis XIV de Bourbon, who at birth received the name Louis-Dieudonné ("given by God", French Louis-Dieudonné), also known as the "sun-king" (French Louis XIV Le Roi Soleil), also Louis XIV the Great, (5 September 1638), Saint-Germain-en-Laye - September 1, 1715, Versailles) - King of France and Navarre since May 14, 1643. He reigned 72 years - longer than any other European monarch in history. Louis, who survived the wars of the Fronde in his youth, became a staunch supporter of the principle of absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings (he is often credited with the expression "The State is me"), he combined the strengthening of his power with the successful selection of statesmen for key political posts.

Marriage of Louis XIV, Duke of Burgundy

Portrait of Louis XIV with his family

Louis XIV and Maria Teresa in Arras 1667 during the War of Devolution
Louis XIV and Maria Teresa at Arras 1667 during the war

32nd King of France
Louis XV fr. Louis XV, the official nickname Beloved (French Le Bien Aimé) (February 15, 1710, Versailles - May 10, 1774, Versailles) - King of France from September 1, 1715 from the Bourbon dynasty.
Miraculously surviving heir.
The great-grandson of Louis XIV, the future king (who since birth held the title Duke of Anjou) was at first only fourth in line to the throne. However, in 1711, the boy's grandfather, the only legitimate son of Louis XIV, the Great Dauphin, died; at the beginning of 1712, Louis's parents, the Duchess (February 12) and the Duke (February 18) of Burgundy, died one after another from chickenpox, and then (March 8) and his older 4-year-old brother, the Duke of Breton. The two-year-old Louis himself survived only thanks to the insistence of his tutor, the Duchess de Vantadour, who did not allow doctors to apply strong bloodletting to him, which killed his older brother. The death of his father and brother made the two-year-old Duke of Anjou the direct heir to his great-grandfather, he received the title of Dauphin of Vienne.

Louis XV during classes in the presence of Cardinal Fleury (c) Anonyme

On September 4, 1725, 15-year-old Louis married 22-year-old Maria Leszczynska (1703-1768), daughter of the former king of Poland Stanislav. They had 10 children (as well as one stillborn child), of whom 1 son and 6 daughters survived to adulthood. Only one, the eldest, of the daughters got married. The youngest unmarried daughters of the king took care of their orphaned nephews, the children of the Dauphin, and after the accession of the eldest of them, Louis XVI, to the throne were known as the "Lady of the Aunt" (fr. Mesdames les Tantes).

Marie-Louise O "Murphy (1737-1818), mistress of Louis XV

Cardinal Fleury died at the beginning of the war, and the king, having reiterated his intention to govern the state on his own, did not appoint anyone as first minister. Due to the inability of Louis to do business, this led to complete anarchy: each of the ministers ruled his own ministry independently of his comrades and inspired the sovereign with the most contradictory decisions. The king himself led the life of an Asian despot, first submitting to one or the other of his mistresses, and from 1745 fell entirely under the influence of the Marquise de Pompadour, who skillfully indulged the king's base instincts and ruined the country with her extravagance.

Mignonne et Sylvie, chiens de Louis XV (c) Oudry Jean Baptiste (1686-1755)

33rd King of France
Louis XVI (23 August 1754 - 21 January 1793) - King of France from the Bourbon dynasty, son of the Dauphin Louis Ferdinand, succeeded his grandfather Louis XV in 1774. Under him, after the convening of the States General in 1789, the Great French Revolution began. Louis first adopted the constitution of 1791, abandoned absolutism and became a constitutional monarch, but soon began to hesitantly oppose the radical measures of the revolutionaries and even tried to flee the country. On September 21, 1792, he was deposed, brought to trial by the Convention and executed by guillotine.

