Arthur Tudor (1486-1502) : The Lost Tudor Prince Of Wales

It is hardly contested that, amongst the kings that ruled in England, one of the most famous is Henry VIII. However, it comes to the acknowledge of few that he was the second son who was not prepared to receive the English crown. In fact, he owes much of his throne to the death of his older brother and presumptive heir, Arthur Tudor. And although there is little discussion about the life of this prince, mostly because of his early death, he was not the first British heir to die so young, but likely to be the one whose life would change the course of it's history, after all, many ask what would have been of England had he lived. What kind of King would have he become? Is it possible to especulate if the events that had left their impact in Henry VIII's reign such as English Reformation would have happened under Arthur's authority? Perhaps all we might get is a glimpse of Arthur's character, and what was shaping it before his premature death. But even doing so, we cannot play with certainties or make assumptions, so based on that, this post is only an attempt to enlight the life of a prince who has become merely a footnote to History.

In previous posts, where the Tudors are concerned, we have already discussed about Arthur's father, King Henry VII, his sister Margaret, and some of the wives of his brother such as Anne of Cleves and Anne Boleyn. There, we have explained that Henry Tudor, formerly known as the Earl of Richmond, entitled to it by his birth, conquered the English crown after the Battle of Bosworth, which occurred in 22 August 1485 by opposing Tudor and his Lancastrians forces to the Yorkist ones leaded by Richard III, previously the duke of Gloucester and the youngest son of Richard duke of York. In theory, by becoming King Henry VII, his ascension put to an end an English Civil War that lasted for almost 30 years known as the Cousin's Wars or the Wars of the Roses, and his marriage to Elizabeth of York, duchess of York and the heiress of the deceased King Edward IV upon the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower.

As soon as they were married in 1486, Elizabeth of York was pregnant and Henry Tudor was very certain their first child to be a son. And indeed he was proved to be correct. A boy was born in 20 September of that same year, a month before he was expected to, at Winchester, which was believed by Henry VII to have formerly been the legendary capital of Camelot. For this reason, his first born son received the name Arthur "anticipating his reign and dynasty would bring back the golden age of the legendary king."

Upon his birth, he was bestowed the duchy of Cornwall and the earldom of Snowdon, and a few days later he was baptised at Winchester Cathedral by the Bishop of Worcestor, John Alcock. His godparents were both Lancastrians and Yorkists, once Arthur's birth was seen as the physical embodiment of the union of two former enemy houses of the late Plantagenet Dynasty. Here we see John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford; Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby; William FitzAlan, 16th Earl of Arundel as his godfathers and Queen Elizabeth Woodville and Cecily of York as the prince's godmothers.

Three years later,

"On 29 November 1489, after being made a Knight of the Bath, Arthur was appointed Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester and was invested as such at the Palace of Westminster on 27 February 1490. As part of his investiture ceremony, he progressed down the River Thames in the royal barge and was met at Chelsea by the Lord Mayor of London, John Mathewe, and at Lambeth by Spanish ambassadors. On 8 May 1491, he was made a Knight of the Garter at Saint George's Chapel at Windsor Palace."

Also,

"Henry was worried about his son's household, or so a letter he wrote one summer to Sir Henry Vernon, it's comptroller, suggests. The King thanked Vernon that 'by your wise and poletike meanes his household is the better conducted and governed, which is greatly to your laude and praise', but he also urged him 'to dispose you to contynue and yeve your personal attendance there at such seasons as the counsail of our said son shal thinke necessarie and expedient', warning that 'elles we must of urgent necessite appointe oon of our hede officers to exercise your saide rowme, and calle you to serve us in his stede'. Henry had deliberately not placed a single nobleman in charge of Arthur's establishment as Edward [IV] had appointed his brother-in-law Earl Rivers as 'governor and ruler' of his son. Presumably he had wished to avoid the partisan use of the prince's power practised by the Woodvilles and the bloody outcome it had brought in 1483. The decision was also congruent with Henry's reluctance to entrust the rule of any region to a single magnate. But this left the seven-year-old prince nominally master in his own house, a house in which head to learn to command and reward his servants with only the guidance of Vernon and his other senior household officers."

