Louis de France, Son of France, Duke of Burgundy (duc de Bourgogne), and later Dauphin of France (16 August 1682 – 18 February 1712) was the eldest son of Louis, Dauphin of France, known as le Grand Dauphin and, as such, was known as le Petit Dauphin. He became Dauphin of France upon his father's death in 1711.

Biography

Louis de France was born in the Palace of Versailles

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....

, the eldest son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin, and his wife Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria. At birth, he received the title of Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Saône which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks...

 "duc de Bourgogne". As the son of the Dauphin, he was second in the line of succession to his grandfather, King Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

.

He was a Son of France

Fils de France

Fils de France was the style and rank held by the sons of the kings and dauphins of France. A daughter was known as a fille de France .The children of the dauphin, who was the king's heir apparent, were accorded the same style and status as if they were the king's children instead of his...

which allowed him the predicates of Royal Highness

Royal Highness

Royal Highness is a style ; plural Royal Highnesses...

(rarely used in France at the time except in relations with foreign powers) and of Most High and Powerful Prince (the one more commonly used). This also made him one of the most important men in the kingdom.

Louis grew up with his younger brothers; Philippe de France

Philip V of Spain

Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...

, Duke of Anjou, who was to become King Philip V of Spain; and Charles de France, Duke of Berry. He lost his mother when he was eight. His father never played a major role in politics.

The Duke of Burgundy was reputed to be a difficult child who respected no one, but under the influence of his tutor François Fénelon

François Fénelon

François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon , was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer...

, Archbishop of Cambrai

Cambrai

Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...

, he grew into a very pious and religious man. Fénelon's thoughts and beliefs influenced the young prince throughout his life.

At the age of 15, he married his second cousin, Princess Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy, the daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy

Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia

Victor Amadeus II was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of marquis of Saluzzo, duke of Montferrat, prince of Piedmont, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nizza. Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French influence in the Duchy but Victor Amadeus soon broke away...

 and Anne Marie d'Orléans. This match had been decided as part of the Treaty of Turin, which ended Franco-Savoyard conflicts during the Nine Years' War.

The marriage took place on 7 December 1697 at the Palace of Versailles. The two were in love with one another, a rarity at the court of Versailles.

In 1702, at the age of twenty, the Duke of Burgundy was admitted by Louis XIV to the Conseil d'en haut (High Council), which was in charge of state secrets regarding religion, diplomacy and war. His father had only been admitted to the High Council at the age of thirty.

{| class="toccolours collapsible collapsed" width=100% align="center"
|-
! style="background:#ccccff;"|Family of Louis in 1687
|-
| In 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession

War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...

, Louis was given command of the army in Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

, with the experienced soldier Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme theoretically serving under him. The uncertainty as to which of the two should truly command the army led to delays and the need to refer decisions to Louis XIV. Continued indecision led to French inactivity as messages travelled between the front and Versailles; the Allies were then able to take the initiative. The culmination of this was the Battle of Oudenarde

Battle of Oudenarde

The Battle of Oudenaarde was a key battle in the War of the Spanish Succession fought on 11 July 1708 between the forces of Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire on the one side and the French on the other...

 where the Duke of Bourgogne's mistaken choices and reluctance to support Vendôme led to a decisive defeat for the French. In the aftermath of the defeat, his hesitation to relieve the Siege of Lille

Siege of Lille (1708)

The Siege of Lille was the salient operation of the 1708 campaign season during the War of the Spanish Succession...

 doomed the city and allowed the Allies to make their first incursions onto French soil.

The Duke of Burgundy was influenced by the dévots

Dévots

Dévots was the name given in France in the first half of the 17th century to a party following a Catholic policy of opposition to the Protestants inside France, and alliance with the Catholic Austrian empire abroad....

and was surrounded by a circle of people known as the faction de Bourgogne (Burgundy's faction), which was most notably made up of his old tutor Fénelon, his old governor Paul de Beauvilliers, Duke of Saint-Aignan and his brother-in-law Charles Honoré d'Albert, Duke of Chevreuse, as well as the renowned memorialist, Louis de Rouvroy, Duke of Saint-Simon

Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon

Louis de Rouvroy commonly known as Saint-Simon was a French soldier, diplomatist and writer of memoirs, was born in Paris...

