II.

Early Life and Regency of Louis XV

Louis was born at the Palace of Versailles, near Paris, on February 15, 1710. He was the second son of the Duke of Burgundy and Marie-Adelaide of Savoy, and the great-grandson of Louis XIV. After a calamitous series of sudden deaths struck the royal family—his grandfather, the dauphin (heir), in 1711, followed by his parents and elder brother in 1712, of possibly smallpox or measles, and then his uncle, the Grand Dauphin, in 1714—Louis found himself the heir to the throne. With the death of Louis XIV, the young royal acceded to the throne on September 1, 1715, aged five, and was immediately placed by the Parlement (sovereign court of nobles) of Paris under the regency of Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, the nephew of Louis XIV. He was raised first by his governess, Madame de Ventadour, and after 1717 by his ageing governor, Marshal François de Neufville, Duc de Villeroi. In 1715 André Hercule de Fleury, whom Louis would continue to hold in confidence and affection, was appointed his tutor.