I've read that Louis XV's wife, Maria Leczinska was choosen from a list of 99 eligble princesses of Europe, do we know who was on this list, or has it been lost to time?
Being an historian, do you think King Louis XV ever came up in Frankβs research? Just imaging an excited Frank trying to connect with Claire over some profound finding regarding the French king and the conversation that would result from it.
Yes, Louis XV captured Corsica from the HRE
The Regency had just ended. Now in charge on one of the strongest countries in Europe, what will you do to prevent France's blunders in both Europe and North America? And what will be your plans to ensure French domination overseas or for society?
It's a very interesting period but let's look at France in the reign of Louis XV. 1715-1774
The generation that grew up under his rule was one that saw France becoming weaker but also more refined. It was very different from the France of Louis XIV who didn't even have New Orleans or a robust connection to the Indian and Chinese markets.
The generation that grew up under Louis XV saw an immense inequality arise but they also gained more wisdom and leisure. There were more public shows, more restaurants, the Paris Salon, big distributions of books and pamphlets touching on diverse topics like philosophy, history, science, and politics.
According to those people, they were living in the best of times. There was no terrifying Turkish army, no ferocious Spanish empire, no Crusades, etc... They saw themselves as a people who circumnavigated the whole world, there was food from all over the globe entering the kitchens of Paris, and newspaper accounts of many events reached the cafes of the city becoming popular talk.
Sadly, it was a generation that couldn't defend itself well and it lost its Canadian territory to Britain. This generation was different than that of their forefathers. It was also difficult for them to compete with Britain in the Indian market. More and more, India was becoming more under British influence and despite the colonies and alliances France had, the British were more robust.
There were also many conspiracies that floated about in this period, including one called "The Starvation Pact" in which many of the French people believed the elites of Versailles were withholding grain from them so that they can starve and die.
You definitely see more protests coming out of this generation and the people were quite happy when the king died, so hated he was for losing the Seven Years War, plunging the country into debt, charging high taxes, escalating inequality, but also his personality and that of his mistress, Pompadour, was not very well-liked either.
But despite having unpopular monarchs in the past, this time France had a unique generation. It had Voltaire, Diderot, Holbach, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Mirabeau, etc... and the people were more cultivated, wiser, more comspolitan and secular.
These writers would influence that generation of young people who were too young to remember the war or was born after it. This was the generation under King Louis XVI. The generation of Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and Napoleon.
Watching the show again, and I can't tell what the angle is with King Louis on the show. It seems like they might be playing into apparent rumors that he was gay, but I'm not clear if this is a Diana Gabaldon idea or showrunner idea, if it is an idea at all. He strikes me as pretty naive.
I listened to the show's commentary and they did confirm that they wrote him to be absolutely intrigued by Claire, and to a lesser extent Jamie. So he's on their "side." But he does still go through with the transactional sex with Claire. And it's not like he prevents Jamie from being jailed.
The main reason I ask is that it's pretty obvious neither Claire nor Louis XV enjoyed having sex to any degree. And first watch, I figured he wouldn't actually go through with the sexual transaction and do more of a "let's not and say we did." But I don't know if anyone needs to know anyway, like if it's checked off in a ledger somewhere.
Is it because this is a traditional thing the royals have to do for certain favors and Louis XV is just following protocol even though he may not want to? Is he just supposed to be an enigma? Is there extra insight into this from the book or scripts that maybe didn't make it into the show?