The prince's household, established in order to fulfill the purpose of learning how to display the royal power, to understand the protocol that moved his father's court as well as being taught of what kingship is. As we can see below:

"The household was also where Arthur could practice the magnificence that displayed royal power. [..] Entertainers in his household helped him provide sophisticated hospitality- we know of his lutenist, organist and poet- and his fame was spread further abroad by his company of players, who toured the provinces regularly from 1494-5. His tapestry collection may have included a set with red, white and Tudor roses, the ihs monogram and the legendary arms of King Arthur, of which fragments survive at Winchester College. He learnt to give  magnificent gifts in the styles appreciated at his father's court, like the book of hours, printed at Paris on vellum and illuminated, he gave to Thomas Poyntz, a servant since his childhood."

We come to other names that are part of his household, such as Anthony Willoughby and Maurice St John, who was the favoured great-nephew of Lady Margaret Beaufort aside of other men of his generation such as Sir Gruffydd ap Thomas, son of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, who was his closest companion. Apparently, to men as Willoughby and St John, "he famously said on the morning after his wedding night 'Bring me a cup of ale for I have been this night in the midst of Spain."

Men who were out of the favour of the Tudor dynasty also served the prince of Wales, such as Robert Ratcliffe, son to John Ratcliffe Lord Fitzwalker, who was executed for plotting with Perkin Warbeck in 1495-6. He too was present amongst those who witnessed the Prince speaking the former sentence concerning consummating his marriage to the Princess of Wales and would later help to carry the "canopy over Arthur's corpse." In short, Arthur was not only surrounded by men favoured or not by the Tudors, but also by men who were greatly influenced by Renaissance, which will lead us to his education.

Following the establishment of the prince's household, the king was decided to educate his son and heir following the humanist ideals that Renaissance had been exporting to Europe in those days. It can be assumed that the transition to Modern Age began with the Tudors. We can attest that

"It was around this time that Arthur began his formal education under John Rede, a former headmaster of Winchester College. His education was subsequently taken over by Bernard André, a blind poet, and then by Thomas Linacre, formerly Henry VII's physician. Arthur's education covered grammar, poetry, rhetoric and ethics and focused on history. Arthur was a very skilled pupil and André wrote that the Prince of Wales had either memorised or read a selection of Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Terence, a good deal of Cicero and a wide span of historical works, including those of Thucydides, Caesar, Livy and Tacitus. Arthur was also a "superb archer", and had learned to dance "right pleasant and honourably" by 1501."

Although he preferred books in contrast to his brother, Henry, who would be a king known for the taste of dancing and great festivities, to say Arthur was not skilled in these same activities is not valid. He was, like his father and younger brother, fond of hunting and was, as said before, excellent archer besides being fond of horseback riding. That being said, Arthur's education was set to prepare him to be a humanist king as his father planned to. Most of the questions that surround him concentrate in asking:  what kind of ruler would Arthur have been? How different would Britain's history be if Henry VIII had been sent to the Church and Arthur had not died in 1502?

There can only be made assumptions to respond these questions, if they can be answered properly at all. According to "Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales: Life, Death and Commemoration",

"Arthur might not have tried to govern his whole realm too much like southern England, as Steven Ellis has argued Henry VIII did, with dire effects. In that measure at least did his preparation for kingship might have made him a different king not only from his father, who had spent too long in Brittany to know the realm he had to rule, but also from his brother, who had spent too long in the Thames Valley. In other ways his preparation for kingship seems to have designed to make him at once a model humanist prince and recognizably his father's successor."

Another aspect of Arthur's life that is very discussed is his personal life, in other words, his marriage to the princess of Wales, the Spanish Infanta, Catherine of Aragon. Born in 1485, she was the youngest child of Isabel de Castile and her consort, Ferdinand of Aragon. Together, they united the realms of Castile y León and Aragón under their marriage. Catherine, their daughter and rumoured to be their favourite, was as educated following humanist tradition dictated by Renaissance as her betrothed to be, Arthur, who was born a year later.

The negotiations that would lead to the marriage of an Infanta who came from a powerful united Spain to the prince of Wales, whose dynasty had only been established in England's throne, took years and a great deal of time before it actually happened. The Treaty of Medina del Campo was arranged in order to straighten the alliance of England and Spain through the marriage of their children. As we can observe Henry VII's policies in general, he would use marriage to keep peace instead of going to war, something he would be successful to.

