Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: Who ruled before Louis XV?
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé),[1] was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defined as his 13th birthday) on 15 February 1723, the kingdom was ruled by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was his chief minister from 1726 until the Cardinal's death in 1743, at which time the young king took sole control of the kingdom.
On the death of Louis XIV in September 1715, the new king, Louis XV, was but five years old. The country was then governed by the new king's older relative Philippe II d'Orléans as the regent of France. This period in French history is known as the Regency ("La Régence"), and gave the "House of Orléans" the pre-eminent position and political role in France during the king's minority. The regent ruled France from his family residence in Paris, the Palais-Royal. He installed the young Louis XV in the Palais du Louvre which was opposite the Palais-Royal.
Louis XV Style Louis XV furniture Rocaille List of French monarchs Kingdom of Navarre Cabriole leg Étienne François, Duc de Choiseul Suppression of the Jesuits Louis heel, a shoe heel shape named after Louis XV. Mesdames de France Outline of France List of famous big game hunters
When the court of King Louis XV returned to Versailles in 1722, the city had 24,000 inhabitants. With the reign of Louis XV, Versailles grew even further. Versailles was the capital of the most powerful kingdom in Europe, and the whole of Europe admired its new architecture and design trends. Soon enough, the strict building rules decided under Louis XIV were not respected anymore, real estate speculation flourished, and the lots that had been given for free under Louis XIV were now on the market for hefty prices. By 1744, the population reached 37,000 inhabitants. The cityscape changed considerably under kings Louis XV and Louis XVI. Buildings were now taller. King Louis XV built a Ministry of War, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the American Revolutionary War was signed in 1783 with the United Kingdom), and a Ministry of the Navy. By 1789, the population had reached 60,000 inhabitants, and Versailles was now the seventh or eighth-largest city of France, and one of the largest cities of Europe.
In that same year, a faction of Polish nobles offered Conti the throne of Poland, where King Augustus III was expected to die soon. Conti was able to win the personal support of Louis XV of France for his candidacy. However, the policy of the king's ministers was to establish the ruling house of Saxony upon the throne in Poland, as Louis XV's daughter-in-law, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, was a daughter of the ailing Augustus. As a result of this conflict, Louis XV began secret communications with his ambassadors at certain influential foreign courts that were in direct opposition to the official communications being sent to those same ambassadors by his ministers. The system of couriers used to relay the king's secret messages developed later into a spy-network known as the "Secret du Roi".
The financial strain imposed by the wars and excesses of the royal court, and the consequent dissatisfaction with the monarchy, contributed to the national unrest that culminated in the French Revolution of 1789.[131] The historian Colin Jones argued in 2011 that Louis XV left France with serious financial difficulties: "The military disasters of the Seven Years' War led to acute state financial crisis.".[132] Ultimately, he wrote, Louis XV failed to overcome these fiscal problems, mainly because he was incapable of pulling together conflicting parties and interests in his entourage. Although aware of the forces of anti-monarchism threatening his family's rule, he did not do anything to stop them.[133]
=Marie-Louise O'Murphy=
The woman seen in the painting is Marie-Louise O'Murphy, an Irish woman who was also known as Louison. She was born in 1737 and at the age of 14 became the youngest mistress to King Louis XV. She was only 14 years old when she modeled for this painting, which is most likely why Boucher chose to paint the back of her. After the painting was commissioned by the French court of the Ancien Régime, The King was so intrigued by the painting that he summoned her for himself. She stayed with The king for two years before she was seen as a threat to The Kings other mistresses and was caught asking the King personal questions. She was later asked to leave the Parc-aux-Cerfs, which was what Louis XV's secret brothel was called. Madame De Pompadour, Louis XV's most famous mistress, would regularly dismiss young mistresses for trying to get closer to Louis XV, these accusations are often overlooked.
In May 1715, a few months before the Sun-King's death, Fleury became tutor to Louis' great-grandson and heir, and in spite of a seeming lack of ambition, he acquired an influence over the child that was never broken, fostered by Louis' love and confidence. On the death of the regent Philippe d'Orléans in 1723, Louis XV came of age. Fleury, although already seventy years of age, deferred his own supremacy by suggesting the appointment of Louis Henri, duke of Bourbon, as first minister. Fleury was present at all interviews between Louis XV and his titular first minister, and on Bourbon's attempt to break through this rule Fleury retired from court. Louis made Bourbon recall the tutor, who on 11 July 1726 took affairs into his own hands and secured the exile from court of Bourbon and of his mistress Madame de Prie. He continued to refuse the formal title of first minister, but his elevation to cardinal, in 1726, confirmed his precedence over any others.