He was a man of a kind heart, but an insignificant mind and an indecisive character. Louis XV did not like him for his negative attitude to the court way of life and contempt for DuBarry and kept him away from public affairs. The education given to Louis by the Duke of Voguyon gave him little practical and theoretical knowledge. He showed the greatest inclination to physical pursuits, especially to plumbing and hunting. Despite the depravity of the court that surrounded him, he retained the purity of morals, was distinguished by great honesty, ease of use and hatred of luxury. With the kindest feelings, he ascended the throne with a desire to work for the benefit of the people and eliminate the existing abuses, but he did not know how to boldly go forward towards a deliberately set goal. He obeyed the influence of those around him, then aunts, then brothers, then ministers, then the queen (Marie Antoinette), canceled the decisions made, did not bring the initiated reforms to the end.

An attempt to escape. Constitutional monarch
Louis and all his family on the night of June 21, 1791 secretly left in a carriage towards the eastern border. It is worth noting that the escape was prepared and carried out by the Swedish nobleman Hans Axel von Fersen, who was madly in love with the king's wife Marie Antoinette. In Varenne, Drouet, the son of the caretaker of one of the postal stations, saw in the carriage window the profile of the king, whose image was minted on coins and was well known to everyone, and raised the alarm. The king and queen were detained and returned to Paris under escort. They were greeted with the deathly silence of the people crowded in the streets. On September 14, 1791, Louis took the oath of the new constitution, but continued to negotiate with emigrants and foreign powers, even when he officially threatened them through his Girondist ministry, and on April 22, 1792, with tears in his eyes, declared war on Austria. Louis's refusal to authorize the decree of the assembly against emigrants and rebellious priests and the removal of the patriotic ministry imposed on him caused a movement on June 20, 1792, and his proven relations with foreign states and emigrants led to an uprising on August 10 and the overthrow of the monarchy (September 21).

Louis was imprisoned with his family at the Temple and charged with conspiracy against the freedom of the nation and a series of attempts against the security of the state. On January 11, 1793, the trial of the king began at the Convention. Louis behaved with great dignity and, not content with the speeches of his chosen defenders, he defended himself against the accusations against him, referring to the rights given to him by the constitution. On January 20, he was sentenced to death by a majority of 383 votes against 310. Louis listened to the sentence with great calmness and on January 21 ascended the scaffold. His last words on the scaffold were: “I am dying innocent, I am innocent of the crimes of which I am accused. I am telling you this from the scaffold, preparing to appear before God. And I forgive everyone who is guilty of my death "

Interesting Facts
When the future King of France Louis XVI was still a child, a personal astrologer warned him that the 21st of every month was his unlucky day. The king was so shocked by this prediction that he never planned anything important on the 21st. However, not everything depended on the king. On June 21, 1791, the king and queen were arrested while trying to leave revolutionary France. In the same year, September 21, France proclaimed itself a republic. And in 1793, on January 21, King Louis XVI was beheaded.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette "s tomb in Saint Denis Basilica, Paris

Napoleon I
Napoleon I Bonaparte (Italian Napoleone Buonaparte, French Napoléon Bonaparte, August 15, 1769, Ajaccio, Corsica - May 5, 1821, Longwood, St. Helena) - Emperor of France in 1804-1815, French commander and statesman who laid the foundations of the modern French state.

Napoleone Buonaparte (as his name was pronounced until about 1800) began his professional military service in 1785 with the rank of junior lieutenant of artillery; promoted during the Great French Revolution, reaching the rank of brigadier under the Directory (after the capture of Toulon on December 17, 1793, the appointment took place on January 14, 1794), and then a divisional general and the post of commander of the military forces of the rear (after the defeat of the revolt of 13 Vandemierre in 1795. ), and then the commander of the army.

In November 1799, he made a coup d'état (18 Brumaire), as a result of which he became the first consul, in fact, thereby concentrating all power in his hands. May 18, 1804 proclaimed himself emperor. Established a dictatorial regime. He carried out a number of reforms (the adoption of the civil code (1804), the founding of the French Bank (1800), etc.).