We do not intend to go too deep over the Treaty of Medina del Campo and it's implications to Henry VII's government. Instead, we will focus in the marriage between the prince and his infanta. Catherine, whose Spanish name is Catalina, set sail from Spain after years exchanging letters with Arthur in latin, since both had no knowledge of each other's mother tongue. Despite the first awkward welcome from her father-in-law, who insisted to see the princess himself, whether she was sleeping or not, all parts seem to have got along well. Once introductions finally happened, it was supposedly said that Arthur wrote well of Catherine, admiring her beauty and, to his in-laws, promising to be a good husband to her. They were then married to St Paul's cathedral on 14 November 1501. "The prince and his bride were sent down to the borders of Wales to keep court at Ludlow, where, in less than five months, the bridegroom died on 2 April 1502."

Far from provoking a discussion whether their marriage was consummated or not, we come to discuss a more important matter: the sudden Arthur's death. The prince and heir of England who was often known as the Tudor rose for physicially emboding the houses of York and Lancaster, that being even seen at his household when the choice of men were to represent it well, died. Until our present days, there was this idea that Arthur Tudor was sickly and not as strong as his younger brother was. A lie that was wrongly perpetuated by a misunderstanding of a Victorian historian, as we can see that "in actual fact Arthur's health seems to have been perfectly normal up to the time when he succumbed to what was probably some form of plague."

And this:

"To the nineteenth-century historian James Gairdner, however, Henry's words appeared simply to express a concern about the general state of his son's health--and when put together with the fact that Arthur was to die soon afterwards, this seemed to make adequate sense. Thus it was that a 'weak and sickly' Prince appeared in Gairdner's article on Arthur in the hugely influential Dictionary of National Biography (volume I, first published in 1885) and the idea was authoritatively established."

The words of Henry VII which this paragraph refers to are nothing but the expression of the King's concern in sending Arthur and Catherine to settle in Ludlow. Would it be safe? Arthur was months younger than his wife and this was to be considered, although Catherine was seen as ready to give birth. This was a common concern of those days, although it was acceptable that from the age of 14 royal 'children' could consummate their marriage. But we know well that Henry decided to send the prince and the princess to Ludlow, so they could be taught how to rule court.

His death in 1502 was, pointless to reinforce, the disappointment of a nation, the break of hopes destined to that prince. If in his birth, so many poets aluded to the glorious moment of it, in his death, lamentations and sorrows followed. It was a great procession that followed, and it must be remembered that in Tudor days, the parents did not participate their children's funeral. We have a small account to share of the funeral of the prince, taken from the book "Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales: Life, Death and Commemoration."

"From here [Ludlow] the procession to Worcester began, accompanied, amongst others, by the bishops of Linconl and Salisbury, the abbot of Chester, and the chief mourner the Earl of Surrey (deputizing for the royal family). The funeral took place in Worcester Cathedral 'with weping and sore lamentation'. 

"The lord treasure of England, the earl of Surrey, was probably the chief managed of the funeral. [...] The prince's council no doubt played an important part in the local planning and co-ordination of the ceremonies. Two of it's members, Sir Richard Croft and Sir William Uvedale, respectively steward and comptroller of Arthur's household, rode ahead of the cortège from Bewdley to Worcester and made sure nobody passed through the city gate before it's arrival. [...]"

With Arthur's death, expectations about the rise of a second King Arthur and a legendary reign died too. But it must not be assumed that he was a very different prince, when he was a boy of his days. According to Steven Gunn, his rule would probably have differed little of his father, so is it safe to assume that many of the events that marked Henry VIII's reign could have been avoided? Perhaps. But Reformation was already in course long before Henry VIII himself decide to divorce his first wife, so this cannot be responded with certainty.

His memory was, like so many prince of Wales that had not reached the crown, been left aside to the praise of great monarchs that were not expected to be kings or queens. Again, it must be remembered he was not a sickly prince. Conditions in the 15/16th century England, or in medieval times as a whole, would hardly prevent an amount of diseases to spread. Arthur Tudor was healthy and could have been a great time if destiny permitted. Or maybe, as many Englishman could have thought, that was just not the God's will. 

