Editing Louis XV (section)

==Rule with Cardinal de Fleury (1726–1743)==
===Finances and control of dissent===
[[File:Cardinal de Fleury by Rigaud.jpg|thumb|Cardinal de Fleury by [[Hyacinthe Rigaud]]]]
From 1726 until his death in 1743, Fleury effectively ruled France with the king's assent. Fleury dictated the choices to be made, and encouraged the king's indecision and flattered his pride. He forbade the king to discuss politics with the Queen. In order to save on court expenses, he sent the youngest four daughters of the king to be educated at the Abbey of Fontevrault. On the surface it was the most peaceful and prosperous period of the reign of Louis XV, but it was built upon a growing volcano of opposition, particularly from the noble members of the Parlements, who saw their privileges and power reduced. Fleury made the papal doctrine ''Unigenitus'' part of French law and forbade any debate in Parlement, which caused the silent opposition to grow. He also downplayed the importance of the French Navy, which would prove be a fatal mistake in future conflicts.<ref name="Bluche 53"/>

Fleury showed the King the virtues of a stable government; he kept the same Minister of War, Bauyn d'Angervilliers, and controller of the currency, [[Philibert Orry]], for twelve years, and his minister of foreign affairs, [[Germain Louis Chauvelin]], for ten years. His minister of the Navy and household of the King, the Conte de Maurepas, was in office the entire period.  In all he had just thirteen ministers over the course of nineteen years, while the King, in his last thirty-one years, employed forty-three.<ref>Bluche (2003), p. 57.</ref>

Louis's [[Controller-General of Finances]] Michel Robert Le Peletier des Forts (1726–1730), stabilized the French currency, though he was expelled for enriching himself in 1730. His successor, [[Philibert Orry]], substantially reduced the debt caused by the War of the Spanish Succession, and simplified and made more fair the tax system, though he still had to depend upon the unpopular ''dixieme'', or tax of the tenth of the revenue of every citizen. Orry managed, in the last two years of Fleury's government, to balance the royal budget, an accomplishment never again repeated during the rest of the reign.<ref>Bluche (2003), pp. 57–58.</ref>

Fleury's government expanded commerce, both within France and with the rest of the world. Transportation and shipping were improved with the completion of the Saint-Quentin canal (linking the [[Oise River|Oise]] and [[Somme River|Somme]] rivers) in 1738, which was later extended to the [[Escaut River]] and the [[Low Countries]], and the systematic building of a national road network. By the middle of the 18th century, France had the most modern and extensive road network in the world. The Council of Commerce stimulated trade, and French foreign maritime trade increased from 80 to 308&nbsp;million ''[[livre tournois|livres]]'' between 1716 and 1748.<ref>Olivier Bernier (1984), p. 63.</ref>

The Government continued its policy of religious repression, aimed at the Jansenists and the so-called "Gallicans" in Parlements of nobles. After the dismissal of 139 members of provincial parlements for opposing the official government and papal doctrine of ''Unigenitus'', the Parlement of Paris had to register the ''Unigenitus'' papal bull and was forbidden to hear religious cases in the future.<ref>Rogister (1998), p. 135.</ref>

===Foreign relations – New alliances; the War of the Polish Succession===

[[File:King Louis XV of France by Hyacinthe Rigaud.jpg|thumb|Louis XV in coronation robes (1730)]]

In the first years of his governance, Fleury and his foreign minister [[Germain Louis Chauvelin]] sought to maintain the peace by maintaining the French alliance with Great Britain, despite their colonial rivalry in North America and the [[West Indies]]. They also rebuilt the alliance with Spain, which had been shaken by the anger of the Spanish King when Louis refused to marry the Spanish ''infanta''. The birth of the king's male heir in 1729 dispelled the risks of a succession crisis in France. However, new powers were emerging on the European stage, particularly Russia under Peter the Great and his successor, [[Catherine I of Russia|Catherine]]. The [[Habsburg monarchy]] under [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles VI]] was assembling a scattered but impressive empire as far as Serbia in southeastern Europe with territories taken from the [[Ottoman Empire]], and from Spain, acquiring the [[Austrian Netherlands]], Milan and the [[Kingdom of Naples]].<ref>Antoine (1989), pp. 254–255.</ref>