The victorious Napoleonic wars, especially the 2nd Austrian campaign of 1805, the Prussian campaign of 1806, and the Polish campaign of 1807, contributed to the transformation of France into the main power on the continent. However, Napoleon's unsuccessful rivalry with the "ruler of the seas" Great Britain did not allow this status to be fully consolidated. The defeat of the Great Army in the war of 1812 against Russia and in the "Battle of the Nations" near Leipzig marked the beginning of the collapse of the empire of Napoleon I. The entry of the troops of the anti-French coalition in Paris in 1814 forced Napoleon I to abdicate the throne. He was exiled to Fr. Elbe. He re-took the French throne in March 1815 (One Hundred Days). After the defeat at Waterloo, he abdicated the throne for the second time (June 22, 1815). He spent the last years of his life on about. St. Helena a prisoner of the British. Since 1840, his body has been in the Les Invalides in Paris.

Dreamvision

Dreamvision

Surrealism

Coronation of Napoleon, 1805-1808 (c) Jacques-Louis David

Josephine kneeling before Napoleon during her coronation at Notre Dame (c) Jacques-Louis David

Première distribution des décorations de la Légion d "honneur dans l" église des Invalides, le 14 juillet 1804.
Tableau de Jean-Baptiste Debret, 1812. Musée national du château de Versailles.

Battle of Austerlitz, 1810 (c) François Pascal Simon Gérard (1770-1837)

Tomb of Napoleon in the Invalides. The material for the production of the monument erected here, sculpted from a rare Ural stone, was kindly donated to the French government by Emperor Alexander III.

34th King of France (not crowned)
Louis XVIII, fr. Louis XVIII (Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, FR.Louis Stanislas Xavier) (November 17, 1755, Versailles - September 16, 1824, Paris) - King of France (1814-1824, with a break in 1815), brother of Louis XVI, who wore during his reign the title of Count of Provence (fr. comte de Provence) and the honorary naming of Monsieur (fr. Monsieur), and then, during emigration, took the title of count de Lille. He took the throne as a result of the Bourbon Restoration, which followed the overthrow of Napoleon I.

35th King of France
Charles X (fr. Charles X; October 9, 1757, Versailles - November 6, 1836, Herz, Austria, now Gorizia in Italy), King of France from 1824 to 1830, the last representative of the senior line of Bourbons on the French throne.

Louis Philippe I - 36th King of France
Louis-Philippe I (fr. Louis-Philippe Ier, October 6, 1773, Paris - August 26, 1850, Claremont, Surrey, near Windsor). Lieutenant General of the Kingdom from July 31 to August 9, 1830, King of France from August 9, 1830 to February 24, 1848 (according to the constitution he was titled "King of the French", roi des Français), received the nickname "Citizen King" ("le Roi-Citoyen") , a representative of the Orleans branch of the Bourbon dynasty. The last monarch of France to hold the title of king.

Louis-Philippe Orleans, leaving the Palais-Royal, proceeds to the city hall, July 31, 1830,
two days after the July revolution. 1832

Louis Philippe Orléans, appointed Lieutenant General, arrives at the Hôtel de Ville

Napoleon III Bonaparte
Napoleon III Bonaparte (French Napoléon III Bonaparte, full name Charles Louis Napoleon (French Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte); April 20, 1808 - January 9, 1873) - President of the French Republic from December 20, 1848 to December 1, 1852, Emperor of the French from 1 December 1852 to September 4, 1870 (from September 2, 1870 was in captivity). The nephew of Napoleon I, after a series of conspiracies to seize power, came to her peacefully as the president of the republic (1848). Having carried out the coup of 1851 and eliminating the legislative power, through "direct democracy" (plebiscite), he established an authoritarian police regime and a year later proclaimed himself emperor of the Second Empire.

After ten years of rather tight control, the Second Empire, which became the embodiment of the ideology of Bonapartism, moved on to some democratization (1860s), which was accompanied by the development of the French economy and industry. A few months after the adoption of the liberal constitution of 1870, which returned the rights to parliament, the Franco-Prussian war put an end to Napoleon's rule, during which the emperor was captured by Germany and never returned to France. Napoleon III was the last monarch of France.