Whether be the case, our prince of Wales, the king who never was, should not live in the shadow of his brother Henry VIII. 

Bibliography:
-Prince Arthur's Preparation for Kingship, Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales: Life, Death and Commemoration.Edited by Steven Gunn and Linda Monckton.

-Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales: Life, Death and Commemoration. Edited by Steven Gunn and Linda Monckton.

-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur,_Prince_of_Wales

-http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/arthurtudor.htm

-https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2013/04/01/arthur-tudor-prince-of-wales/

Emma of Normandy: A Saxon Queen, Mother of Kings (985-1052)

On today's post, we turn our eyes towards one of the Anglo-Saxons queens that is not often discussed where British consorts are concerned in general history. Her name was Emma and she came from a house that not only descended from the famous viking Rollo, whom we have previously discussed on this blog, but was also the ancestry of the British kings such as was the case of William the Conqueror. Emma of Normandy was also the first recorded Queen mother of history, and it was she the mother of the famous saint king, Edward the Confessor and the consort of another conqueror, Cnut the Great, whom we also have already written about.

Emma was born around the year of 985, the daughter of Richard the Fearless, duke of Normandy, and his second wife, Gunnora, whom some sources claim to be his former mistress. It is also briefly mentioned she had other siblings, being the eldest also named Richard and who would inherite the Norman duchy as Richard II. Other than that there is no informating regarding Emma's education and her life in Normandy, which might led us to assume that she had an education as young woman of her status had.

When she reached the age of 13, Emma was betrothed to the King of English, Aethelred II who was by his people known as "Unready" due to his accending to the throne. Apparently, his mother, the former queen, had Edmund, who was Athelred's father first born from his first marriage, killed in order to have Aethelred crowned. His weakness as ruler did not increase his reputation either and to worse matters, England's shores were under Vikings attack. Willing to prevent them, Aethelred is advised to remarry. He was previously married to Aelfgifu of York, by whom he had several children, the oldest being the infamous Edmund the Ironside.

As we can see below:

"King Aethelred of England married Emma in 1002. Vikings raids on England were often based in Normandy in the late 10th century, and this marriage was intended to unite against the Viking threat. Upon their marriage, Emma was given the Anglo-Saxon name of Aelfgifu, which was used for formal and official matters, and became Queen of England. She received properties of her own in Winchester, Rutland, Devonshire, Suffolk and Oxfordshire, as well as the city of Exeter.

 Also:

"King Aethelred met his young bride to be and escorted her to Canterbury, where they were married and she was consecrated Queen. The kingdom over which she was set to rule, was, once again, under heavy Viking attack. Following the victory of King Alfred the Great and the dominance of Wessex, the Vikings raids had abated but a resurgence of these raids was disrupting the life of the population. Instead of growing food they were growing armies and defenses, their settled existence was under threat."

As a result of the marriage, three children were born: Edward, who would later be known in history as the saint-king Edward the Confessor, Alfred the Aetheling and Goda, countess of Boulogne. But the match did not put an end to the Vikings' attack to England. Being a poorly advised king, Aethelred demanded to have the Danes established at East Anglia to be slaughtered in an event that was regarded as the St Brice day's Massacre, which occurred in 13 November 1002. Consequently, this decision of having all the Danes that had settled throughout England brought another wave of invasions, this time from Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark.

"These [invasions] continued particularly after Aethelred made an ill advised decision to massacre all the Danes in his country. In revenge, the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Cnut invaded England. In 1013, Aethelred and Emma were forced to flee to Normandy. However when Sven died the next year, the English nobles invited Aethelred back to England "as long as he ruled more justly than he had before. Two years later, in 1016, Aethelred was dead and his eldest son by his first wife, Edmund Ironside, battled with Cnut over the throne."

