LOUIS XV., born in February 1710, was the only snrviving son of the Due de Bourgogne, eldest son of Louis the Dauphin, son of Louis XIV. The dauphin died in 1711, and his son the Due de Bour gogne died in 1712. The younger brother of the Duc do Bourgogne was Philip, duke of Anjou, afterwards Philip V. of Spain, who, except his nephew Louis XV., was the only legitimate descendant of Louis XIV. who survived that king. Tho mother of Louis XV. was Maria Adelaide of Savoy, who died in 1712. Philippe d'Orleans, son of Philippe de France, brother of Louis XIV., and the head of the actual Orleans branch of the Bourbons, was appointed regent. Louis XIV. had by his will appointed a council of regency, at the head of which was the Due d'Urleans, but the parliament of Paris acknowledged the duke as sole regent. In gratitude the regent issued on the 15th of September a declaration, in the name of the king, restoring to the parliament the right of making remonstrances on the royal edicts, letters patent, and declarations, before it registered them.
The Due d'Orleans had acquired an unfavourable reputation as a man of licentious habits, and as destitute of religious and moral principles. This corruption was partly ascribed to the Abbe Dubois, an unprincipled man, who had been his preceptor, continued to be his favourite, and was afterwards his minister. Vicious as the duke was, lie was accused of crimes of which he was guiltless. Tho sudden death of the children and grandchildren of Louis XIV. at short intervals from each other had given rise to horrible auspicious, which have been since generally rejected. The 'Mei:noires de St. Simon,' already quoted, which include the period of the regency, contain the most correct sketch of the character of the Duc &Orleans, a character not rightly understood till the publication of that work.
The regent began well : he reformed several of the most outrageous abuses of the late reign ; ho liberated a number of individuals who had been for years immured in the Bastille ; he enforced economy, reduced the army, supported the general peace of Europe, courted the friendship of England, concluded the triple alliance of le Hague in 1717, between France, England and Holland, and gave up altogether the cause of the Pretender. Unfortunately for him and for France, the disorder in which he found the finances, and the fearful deficiency in the revenue, made him listen to the wild schemes of Law, which ended in disappointment and tho ruin of thousands of families. [Law, Joitie.] Philip V. of Spain, or rather his minister Alberoni, had encouraged a conspiracy against the Due &Orleans, the object of which was to excite a revolution against him, to deprive him of the regency by a resolution of the three ettatca of the kingdom, and to place Philip himself at the head of the regency. The plot was discovered, several of the leaders, who were chiefly in Brittany, were punished by death, and In 1719 the regent declared war against Spain. The war however
did not last long : Alberoni was dismissed and banished by his sove reign, and Philip of Spain made peace with France in 1720. [ALBE Roan.] In 1722 Dubois, who had been made a cardinal, became prime minister of France.
In February 1723, Louie XV., having completed his fourteenth year, was declared of age, and the regency of the Due d'Orleaus terminated. The same year Dubois died, and was followed to the grave by the Duc d'Orleans a few months after. The Due de Bourbon, Conde, was made prime minister, and governed France until 1726. It was pro posed to marry Louis XV. to Mademoiselle de Sens, the duke's sister ; but she refuse', and preferred a life of retirement to a throne. Louis married in 1725 Maria Leczineka, daughter of Stanislaus, ex-king of Poland, and In the following year the Due de Bourbon was dismissed from the ministry, and the Abbe de Fleury, tho king's preceptor, and afterwards cardinal, was substituted for him. The seventeen years of Fleury's administration, which ended with his death in 1743, were the best period of the reign of Louis. [FLEURY, ANDRE HERCULES.] Fleury restored order in the finances, and credit and commerce revived. In 1733 the war of the Polish succession broke out, by the death of King Augustus II., when Louis XV. took the part of his father-in-law Stanislaus, the old rival of Augustus, against Austria and Russia, who supported the son of Augustus. [Aueusrus.] The war was carried on between France and Austria both on the Rhine and in Italy. In tho latter country the French, being joined by the Spaniards and the King of Sardinia, obtained great success. Don Carlos, sou of Philip V., conquered the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, and thus a third Bourbon dynasty was founded in Europe. Peace was made in 1736, by which the duchy of Lorraine was given to Stanislaus for his life, to be united after his death to the crown of France. Francis, duke of Lorraine, had Tuscany in exchange. In 1741 the war of the Austrian succession broke out, in which France took part, against the advice of Fleury, who was overruled by the king and the courtiers. In 1743 Fleury died, and Louis declared that he would govern by himself, and without any prime minister. The war continued till 1748, when it was terminated by the treaty of Aix-la Chapelle. France derived no advantage from this murderous and expensive war, and Maria Theresa remained in possession of her father's dominions. Louis XV. was present at the battle of Fontenoi, in May 1745, between the English, commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, and the French, commanded by Marshal de Saxe, in which both armies fought with the greatest obstinacy and suffered most severely ; the French however claithed the victory.