A new coalition against France began to assemble in eastern Europe, sealed by a defensive treaty signed on 6 August 1726 between Prussia, Russia and Austria. In 1732 the coalition came into direct conflict with France over the succession to the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Polish throne]]. The [[List of Polish monarchs|King of Poland]] and [[Electorate of Saxony|Elector of Saxony]], [[Augustus II the Strong|Augustus II]], was dying, and the favoured candidate to succeed him was [[Stanislaus I Leszczyński]], the father of the Queen of France. In the same year Russia, Prussia and Austria signed a secret agreement to exclude Stanislaus from the throne, and put forward another candidate, [[Augustus III of Poland|Augustus III]], son of the deceased Polish king. The death of Augustus on 1 February 1733, with two heirs claiming the throne, sparked the [[War of the Polish Succession]]. Stanislaus traveled to [[Warsaw]], where he was elected and crowned on 12 September. Empress [[Anna of Russia]] immediately marched her regiments into Poland to support her candidate. Stanislaus was forced to flee to the fortified port of [[Gdańsk|Danzig]], while on 5 October Augustus III was crowned in Warsaw.<ref>Antoine (1989), pp. 289–290.</ref>

[[File:Stanisław Leszczyński par Girardet.PNG|[[Stanislaus I Leszczyński]], father-in-law of Louis XV and briefly King of Poland|thumb|left]]
Cardinal Fleury responded with a carefully orchestrated campaign of diplomacy. He first won assurances from Britain and Holland that they would not interfere in the war, while lining up alliances with Spain and [[Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia]] in exchange for pieces of the [[Habsburg monarchy]]. On 10 October 1733, Louis formally declared war against Austria. A French army occupied the [[Duchy of Lorraine]], while another crossed the Alps and captured Milan on 3 November, handing it over to the King of Sardinia.<ref>Antoine (1989), pp. 290–291.</ref> Fleury was less energetic in his actions to restore the Polish throne to Stanislaus, who was blockaded by the Russian navy and army in Danzig. Instead of sending the largest part of the French fleet from its station off [[Copenhagen]] to Danzig, he ordered it to return to Brest and sent only a small squadron with two thousand soldiers, which after a fierce action was sunk by the Russians. On 3 July Stanislaus was forced to flee again, in disguise, to Prussia, where he became the guest of King [[Frederick William I of Prussia]] in the castle of [[Königsberg]].

To bring the war to an end, Fleury and Charles VI negotiated an ingenious diplomatic solution. [[Francis III, Duke of Lorraine]], left Lorraine for Vienna, where he married [[Maria Theresa]], the heir presumptive to the Habsburg thrones. The vacant throne of Lorraine was to be occupied by Stanislaus, who abandoned his claim to the Polish throne. Upon the death of Stanislaus, the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar would become part of France. Francis, as the future emperor, would be compensated for the loss of Lorraine by the granting of the [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]]. The King of Sardinia would be compensated with certain territories in Lombardy. The marriage of Francis of Lorraine and Maria Theresa took place in 1736, and the other exchanges took place in turn.  With the death of Stanislaus in 1766, Lorraine and the neighboring [[Duchy of Bar]] became part of France.<ref>Antoine (1989), pp. 294–295.</ref><ref>Black (2013), pp. 1726ff.</ref>

In September 1739, Fleury scored another diplomatic success. France's mediation in the war between the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and the [[Ottoman Empire]] led to the [[Treaty of Belgrade]] (September 1739), which favoured the Ottoman Empire, beneficiary of a [[Franco-Ottoman alliance]] against the Habsburgs since the early 16th century. As a result, the Ottoman Empire in 1740 renewed the French [[Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire|capitulations]], which marked the supremacy of French trade in the Middle East. With these successes, Louis XV's prestige reached its highest point. In 1740 Frederick William I of Prussia declared "Since the [[Treaty of Vienna (1738)|Treaty of Vienna]] France is the arbiter of Europe."<ref name="Antoine 1989, p. 301">Antoine (1989), p. 301.</ref>