In the between of these turbulent events, Aethelred lost his heir, Athelstan, and Emma hoped to have their son, Edward, acknowledged as his heir instead with the support of Eadric Streona, ealdorman of Mercia and main adviser of Aethelred. However, the eldest of the surviving children by Aethelred's first marriage, Edmund Ironside, opposed fiercely to this idea and rose a rebellion against his father. Following the acknowledgement of Edmund as heir to the crown instead of 10 year old Edward, Cnut of Denmark, the second son of Sweyn Forkberd, invaded England. The next events, Emma was a mere viewer, since there was little she could do when Cnut and Edmund battled for England. Eventually,

"following a series of engagements with Edmund, Canute defeated him at Ashington, Essex. A treaty was drawn up, partitioning the country which would remain in force until the death of one of the participants to the treaty, at which time all lands would revert to the survivor. Edmund II died a month later in November of 1016 and Canute was proclaimed King of England."

The Anglo-Saxons Chronicles describe the event with more precision, mentioning that "before the calends of August the king gave an order to fetch him the widow of the other king, Ethelred, the daughter of Richard, to wife." As we have discussed in our post about Cnut the Great, by marrying the former king's consort was one of his ways to have himself as king recognized as the sovereign of all England. And this would prove to be a wise decision, since Emma's relationship with the Church would help to shape Cnut's image as a pious and good king to his subjects.

It appears the relationship between Cnut and Emma have developed to an affection one and soon she gave him two children: Harthacnut, future King of England, and Gunhilda, Holy Roman Empress.  As for the children of her former marriage, such as Alfred and Edward, they were left in Normandy, at her brother's court, where they were raised probably alongside the future William the Conqueror.

She appears also to have been more active as Cnut's consort rather than Aethelred's, often donating to church as it's patroness, befriending the clergy and witnessing charts with the king, who, is said, was seven years younger than her. Emma also

"developed a close relationship with Aelfsige of Peterborough, who advised her on many spiritual matters throughout her life. Her close relationship with clergy and the church strengthened her husband's claim to the throne as Christian king."

She was, as "writes Stafford, [...] 'the richest woman in England... and held extensive lands in the East Midlands and Wessex'. Emma's authority was not simply tied to landholdings-which fluctuated greatly from 1036 to 1043-she also wielded significant sway over the ecclesiastical offices of England."

What else is mentioned in the "Chronicles" about Emma is seen below:

"[...] there on the third day came the Lady Emma with her royal son Hardacnute; and they all with much majesty, and bliss, and songs of praise, carried the holy archbishop into Canterbury, and so brought him gloriously into the church, on the third day before the ideas of June. Afterwards, on the eight day, the seventeenth before the calends of July, Archbishop Ethelnoth, and Bishop Elfsy, and Bishop Britwine, and all they that were with them, lodged the holy corpse of Saint Elphege on the north side of the altar of Christ; to the praise of of God, and to the glory of the archbishop, and to the everlasting salvation of all those who there his holy body daily seek with earnest heart and all humility. May God Almighty have mercy on All Christian men through the holy intercession of Elphege."

However, after a brief period of peace, Cnut the Great, King of England, Denmark and parts of Sweden died in 1035. This would leave Emma in another complicated situation, as Cnut had already a son by his first wife, a noblewoman from an Anglo-Saxon House whom he 'dismissed' in order to marry Emma, and who soon claimed the English throne. His name was Harald Harefoot, and he'd reign as Cnut's heir instead of Harthacnut, in spite of Emma's attempt to protect her son's interests and be the regent of his behalf. She had also invited Alfred and Edward back to England, but this would have disastrous consequences. Alfred the Aetheling was blinded by the supporters of Harald Harefoot, dying in consequence of these tragic actions and Edward fleed back to Normandy without setting foot in English soil.

It was also said that "on approaching Southampton, the elder of these, Edward, found the town up in arms against him, unwilling to accept any son of the weak and hated Ethelred. Edward had little choice but to return to Normandy."

Whether was the case, Emma worked to have Harthacnut crowned as King of England upon the death of Harald and it was said that Harthacnut hated his paternal half-brother, inviting back to England his maternal half-brother Edward, whom was named his heir and was treated with much more kindness. What we know also of Emma during this period is that "to help promote the interests of her sons, Harthacnut and Edward (who became 'the Confessor'), she commissioned an exaggeratedly flattering biography of Cnut and herself around the time of Harthacnut's succession (1040)".

This 'flattering biography' of Emma and her second husband was apparently a manuscript named "The Encomium of Queen Emma", a form of propaganda that would also shape her rule as the first Queen mother documented in Britain's history, though it is rather unsure whether she was acknowledged as such in her lifetime. This document also suggests she was more powerful than we are led to believe, but to what extent we cannot be certain, except that it can be told that she was extremely rich by 1042, when Harthacnut died and was succeeded by Edward, the Confessor.

