Le Grand Dauphin
| Louis of France | |||||
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| Dauphin of France | |||||
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Louis by Hyacinthe Rigaud
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| Born |
1 November 1661 Château de Fontainebleau, France |
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| Died | 14 April 1711 (aged 49) Château de Meudon, France |
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| Burial | 28 April 1711 Royal Basilica of Saint Denis, France |
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| Spouse |
Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin |
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| Issue Detail |
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| House | House of Bourbon | ||||
| Father | Louis XIV of France | ||||
| Mother | Maria Theresa of Austria | ||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||
| Signature |  |
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| Full name | |
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| Louis de France |
Louis of France (1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711) was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin. He became known as Le Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son, Le Petit Dauphin. As he died before his father, he never became king. He was the grandfather of his father's successor, Louis XV.
Louis was born on 1 November 1661 at the Château de Fontainebleau, the eldest son of the king and queen of France. As a Fils de France ("Son of France") he was entitled to the style of Royal Highness. He was baptised on 24 March 1662 at the chapel of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and given his father's name of Louis. At the ceremony, Cardinal de Vendôme and the Princess of Conti acted as proxies for the godparents, Pope Clement IX and Queen Henrietta Maria of England. The latter was Louis's grand-aunt. For this ceremony, Jean-Baptiste Lully composed the motet Plaude Laetare Gallia.
When Louis reached the age of seven, he was removed from the care of women and placed in the society of men. He received Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier, as his governor and was tutored by Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, the great French preacher and orator, without positive result:
Louis XIV secretly nursed the same suspicious jealousy of the Grand Dauphin that Louis XIII had once shown to himself. No prince could have been less deserving of such feelings. Monseigneur, as the heir to the throne was now known, had inherited his mother's docility and low intelligence. All his life he remained petrified with admiration of his formidable father and stood in fear of him even while lavish proofs of 'affection' were showered upon him. The best way for Monseigneur to do someone an injury was to commend him to the royal favour. He knew it, and did not conceal it from his rare petitioners.
Louis XIV saw to it that his son's upbringing was quite the opposite of his own. Instead of a devoted mother and an affectionate and likeable tutor, the Dauphin had the repellent and misanthropic Duc de Montausier, who ruthlessly applied the same methods that had so disturbed Louis XIII. They annihilated his grandson.
[...]Bossuet overwhelmed his backward pupil with such splendid lessons that the Dauphin developed a lasting horror of books, learning and history. By the age of eighteen, Monseigneur had assimilated almost none of the knowledge amassed to so little purpose, and the apathy of his mind was second only to that of his senses.
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Wikipedia