===War of the Austrian Succession===
{{main|War of the Austrian Succession}}

On 29 October 1740, a courier brought the news to the King, who was hunting in Fontainebleau, that the Emperor Charles VI was dead, and his daughter Maria Theresa was set to succeed him. After two days of reflection, Louis declared, "In these circumstances, I don't want to get involved at all. I will remain with my hands in my pockets, unless of course they want to elect a Protestant emperor."<ref name="Antoine 1989, p. 301"/> This attitude did not please France's allies, who saw an opportunity to take parts of the Habsburg empire, or Louis's generals, who for a century had won glory fighting Austria. The King in Prussia had died on 31 May and was succeeded by his son [[Frederick the Great]], a military genius with ambitions to expand Prussia's borders. The Elector [[Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles Albert]] of Bavaria, supported by Frederick, challenged the succession of Maria Theresa, and on 17 December 1740 Frederick invaded the Austrian province of [[Silesia]]. The elderly Cardinal Fleury had too little energy left to oppose this war.

Fleury sent his highest ranking general, [[Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle]], the Maréchal de Belle-Isle, the grandson of [[Nicolas Fouquet]], the famous disgraced controller of finances of Louis XIV, as his ambassador to the Diet of Frankfurt, with instructions to avoid a war by supporting the candidacy of the Elector of Bavaria to the Austrian throne. Instead, the Maréchal, who detested the Austrians, made an agreement to join with the Prussians against Austria, and the war began.<ref>Bluche (2003), p. 77.</ref> French and Bavarian armies quickly captured [[Linz]] and laid siege to [[Prague]]. On 10 April 1741 Frederick won a major victory over the Austrians at the [[Battle of Mollwitz]]. On 18 May, Fleury assembled a new alliance combining France, Prussia, Spain and Bavaria, later joined by Poland and Sardinia. However, in 1742, the balance of the war shifted against France. The German-born British King, [[George II of Great Britain|George II]], who was also the Elector of Hanover, joined the war on the side of Austria and personally took charge of his soldiers fighting the French in Germany. Maria Theresa's Hungarian army recaptured Linz and marched into Bavaria as far as Munich. In June, Frederick of Prussia withdrew from the alliance with France, after gaining the [[Duchies of Silesia]] from the Austrians. Belleville had to abandon Prague, with a loss of eight thousand men. For seven years, France was engaged in a costly war with constantly shifting alliances. Orry, the superintendent of French finance, was forced to reinstate the highly unpopular ''dixieme'' tax to fund the war. Cardinal de Fleury did not live to see the end of the conflict; he died on 29 January 1743, and thereafter Louis ruled alone.<ref>Bluche (2003), pp. 233–235.</ref>

[[File:Battle of Lauffeldt.jpg|Louis XV and [[Maurice de Saxe]] at the [[Battle of Lauffeldt]] (2 July 1747)|thumb]]
The war in Germany was not going well; the French and Bavarian forces were faced with the combined armies of Austria, Saxony, Holland, Sardinia and Hanover. The army of the [[Adrien Maurice de Noailles|Duke of Noailles]] was defeated by a force of British, Hessian and Hanover soldiers led by George II at the [[Battle of Dettingen]], and in September French forces were compelled to abandon Germany.<ref>Bluche (2003), p. 78.</ref>

In 1744, the Austrian Netherlands became the primary battlefield of the war, and the French position began to improve. Frederick the Great decided to rejoin the war on the French side. Louis XV left Versailles to lead his armies in the Netherlands in person, and French field command was given to the German-born Maréchal [[Maurice de Saxe]], a highly competent general. At the [[Battle of Fontenoy]] on 11 May 1745, Louis, accompanied by his young son the Dauphin, came under fire for the first time and witnessed a French victory over combined British, Dutch and Austrian forces. When the Dauphin became excited at the sight of so many dead enemy soldiers, the King told him, "You see what a victory costs. The blood of our enemies is still the blood of men. The true glory is to spare it."<ref>Antoine (1989), p. 387.</ref> Saxe went on to win further victories at [[Battle of Rocoux|Rocoux]] (1746) and [[Battle of Lauffeld|Lauffeld]] (1747). In 1746 French forces [[Siege of Brussels|besieged and occupied Brussels]], which Louis entered in triumph. The King gave de Saxe the [[Chateau de Chambord]] in the [[Loire Valley]] as a reward for his victories.