With him, she did not, at first, have good relations. The new king deprived his mother of her estates, apparently because he resented the treatment she gave him when he was a child, left in Normandy most of his lifetime. Eventually, he changed his mind and they reconciled, though Emma was no more the powerful Queen of her days, replaced by other's of King Edward's trust.

Unfortunately for us, we don't know anything else about her death, except she died in 1052. The legacy Emma left as Queen for a realm she adopted to herself, as many queens in her position did throughout the queenship of Middle Ages, was not only a close relationship with the church, but the most important was the house of Normandy that conquered all England, being succeeded by Henry II, the first Plantagenet in the 12th century.

Bibliography:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_of_Normandy

http://www.intriguing-history.com/emma-of-normandy/

https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2012/05/02/emma-of-normandy-queen-of-england-by-susan-abernethy/

http://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/emma-of-normandy/emma-normandy-twice-queen-england/

http://spartacus-educational.com/MEDemma.htm

http://haylingu3a.org.uk/emma-of-normandy/

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/other/011add000033241u00001000.html

http://omacl.org/Anglo/part3.html

http://omacl.org/Anglo/part4.html

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/vikings_7.html

Louis XV, Le Bien Aimé: The King Of The French Twilight (1710-1774)

Whilst researching about this king whose generation separates a golden age of France to the decades of revolution that began with the fall of Bastille and culminated with the deaths of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, it came to our knowledge that what is most commented about him in general is the period regarding the ascension of mistresses as Madame de Pompadour and the effect she had upon him. Policies in general? Almost nothing was found in it's particularities, unfortunately. Nevertheless, with the material found, we were able to write about this figure that is ironically best remembered for his mistresses, as if his predecessors never had been seduced by the female power and beauty before.

So who was Louis XV as person and king? Did he leave a legacy for France? Questions are these that we hope to give some enlighten, as one definite answer is no answer at all where history is concerned.

We start today's post by firstly pointing out the obvious and the irony that comes with it. By the time Louis was born, his great-grandfather, the sun king, Louis XIV was still on the French throne for nearly 70 years. Because France was still tied to the Salic Law that forbade any woman to inherite it's throne, Louis XIV needed an heir and by then he had two. His oldest son with his consort the Spanish Marie Thérèse d'Autriche, was also named Louis and better know as Le Grand Dauphin. He, in turn, was eventually married to a princess of noble birth, the duchess of Bavaria Maria Anna Victoria and together they had three children, but one of which interests us alone, the second Dauphin, who was the Duke of Burgundy. Burgundy, who was named Louis as well, was the father of the king we intend to discuss here.

And when Louis was born in 15 February 1710, he was the second child of Maria Anna Victoria and the duke of Burgundy. However, here lies the irony: with the death of his older brother, Louis became the third in line after his grandfather and father, who were expected to succeed the French throne in their respective time following the death of Louis XIV. And yet, history wanted it to be the other way around. It was by disease, and we don't intend to go very deep on this particular matter, that Louis XIV saw le Grand Dauphin and his wife, as well as the second dauphin and his own consort's lives fade away. Which turns us to Louis, who was only five years old when he became Louis XV.

Because of his tender age, Louis XIV left a regency for his great-grandson in order to rule the kingdom on his behalf until he reached the age of 14, which was by then the majority to reign by himself, unlike in countries as England where majority to minor kings was usually accepted at the age of 18. Nonetheless, for this regency, Louis left two natural sons as part of it, his Princes of blood, though chiefed by his nephew, Philippe, the second duke of Orléans, who was the son and heir of his father Philippe, first duke of Orléans, with his second wife Élisabeth of Palatinate. This regency would follow the orders of Louis XIV, where he expected the orders to be voted by all those who were part of the council.