Napoleon Eugene
Napoleon Eugène (Napoleon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, French Napoleon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph, Prince Impérial; March 16, 1856 - June 1, 1879) - Prince of the Empire and the son of France, was the only child of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie Montijo. The last heir to the French throne, who never became emperor.

Heir
Before his birth, the heir to the Second Empire was the uncle of Napoleon III, the younger brother of Napoleon I, Jerome Bonaparte, whose relations with the emperor's children were strained. Starting a family has been a political challenge for Napoleon III since the proclamation of the empire on December 2, 1852; being single at the time of the seizure of power, the newly-made emperor was looking for a bride from the reigning house, but was forced to be content already in 1853 with a marriage with the Spanish noblewoman Eugenia Montijo. The birth of a son to the Bonaparte couple, after three years of marriage, was widely celebrated in the state; from the cannons in the House of Invalids, a salute of 101 shots was given. Pope Pius IX became the prince's godfather in absentia. From the moment of birth (childbirth, according to the French royal tradition, took place in the presence of the highest dignitaries of the state, including the children of Jerome Bonaparte), the prince of the empire was considered the successor of his father; he was the last French heir to the throne and the last bearer of the title "Son of France". He was known as Louis or, diminutive, Prince Lulu.

The heir was brought up in the Tuileries palace together with his maternal cousins, the Princess Alba. Since childhood, he was fluent in English and Latin, and also received a good mathematical education.

At the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the 14-year-old prince accompanied his father to the front and, near Saarbrücken, on August 2, 1870, bravely accepted his baptism of fire; the sight of the war, however, caused him a psychological crisis. After his father was captured on September 2 and the empire was declared deposed in the rear, the prince was forced to leave Chalon for Belgium, and from there to Great Britain. He settled with his mother at the Camden House estate in Chislhurst, Kent (now within the boundaries of London), where Napoleon III, who was freed from German captivity, then arrived.

Dynasty head
After the death of the ex-emperor in January 1873 and the 18th birthday of the prince, in March 1874, the Bonapartist party proclaimed "Prince Lulu" a contender for the imperial throne and head of the dynasty as Napoleon IV (French Napoléon IV). His opponents in the struggle for influence over the French monarchists were the Legitimist party led by Count Chambord, grandson of Charles X, and the Orleanist party led by Count of Paris, grandson of Louis Philippe I (the latter also lived in Great Britain).

The prince had a reputation for being a charming and talented young man, and his personal life was impeccable. His chances of restoring power in France during the unstable existence of the Third Republic in the 1870s were quoted quite high (especially since the card of the Count of Chambord was actually won back after he abandoned the tricolor banner in 1873). Napoleon IV was considered an enviable groom, in her diary, half in jest, Maria Bashkirtseva mentions the possibility of marriage with him. At one time the project of a marriage between him and the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Beatrice, was discussed.

The prince entered the British War College at Woolwich, graduated in 1878 in the 17th grade, and began serving in the artillery (like his great great-uncle). He became friends with representatives of the Swedish royal family (King Oscar II of Sweden was a descendant of Napoleonic Marshal Jean Bernadotte (Charles XIV Johan) and great-grandson of Josephine Beauharnais).

Doom
After the outbreak of the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879, the prince of the empire, with the rank of lieutenant, voluntarily went to this war. Many biographers believe that the reason for this fatal act is the dependence on his mother that burdened the young Napoleon.

After arriving in South Africa (Natal), he almost did not participate in clashes with the Zulus, since the commander-in-chief, Lord Chelmsford, fearing political consequences, ordered to monitor him and prevent his participation in the conflict. However, on June 1, Napoleon and Lieutenant Carey with a small detachment went to the same kraal for reconnaissance (reconnaissance). Not noticing anything suspicious, the group settled down for a halt near the Itotosi River. There they were attacked by a group of 40 Zulu and put to flight: two Britons were killed, and then the prince, who fiercely defended himself. On his body were found 31 wounds from the Zulu Assegais; the blow to the eye was certainly fatal. In British society, the question was discussed whether Lieutenant Carey had fled from the battlefield, leaving the prince to his fate. The prince died just a month before the capture by the British in July 1879 of the Zulu king's kraal near Ulundi and the end of the war.

