Tag: Louis XV

It’s no secret that the Bourbon kings are a fascination of mine, Louis XV among them.

The morning Louis XV came into the world, Cardinal de Janson sprinkled the newborn with holy water in the chamber where he was born, reports the memoirist duc de Saint-Simon in his Memoirs of Louis XIV and the Regency, and is then carried “upon the knees of the Duchess de Ventadour in the sedan chair of the King into the King’s apartments, accompanied by Maréchal de Boufflers and by the bodyguards with officers.” Before long, it was time for all the Court to see him.

This is how prolifically Saint-Simon reports on the daily activities within the palaces these monarchs inhabited, each one testaments to historic design eras. When the elder King was on the throne, it was one of the most lavish periods in design that saw a French embracing of Italian Baroque so ornate it’s a wonder people who stood still a bit too long weren’t gilded. The younger Bourbon’s reign ushered in a flourishing of the Rococo style. As the author spares almost no details, he recounts rituals down to the au petit couvert—small private dinners—Louis XIV would take in his chamber on a square table in front of a window. I can’t get enough of these details as I peruse history for literary design adventures of my own.