The petit appartement du roi () of the Palace of Versailles is a suite of rooms used by Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI. Located on the first floor of the palace, the rooms are found in the oldest part of the palace dating from the reign of Louis XIII. Under Louis XIV, these rooms housed the king’s collections of artworks and books, forming a museum of sorts. Under Louis XV and Louis XVI, the rooms were modified to accommodate private living quarters. At this time, the rooms were transformed and their decoration represent some of the finest extant examples of the "style Louis XV" and "style Louis XVI" at Versailles (Kimball, 1943).
From 1715–1774 Louis XV was the ruling King of France. During his reign many people faced famine and other struggles, living in a society in need of reform. Louis the XV was criticized for his lack of leadership, which hindered necessary reforms from being made. In 1774 when his successor Louis XVI took the throne, he worked early on to restore order within the kingdom. One of the first things he did was appoint Jacques Turgot as the Minister of Finances.
Louis's formal style was "Très haut, très puissant et très excellent Prince Louis XV, par la grâce de Dieu, roi de France et de Navarre", or "Most high, most potent and most excellent Prince Louis XV, by the Grace of God, King of France and of Navarre".
Her establishment in France was not to be. Under the influence of the Prime Minister Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon and his mistress Madame de Prie, the decision was made to send the seven-year-old Mariana Victoria back to Spain on 11 March 1725. Bourbon had wanted to maintain influence over the young Louis XV and offered his sister Henriette Louise de Bourbon as a potential wife who, unlike Mariana Victoria, was old enough to conceive. The situation was not helped by the Spanish rejection of Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans whose husband died having ruled as Louis I of Spain for only seven months. As their marriage had not been consummated, the Spanish refused to support her and ordered she return to France with her sister Philippine Élisabeth. Mariana Victoria left Versailles on 5 April 1725 and travelled to the frontier where she and the two Orléans daughters were then exchanged. Louis XV subsequently married Marie Leszczyńska in September 1725 and Mariana Victoria's sister the Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela married Louis XV's son in 1745 to reassure the insulted Spanish court.
Louis, Dauphin of France (4 September 1729 – 20 December 1765) was the elder and only son of King Louis XV of France and his wife, Queen Marie Leszczyńska to survive to adulthood. He had a younger brother, Philippe, who died as a toddler. As a son of the king, Louis was a "fils de France". As heir apparent, he became Dauphin of France. However, he died before ascending to the throne. Three of his sons became kings of France: Louis XVI (reign: 1774–1792), Louis XVIII (reign: 1814–1815; 1815–1824) and Charles X (reign: 1824–1830).
The Duchy of Parma was by this time ruled more or less as a French puppet state by minister Guillaume du Tillot. Du Tillot kept Ferdinand out of politics, and was favored by the maternal grandfather of Duke Ferdinand, Louis XV of France. A letter of Louis XV to his grandson dated May 1769 attests to this, wherein he counseled his grandson not to despise the minister who served his parents well; moreover, there was no one to replace him, said the French king. The marriage had been arranged by Austria and Spain to end the pro-French policy in Parma and replace it with an Austrian and Spanish one. Upon her arrival, Maria Amalia was expected to submit to the wishes of Du Tillot, who regarded her with suspicion, which immediately caused a conflict.
Antoine, Michel, Louis XV (1989), ˙Hachette Pluriel, Paris (in French); ISBN2-01-017818-1 Bluche, François, Louis XV (2003), Éditions Perrin, Paris (in French); ISBN978-2-262-02021-7 Ducher, Robert, Caractéristique des Styles, (1988), Flammarion, Paris (In French); ISBN2-08-011539-1 Guéganic, Anne-Laure, Louis XV: Le Règne fastueux, (2008), Éditions Atlas, Paris (in French); ISBN978-2-7312-3798-6
Jeffrey Merrick wrote in 1986 that Louis XV's weak and ineffective rule accelerated the general decline that culminated in the French Revolution in 1789. The king was a notorious womaniser; the monarch's virility was supposed to be another way in which his power was manifested. Nevertheless, Merrick wrote, popular faith in the monarchy was shaken by the scandals of Louis’ private life and by the end of his life he had become despised.[137]
The guest of honour at the baptism of "Mademoiselle du Maine" was the small dauphin, the future Louis XV, who was chaperoned by Maine's other sister, the new Duchess of Orléans. The cardinal de Rohan baptised "Mademoiselle du Maine". Thanks to the help of Madame de Maintenon, who had always loved Maine, Louis XIV created Maine a "Prince of the Blood" which put him in line of succession to the throne. In his will, Louis XIV also appointed Maine to be the Regent of France for his five-year-old great-grandson, the future Louis XV.
The persecution of Huguenots under Louis XV refers to hostile activities against French Protestants between 1715 and 1774 during the reign of Louis XV.