Yet, upon Louis XIV's death in 1715, naturally, things did not follow as he wished it would. Philippe II not only took command the regency alone, thus being the regent himself, but stripped off the titles of Louis XIV's natural sons, and moved court away from Versalles, leaving it abandoned for a while. As for Louis XV, what we next know is about his education, which was:

"(...) overseen by his Governor, the Maréchal de Villeroy, and his preceptor, Cardinal de Fleury, nurtured his interest in the natural sciences, botany, medicine, astronomy, geography and history. His tutor, the Duke of Orléans, who ruled the kingdom as Regent during the king's childhood, provided the young Louis XV with a pragmatic political education. From the age of ten he took part in cabinet meetings."

As the young king grew up, Orléans was concerned about the female influence that "gold-diggers" could set upon him, so apparently he gathered a few boys to make Louis's company instead and it's rumoured they were not only his friends but lovers. Whatever the case, they were soon dismissed. At the age of 11, Louis XV was betrothed to the infanta of Spain, who was only three, but the emergency of producing children after a period of illness the king has fallen to and his impatience in waiting his cousin to grow to an acceptable age to marry were factors to break the betrothal. Before his marriage to the impoverished polish princess Marie Leczinska, daughter of the dethroned and exiled Polish king Stanislaw Leczinsky, he moved court back to Versalles around 1720, and by then Louis was already reigning alone, despite consulting Philippe II and not replacing him from his position until his death three years later. It was then that his former preceptor, Cardinal de Fleury, was summoned to occupy the position previously under the charge of Philippe II.

In 1724, with Fleury on power, the old rivalries between Catholics and Protestants were relived, since this was the year that a declaration against the Protestants was approved, leading for a long while prosecution from the Catholics to the Protestants again, despite the brief periods of peace that happened when France was involved in foreign Wars, as such was the case when France was involved in Austria's War of Succession that involved many european countries, and in fear to have the French protestants supported by their enemies, a truce between the two parts was accorded. As we can see in the next paragraphs:

"(...) the 1724 Declaration was not really followed until 1726 when Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, became Prime Minister. Fresh arrests and convictions were made. In 1730, soldiers took Bibles. Psalters and other religious books from the Protestants of Nimes, and they were burned in the public square."

Nevertheless, Louis's popularity remained high to his subjects and he earned the nickname "Le Bien Aimé" (English: The Well Loved), because:

"He took to the battlefield himself and seemed to take charge of the country's leadership. Louis XV chose to rule without having a first minister after the Fleury's death in 1743."

However,

"Louis didn't retain the affections of his people for long. The War of Austrian Succession proved costly for France. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the war in 1748, did little to advance the country or to settle disputes with Britain over certain colonies."

After the decrease of Louis' popularities, he would try to improve it by settling a few reforms but before we speak of these, we must turn a few years back to his personal life. As it was briefly mentioned already, Louis dismissed the betrothal to the Spanish Infanta and was married instead to a Polish princess, Marie Leszcynska, at the age of 15 and she, a few years older than him, at 22. Though Marie was not described as beauty, she was neither ugly and held the king's affection for a while. She was gracious and most fond of arts and music. The Queen gave King Louis ten children, born between 1727 and 1737, of which only one was the Dauphin. Louis XV would send his princesses, known as mésdames, to be raised at the nunnery, and to his heir he'd have a separate and comissioned chambers for him alone.

"As children they lived in the Princes' Wing, now known as the South Wing. At the age of six the Dauphin moved to the main wing of the Palace, where a suite of apartments was set aside for the heir to the throne on the ground floor. For the education of his daughtrs, Louis XV chose the Abbey of Fontevraud. When they reached adulthood they returned to Versailles, with the exception of the eldest, who married her cousin in 1739, the Infante of Spain, later the Duke of Parma."

However, Queen Marie's apparently frigid sexuality frustated Louis and he sought attention elsewhere, hence his mistresses. The first of them was one of the Nesle sisters, known as Madame de Chateauroux, who was said to have been the prettiest of the girls. But...

"(...) like her sisters, she was a self-centered golddigger. She demanded a grand house in Paris, jewels and a monthly income. Any children that might be born  were to be legitimized. Louis XV, deeply in love, accepted all her demands. Although Madame de Chateauroux used and abused the king, she was probably the great passion of his life."