The death of Napoleon Eugene led to the loss of virtually all the Bonapartists' hopes for the restoration of their home in France; the domination of the family passed to the inactive and unpopular descendants of Jerome Bonaparte (however, before the fatal departure to Africa, the prince appointed his next-generation cousin, "Prince Napoleon", known as "Plon-Plon", as his successor due to his bad reputation , and the son of the latter, Prince Victor, he is Napoleon V). On the other hand, just in the year of the death of the prince (1879) in the Elysee Palace of the monarchist Marshal MacMahon was replaced by a convinced republican President Jules Grevy, under whom the monarchist conspiracies (see Boulanger) were defeated and the state system of the Third Republic was consolidated.

Memory
The prince's body was brought by ship to England and buried in Chislehurt, and later, along with his father's ashes, was transferred to a special mausoleum erected for husband and son by Eugenia in the imperial crypt of St. Michael's Abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire. Evgenia, according to British law, was supposed to identify her son's body, but it was so mutilated that only a postoperative scar on her thigh helped her. The funeral was attended by Victoria, Prince Edward of Wales, all the Bonapartes and several thousand Bonapartists. Evgenia herself, who survived her relatives for almost half a century, was buried there in 1920.

The prince was painted as a child by many famous artists in Europe, including the portraitist of the monarchs Franz Xavier Wintergalter. In the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, there is a marble statue by Jean-Baptiste Carpo, which is part of the museum, depicting a 10-year-old prince with a dog, Nero. The sculpture gained great fame and became the subject of numerous replicas (after the fall of the empire, the Sevres manufactory produced replica figurines under the name "Child with a Dog").

In 1998, in honor of the prince, the asteroid-moon "Little Prince" was named in honor of the prince, a satellite of the asteroid Eugene named after his mother. The name refers, in addition to Napoleon IV, to the famous story of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, where the Little Prince lives on his own little planet. The official explanation for the choice of the name of the planet emphasizes the parallels between the two princes - Napoleon and the hero Exupery (both princes were young, brave and short, left their cozy world, their journey ended tragically in Africa). Perhaps this coincidence is not accidental, and Prince Lulu really served as the prototype for the hero of Exupery (there are indications of this in the English and Polish Wikipedia).

Louis XV Bourbon (Louis Le Bien-Aime, Louis the Beloved) (February 15, 1710, Versailles - May 10, 1774, ibid.), King of France from September 1, 1715. Great-grandson, the youngest of the surviving children of Louis of Burgundy and Mary-Adelaide of Savoy.

The future king was orphaned at the age of two: his entire family died from smallpox and, as many courtiers were sure, from incompetent treatment. Little Louis was hidden from doctors by a devoted educator, the Duchess de Vantadour. After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, the five-year-old boy becomes King of France, and Duke Philippe of Orleans becomes regent. He was devoted to Louis, but, wanting to educate the heir to the greatness of the "Sun King", treated him with respect and aloofness. The king grew up to be withdrawn, proud and at the same time shy person. In 1721, the regent announced the engagement of Louis to a two-year-old cousin, a Spanish infant, who had arrived in France and lived at court as the royal bride.

After the death of the Duke of Orleans in December 1723, Duke Louis Heinrich of Condé-Bourbon became the first minister, who decided to marry the king as soon as possible. The Spanish Infanta was still quite a child and was sent back home. She subsequently became the Portuguese queen. For Louis, an age-appropriate Catholic princess (although she is 7 years older than the king) turned out to be Maria Leshchinskaya, the daughter of the former Polish king Stanislav Leshchinsky. At first, the marriage with Leshchinskaya was happy: by the age of twenty-seven, the king had seven children, but the company of his wife, a colorless and ordinary woman, did not satisfy Louis. The dynastic connection with Stanislav Leszczynski drew France into an unsuccessful war for her for the Polish succession (1733-1738).