.

These high-ranking aristocrats sought a return to a monarchy less absolute

Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...

 and less centralised, with vast powers granted to the individual provinces. They perceived that government should work through councils and intermediary organs between the king and the people. These intermediary councils were to be made up not by commoners from the bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

 (as the ministers appointed by Louis XIV) but by aristocrats who perceived themselves as the representatives of the people and would assist the king in governance and the exercise of power. Had the Duke of Burgundy succeeded to the throne, he may have applied this concept of monarchy.

Louis became Dauphin of France upon the death of his father in 1711.

In February 1712, his wife contracted measles

Measles

Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...

 and died on the 12th of that month.

The Duke of Burgundy, who dearly loved his wife and who had stayed by her side throughout the fatal illness, contracted the disease and died on 18 February, six days after her. He died at the Château de Marly

Château de Marly

The Château de Marly was a relatively small French royal residence located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris....

 at the age of 29. Both of his sons also became infected, the eldest, Louis, Duke of Brittany, the latest in a series of Dauphins, succumbed to it on 8 March. The only one to survive was the two-year-old Duke of Anjou, the future King Louis XV of France

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

.

{| class="toccolours collapsible collapsed" width=100% align="center"
|-
! style="background:#ccccff;"|Marriage of Louis on 7 December 1697
|-
| The premature death of the Duke of Burgundy precipitated a possible succession crisis as he left as the heir to his seventy-four-year-old grandfather his frail infant son whose chances of survival were thought minimal. It also ruined the hopes of the faction de Bourgogne, whose members would soon die of natural death.

Nonetheless, some of their ideas were put into practice when, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

Philippe d'Orléans was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...

, as Regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

 during Louis XV's minority

Age of majority

The age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as it is conceptualized in law. It is the chronological moment when minors cease to legally be considered children and assume control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thereby terminating the legal control and legal responsibilities of...

, created a form of government known as polysynody

Polysynody

Polysynody was the system of government in use in France between 1715 and 1718 and in which each minister was replaced by a council....

, where each ministry was replaced by a council composed of aristocrats. However, the absenteeism, ineptitude and conflicts of the aristocrats caused this system of governance to fail, and it was soon abandoned in 1718 in favour of a return to the preceding style of rule

Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...

.

Issue

Duke of Brittany
||
|| (25 June 1704
- 13 April 1705)
|| Born at the Palace of Versailles died in infancy of Convulsions at Versailles;
|-
| Louis de France
Duke of Brittany
||
|| (8 January 1707 – 8 March 1712)
|| Born at Versailles he became the Dauphin at the death of his father; he died at Versailles
|-
| X de France

||
|| 1708
|| stillborn at Versailles;
|-
| Louis XV of France

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

King of France and of Navarre
||
|| 15 February 1710 –
10 May 1774
|| Born at Versailles, he ruled France from 1715 till his death; the Régence

Régence

The Régence is the period in French history between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and the land was governed by a Regent, Philippe d'Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV of France....

of 1715-23 was directed by Philippe d'Orléans

Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

Philippe d'Orléans was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...

; he married Maria Leszczyńska

Maria Leszczynska

Marie Leszczyńska was a queen consort of France. She was a daughter of King Stanisław Leszczyński of Poland and Catherine Opalińska. She married King Louis XV of France and was the grandmother of Louis XVI, Louis XVIII, and Charles X. In France, she was referred to as Marie Leczinska...

 and had issue; had descendants such as the present Juan Carlos I of Spain

Juan Carlos I of Spain

Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...

; also had illegitimate issue;
|-
| X de France

||
|| 1712
|| Stillborn at Versailles;
|
|}