In 1723, the Duke of Bourbon had become the Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. The Regent was highly dominated by his lover, Madame de Prie. There were long-ongoing negotiations of a marriage between Marie and the now widowed Duke of Bourbon: Madame de Prie favored the match, as she did not perceive the reputedly unattractive Marie as a threat to her. The marriage negotiations, however, were soon overshadowed when a marriage for King Louis XV was given priority. That same year, the young king fell ill and, fearing the consequences of the unmarried king dying without an heir, the Duc suggested getting the young King married as soon as possible. Louis XV was already engaged, to Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain, who had been brought to France as his future queen some years earlier and was referred to as the Infanta-Queen. However the Infanta was still a child, and could not be expected to conceive for several years; while Louis XV, being fifteen, had already hit puberty. After Louis fell seriously ill, there was a great fear that he would die before he had time to have an heir to the throne. Should that happen, the throne would pass to the Orléans line. This was an undesirable prospect for the Duke of Bourbon, who himself would in fact have preferred that the throne should pass to the Spanish line rather than to the Orléans line. The engagement between Louis XV and the Spanish Infanta was broken, and the latter was sent back to Spain, much to the chagrin of the Spanish. The Duke of Bourbon and Madame de Prie began negotiations for the immediate marriage of the King to Marie.
Louis XV followed the example of Louis XIV. In the later years of his reign Louis constructed a major new square in the center of the city, Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde, with a harmonious row of new buildings designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Following the example of the earlier squares, it featured an equestrian statue of Louis XV, which was pulled down during the French Revolution. Louis XV built other monumental squares following the same architectural model in the centers of Rennes and Bordeaux. Another notable square, Place Stanislas, was built in the city of Nancy, in Lorraine, shortly before that Duchy was formally attached to France.
Under Louis XV, Louis XIV's great-grandson, France lost New France and most of its Indian possessions after its defeat in the Seven Years' War, which ended in 1763. Its European territory kept growing, however, with notable acquisitions such as Lorraine (1766) and Corsica (1770). An unpopular king, Louis XV's weak rule, his ill-advised financial, political and military decisions as well as the debauchery of his court discredited the monarchy, which arguably paved the way for the French Revolution 15 years after his death.
 was not born noble. She used to be a prostitute, and thanks to that she manages to enter into the court by becoming the lover of King Louis XV. When Marie Antoinette becomes princess of France, they become enemies. Maria Theresa of Austria, queen of Austria and mother of Marie Antoinette, sends her advisor, Comte de Mercy, to France. Mercy advises the princess to stop fighting with Du Barry, but Marie Antoinette does not obey the warnings until King Louis XV shows his displeasure with her attitude towards the countess. Marie Antoinette finally speaks to Du Barry. Months later, King Louis XV gets smallpox. Before dying, the bishop, hearing Louis's confession, and orders the removal of the King's sin, that is to say, Madame Du Barry. King Louis XV dies and Du Barry is taken to a convent, where she remains until 1793, the year in which she is guillotined.
In the successive reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, the Hall of Mirrors continued to serve for family and court functions. Embassies, births, and marriages were fêted in this room; however, perhaps the most celebrated event of the 18th century occurred on 25 February 1745: the celebrated "bal des Ifs" (Ball of the Yew Trees). It was during this costume ball that Louis XV, who was dressed as a yew tree, met Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson d'Étiolles, who was costumed as Diana, goddess of the hunt. Jeanne-Antoinette, who became Louis XV's mistress, is better known to history as the Marquise de Pompadour.
Antonio del Giudice was named the Spanish Ambassador to the French Court in 1715 during the reign of Louis XIV of France; Louis XIV died in September that year and his successor, Louis XV of France, aged five, was put under the care of the Duke of Orléans who was a nephew (as well as son-in-law) of the late Louis XIV. Antonio del Giudice went to France during the Regency of Philippe d'Orléans. 
At the instigation of Guillaume Dubois, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, France formed the Quadruple Alliance between England, Holland and the Holy Roman Empire in order to combat the possible personal union between France and Spain, should the five-year-old Louis XV die; Spain was then ruled by Louis XV's uncle, Phillip V, who had been king of Spain since the death of Charles II in 1700. The War of the Spanish Succession had resulted in the Treaty of Utrecht of April 1713; that treaty underlined that neither Philip nor his descendants could inherit the French throne, he having agreed to this previously.
Rousseau had a resounding success in 1756 with his opera Devin du Village, and was invited to Versailles to meet the King, but he refused. Instead, he wrote the Contrat Social calling for a new system based upon political and economic equality, published in 1762. Increasingly solitary and unstable, he wandered from province to province, before returning to Paris, where he died in solitude in 1778. His ideas, composed during the reign of Louis XV, were adopted by the revolutionaries who overthrew Louis XVI in 1789.[120]