Disappointed in his wife, the king began to have mistresses. It soon became clear that he was able to make government decisions under female influence: for example, one of the metresses, the Marquis de Ventimius, convinced the king to enter the war for the Austrian succession. In 1744, having gone to his army in Metz, the king fell dangerously ill; in order to receive communion, he was forced to agree to remove his mistress, but, not being satisfied with this, the churchmen forced him to repent publicly, hanging, moreover, the text of repentance in all the churches of the country. Having recovered to the jubilation of the people, who then called the king "Beloved", he remembered the "history in Metz" with disgust until the end of his life, maintaining a strained relationship with the church.

In 1726, Cardinal Fleury, former tutor to the king, replaced Condé as first minister; until his death in 1744, all state affairs were in the jurisdiction of the cardinal, although in 1743 the king announced his intention to reign independently. In 1745, Madame Pompadour became Louis's mistress, whose influence on state affairs was decisive. The king was little involved in internal affairs, but he tried to influence international affairs with the help of a specially organized (about 1747-1748) secret service "The King's Secret", whose agents were at all European courts. Despite such skillful and extraordinary agents as, for example, the Chevalier d'Eon, France really received few benefits. In 1756, not without Madame Pompadour's efforts, the country entered the Seven Years War, after which France lost its North American and Indian possessions. - the appointment of the Duke de Choiseul was more successful, he managed to some extent to restore the military power of the country.In 1757 an attempt was made on Louis XV.

After the death of Pompadour, she was succeeded by Madame DuBarry, who did not even possess the understanding of state interests that Pompadour had; in addition, there was a whole royal "harem" near Versailles. Despite the successful development of French industry, the huge spending of the king and his mistresses caused serious discontent. The state of finances was dire. The conflict with the church, especially with the Jesuits (expelled from France in 1764), was aggravated by the conflict with the Jansenists within the French church itself. In the last years of the reign of Louis, a conflict was added with the Paris Parliament, which sought reforms of the judicial system, the convocation of the States General and financial reforms. Chancellor Rene de Maupe managed to extinguish the conflict by abolishing the sale of judicial offices, but in general the archaic feudal system was not reformed. The fall in morality encouraged by the king provoked a protest from the whole society, not a single problem was solved, but only postponed, and Louis, who came to the throne with the full rejoicing of the whole people, died, hated by everyone, from smallpox. His catchphrase became the motto of his reign: "After us, even a flood." The reign of Louis XV marks the crisis of French absolutism.

Everyone knows the phrase of Louis XIV "The State is me!" The 72-year reign of the "Sun King" was the heyday of absolute monarchy in France. But, as you know, the peak is always followed by an inevitable downhill movement. It was this fate that befell the next king, Louis XV. Since childhood, he was surrounded by excessive care, which then resulted in the shifting of his duties onto others, unbridled debauchery and critical devastation of the treasury.

The Sun King's successor was his grandson. At the end of the reign of Louis XIV, his successors began to die one after another. In 1711, his only son died, and a year later the family of the future Louis XV died of measles. The 2-year-old baby was brought out by his teacher, the Duchess de Vantatour. She forbade the court doctors to approach the boy and bleed him.

Louis XV came to the throne at the age of 5. His uncle Philippe of Orleans became regent. While the regent was weaving court intrigues, the little king was surrounded by excessive tutelage. Everyone was afraid for the life of the monarch, since he did not yet have direct heirs. In the event of the death of the little king, the Bourbon dynasty would end, and the institution of monarchy in France would be shaken.

It is for this reason that the king was married when he was barely 15 years old. His wife was 22-year-old Maria Leshchinskaya, daughter of the retired king of Poland Stanislav. She gave birth to 10 children to Louis XV, of whom 7 survived to adulthood.

