KING LOUIS XV and LOUIS, DUKE of ORLEANS AUTOGRAPHS ON MILITARY DOCUMENTS - 1725

Description

LOT of Two Rare Original Manuscripts on Vellum from the
archives and collections of
Philippe Van Heurck:
LOUIS XV - The Appointment of Captain in the Regiment of Conde Follin
s
igned by the King Louis XV in Versailles on April 16,
1725.
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved 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.
His reign of almost 59 years (from 1715 to 1774) was the second longest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor and great-grandfather, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years (from 1643 to 1715). In 1748, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France. He was succeeded in 1774 by his grandson Louis XVI, who was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. Two of his other grandsons, Louis XVIII and Charles X, occupied the throne of France after the fall of Napoleon I. Historians generally give his reign very low marks, especially as wars drained the treasury and set the stage for the governmental collapse and French Revolution in the 1780s.
Size: 18.1" x 11.2" (46 cm x 28.5 cm)
DUKE of ORLEANS
- Confirmation of Captain Follin
s
igned by Duke of Orleans in Versailles on April 22,
1725.
Louis, Duke of Orleans
(4 August 1703 – 4 February 1752) was a member of the royal family of France, the House of Bourbon
, and as such was a prince du sang
. At his father's death, he became the First Prince of the Blood
(
Premier Prince du Sang
). Known as
Louis le Pieux
and also as
Louis le Génovéfain
, Louis was a pious
, charitable and cultured prince, who took very little part in the politics of the time.
Upon the death of his maternal grandfather Louis XIV in 1715, his father (the old king's nephew) was selected to be the regent of the country for the five-year-old new king, Louis XV. The court was moved to Paris so his father could govern the country with the young king close by his side. Louis XV was installed in the Palais du Louvre
opposite the Palais-Royal
, the Paris home of the Orleans family. During the regency, Orleans was seen as the "third personage of the kingdom" immediately after Louis XV and his own father, the Regent. He was formally admitted to the
Conseil de Régence
on 30 January 1718. Despite his father's wishes, though, Orleans was never to play an overly public or political role in France. The following year, he was made the governor of the Dauphine
. He was not forced, however, to move there in order to fulfill his new duties. Later, he resigned. In 1720, he became
Grand Master of the Order of Saint-Lazare and Jerusalem
. In 1721, under his father's influence, he was named Colonel general de l'Infanterie
and held that post until 1730.
Size: 12" x 9.2" (30.5 cm x 23.5 cm)