Apparently, the next in line was Madame de Pompadour, whose real name was Jeanne-Antoinette de Poisson. She was not an aristocrat like her predecessors, but was more respectful to the king and seemed to have enjoyed a genuine loving relationship with him, no wonder being his favourite and long-time mistress. Here it is important to remember that Madame de Pompadour played an important political part in Louis XV's life as well. The reforms we have mentioned a few paragraphs above were partly influenced by her. In the next quotes, we can see better how far extended Madame de Pompadour's influence, and it must be noted that her "low born"'s origin were seen with suspicious and, naturally, seen with disdain by the court, who did not tolerate such a thing.

"The parti philosophique was supported by the Marquise de Pompadour, who acted as a sort of minister without portfolio from the time she became royal mistress in 1745 until her death in 1764. The Marquise was in favour of reforms. Supported by her clan of financiers (Pâris-Duverney, Montmartel, etc) she obtained from the king the appointment of mininsters (such as the foreign minister François Joachim de Pierre de Pernis in 1757) as well as their dismissal (such as Philippe Orry in 1745 and the Navy secretary Maurepas in 1749)."

However, "(...) these efforts were too little too late. Louis XV himself lacked the leadership skills and drive necessary to help push through changes." If he began his reign as "le bien aimé", by the last decades of his reign, he:

"(...) was abhorred by many due to his stubborn personality and detrimental political actions, including damaging France's foreign relations and continuously overspending, which exacerbated the country's financial problems."

Outside the political atmosphere, however, Louis XV exerced his influence in other fields of study. For example, he "advocated the creation of departments in physics (1769) and mechanics (1773) at the Collège de France.". He developed eclectic tastes, and it was thanks to this interest that Versailles had the first experiment with electricity:

"In 1746, at Versailles, Abbé Nollet performed a Leyden jar experiment for the King, successfully accumulating an electric charge."

Another observation of his reign in general can be perceptible in the next paragraph:

"He had read many times the instructions of Louis XIV: "Listen to the people, seek advice from your Council, but decide alone." His political correspondence reveals his deep knowledge of public affairs as well as the soundness of his judgement. Most government work was conducted in committees of ministers that met without the king. The king reviewed policy only in the Counseil d'en haunt, the High Council, which was composed of the king, the Dauphin, the chancellor, the fnance mininster, and the foreign minister."

Also:

"This breach in the privileged status of the aristocracy and the clergy, normally exempt from taxes, was a first in French history, although it had already been advocated by men such as Vauban under Louis XIV. However, the new tax was received with violent protest from the privileged classes sitting in the estates of the few provinces that still retained the right to decide over taxation (most provinces had long lost their provincial estates and the right to decide over taxation). The new tax was also opposed by the clergy and by the parlements. Pressed and eventually won over by his entourage at court, the king gave in and exempted the clergy from the twentieth in 1751."

"As a result, (...) the Parlement, which was made up of privileged aristocrats and ennobled commoners, proclaimed itself the "natural defender of the fundamental laws of the kingdom" against the arbitrariness of the monarchy."

Coming to the end of this post, we can only make some assumptions surrounding Louis' character. He was no lazy man where kingship was concerned, despite his preferrances in leaving the duties on the hands of those he trusted. At the same time, he was not weak. Could he prevent the French Revolution? Perhaps he could if his regent had not given, indirectly, permission for the French Parliament in doing so when he took the regency for himself. Or perhaps he could not, as there were many events that lead to this symbolic event in european's history.

He did hold, apparently, a strong hand to politic matters more than his grandson did and this considering both were not expected to inherite the throne. A twilight Louis XV he was, compared to what had come to his grandson's reign, and yet he did leave his legacy by bringing efforts to modernize France with electricity and estimulating education in universities. But there are few sources that try to enlight the figure he was, or his importance to France. He was not a weak king, though manipulative in some ways, but neither was too strong. An average king? Difficult it is to say. We conclude with more questions rather than answers, but hopefully this in the future changes and we might find something that leads us at what sort of king was Louis XV, overshadowed by the glory of Louis XIV and the fall of Louis XVI.

Louis XV died on 10 May 1774, in Versailles, comforted by his last mistress, Jeanne du Bérry, comtesse du Berry.

 Bibliography:

http://www.medadvocates.org/celebrati/february/feb_15a.htm
http://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-church-under-louis-xv-1724-to-1760/
http://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/louis-xv#a-keen-interest-in-science