When the king was 16 years old, he announced that he would rule on his own without a regent. But in fact, the young monarch liked balls and feasts more than the conduct of state affairs. In fact, the government of the country was taken over by the spiritual mentor and educator of Louis XV, Cardinal Fleury.

The king loved to buy paintings and fine pieces of furniture. He favored artists, musicians, encouraged the development of science. But the greatest passion of the monarch was women. Louis XV changed favorites like gloves. In 1745, banker Joseph Paris, wishing to get closer to the king, introduced him to the 23-year-old beauty Jeanne-Antoinette d'Etiol. As it turned out, this relationship dragged on for many years.

Six months later, the monarch granted his favorite the title of Marquise de Pompadour, and a year later he presented her with a 6 hectare plot of Versailles Park.

The Marquise de Pompadour was close to the king not only in bed, but also became his friend and de facto adviser in state affairs. It was at her will that ministers were appointed and overthrown.

The reluctance of the king to deal with the affairs of the country, the influence of the favorite on domestic and foreign policy had a detrimental effect on the French economy. If in the early years of the reign of Louis XV, things went on a knurled one, then then everything began to rapidly deteriorate. In 1756, the king dragged the country into the Seven Years War, not without the influence of the Marquise de Pompadour. Participation in a military conflict not only did not ruin France, but also deprived her of several colonies.

Well, the monarch himself was not worried about it much. He preferred to move further and further from public affairs and spend time with his favorites in the "Deer Park" - a mansion built in the vicinity of Versailles.

Oddly enough, but the construction of the house belonged to the Marquis de Pompadour. The woman understood that her beauty was fading, but the love of the king remained the same. Therefore, she decided to select mistresses for the monarch herself. The older the king got, the more young the ladies were. 15-17 year old beauties appeased the insatiable king.

In honor of them, he arranged balls, gave expensive gifts, lands, castles. All this had an extremely detrimental effect on the treasury. When the Marquis de Pompadour died at the age of 42, the king completely ceased to be interested in the affairs of the country.

In 1771, Louis XV wished to once again raise taxes so that there was something to pay for entertainment. However, the parliament opposed this idea. Then, by order of the monarch, the soldiers dispersed the parliament by force. This provoked discontent not only among the aristocrats, but also among the common people. To the comments of the courtiers about the unstable situation in the country and the empty treasury, Louis replied: "After Us, even a flood!" In 1774, another mistress of the king infected him with smallpox, which caused the monarch to die suddenly.

Louis XV was lucky not to see the "flood". The reign of the successor to the monarch Louis XVI ended ingloriously on the guillotine.

The most widely used guillotine was in France during the French Revolution. But after all

Louis XV

Louis XV (15.II.1710 - 10.V.1774) - king from 1715, from the Bourbon dynasty, inherited his great-grandfather Louis XIV... Until 1723, Duke Philip of Orleans was regent. After Louis XV came of age, the government of France was in the hands of the Duke of Bourbon (1723-1726) and the former tutor of Louis XV, Cardinal Fleury (1726-1743). In 1725, Louis XV married Maria Leshchinsky (daughter of Stanislav Leshchinsky). Although in 1743 Louis XV announced his intention to rule on his own, he did not continue to deal with private affairs, power was seized by his favorites (the Marquise Pompadour, Countess of Dubarry), who at their own discretion appointed and removed ministers. Louis XV was absorbed in hunting, festivities, and other amusements. The extravagance of Louis XV threw the treasury into disarray. In 1757, an attempt was made on Louis XV. During the reign of Louis XV, the crisis of French absolutism sharply intensified.

Soviet Historical Encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 8, KOSHALA - MALTA. 1965.

Sources: Barbier E., Chronique de la Régence et du règne de Louis XV, v. 1-8, P., 1857.

Literature: Saint-André G., Louis XV, P., 1921.

Other biographical materials:

Nothing boded that he would ever become king ( All the monarchs of the world. Western Europe. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 1999).

The time of Louis XV ( History of France. (editor-in-chief A.Z. Manfred). In three volumes. Volume 1.M., 1972).