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Louis "le Grand Dauphin" Dauphin
of France, (1661-1711)
Born 1 November 1661 Fontainebleau
Died 14 April 1711 Chateau de Meudon
Buried St.Denis
Married (1) 28 January 1680 Muenchen (proxy)
Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria, Pfalzgraefin bei Rhein,
daughter of Ferdinand Maria, Elector von Bayern 1651-1679
and Princess Adelaide Henriette de Savoie
Born 17 November 1660 Muenchen
Died 20 April 1690 Versailles
Married (2) circa 1695 Marle
Marie Emilie de Joly de Choin, Comtesse de Bury,
daughter of Guillaume Claude de Joly, Baron de Choin
and Anne Clemence de Grolee de Mepieu
Born 2 August 1670 Bourg-en-Bresse
Died 1732 Paris
Child by (a) Marie Anne de Caumont La Force
Children by (b) Francoise Pitel, Mademoiselle Raisin,
daughter of Henri Pitel, Sieur de Longchamp and Anne Le Grand
Born circa 1662
Died 30 September 1721 La Davoisiere, Normandy
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As an army officer the Dauphin had proved disappointing. He had cleared
the Paris region of wolves, but it was abundantly plain that he would never
clear the Netherlands of France's enemies. He was a dutiful, obedient son,
but dull and heavy. His wife, a plain and melancholic Bavarian princess,
gave him three sons before dying in 1690. The Dauphin then secretly married
Mademoiselle Choin, of whom his aunt, Liselotte, says: "She had the hugest
bosom I ever saw; these enormous charms of hers were the Dauphin's delight."
There had been some question of putting the Dauphin at the head of
the Flanders army, but Louis XIV decided against it. The life of the next
king was too valuable to risk. So Monseigneur continued his wolf-hunting.
At Marly he would sit in a corner whistling and tapping his snuff-box,
or scanning the births and deaths column in the Gazette. He attended Councils
regularly. Louis XIV could not have wished for a kinder, more straightforward
or more respectful son. He was popular, especially with servants, but curiously
detached, as
though he believed the horoscope cast thirty years earlier: fils de
roi, pere de roi, jamais roi (son of a king, father of a king, but never
a king).
On April 8th 1711, Monseigneur, who had just left his Chateau of Meudon
on his way to hunt the stag, saw a priest go by carrying Communion to a
sick man. He dismounted to kneel in respect, then asked what was the matter
with the sick man and was told that he had
smallpox. Monseigneur had had smallpox slightly as a child but was
still afraid of it, and that evening he said to Boudin, his doctor, that
he would not be surprised if he caught it again. Next morning he got up
as usual, intending to go wolf-hunting, but turned faint while
dressing and was put to bed. As soon as Louis XIV heard the news he
moved to Meudon; he saw his son morning and evening, spending a long time
at his bedside. On the 14th Monseigneur seemed better; fishwives arrived
from Paris in a hired coach, kissed his bed and promised to have a Te Deum
sung. "When I'm really better," he said. He ordered them to be given a
good dinner and some money. However, he died around midnight on the 14th.
Source: Leo van de Pas |
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