French Regency

La Régence
Philippe with Marie-Thérèse de Parabère; Jean-Baptiste Santerre, 1716
Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans
In office 1 September 1715 – 15 February 1723
Monarch	Louis XV of France
Prime Minister	Guillaume Dubois (in 1723)

The Régence (French pronunciation: ​[ʁeʒɑ̃s], Regency) was the period in French history between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and the land was governed by Philippe d'Orléans, a nephew of Louis XIV of France, as prince regent.

Philippe was able to take power away from the Duke of Maine (illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan) who had been the favourite son of the late king and possessed much influence. From 1715 to 1718 the Polysynody changed the system of government in France, in which each minister (secretary of state) was replaced by a council. The système de Law was also introduced, which transformed the finances of the bankrupted kingdom and its aristocracy. Both Cardinal Dubois and Cardinal Fleury were highly influential during this time.

Contemporary European rulers included Philip V of Spain, John V of Portugal, George I of Great Britain, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, the maternal grandfather of Louis XV.

There were seven parts of the Polysynody all of which had their own ministers for the Regency:

The Men

The Women

The Régence marks the temporary eclipse of Versailles as centre of policymaking, since the Regent's court was at the Palais Royal in Paris. It marks the rise of Parisian salons as cultural centres, as literary meeting places and nuclei of discreet liberal resistance to some official policies. In the Paris salons aristocrats mingled more easily with the higher Bourgeoisie in a new atmosphere of relaxed decorum, comfort and intimacy.