Louis XVIII of France - at His Brother's Court

At His Brother's Court

On 27 April 1774, Louis XV fell ill after having contracted smallpox, and died the following 10 May. The Dauphin, Louis Auguste, succeeded his grandfather as King Louis XVI. Louis Stanislas longed for political influence. He attempted to gain admittance to the King’s council in 1774, ultimately failing. Louis Stanislas was left in a political limbo that he called "a gap of 12 years in my political life". Louis XVI granted Louis Stanislas revenues from the Duchy of Alençon in December 1774. The duchy was given to enhance Louis Stanislas' prestige; however, his appanage turned over only 300,000 livres per annum, an amount much lower than it had been at its peak in the fourteenth century. King Louis XVI, his brothers, and Marie Antoinette became fellows of the masonic lodge Trois Frères à l'Orient de Versailles.

Louis Stanislas travelled more through France than other members of the royal family, who rarely left the Île-de-France. In 1774, he accompanied his sister Madame Clotilde to Chambéry, on the journey to meet her bridegroom Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, heir to the throne of Sardinia. In 1775, he visited Lyon and also his spinster aunts, Madame Adélaïde and Madame Victoire, while they were taking the waters at Vichy. The four provincial tours that Louis Stanislas took before the year 1791 amounted to a total of three months.

On 5 May 1778, Dr. Lassonne, Marie Antoinette's private physician, confirmed her pregnancy. On 19 December 1778, the Queen gave birth to a daughter, who was named Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, and given the honorific title Madame Royale. The birth of a girl came as a relief to the comte de Provence, who kept his position as heir to Louis XVI, since Salic Law excluded women from acceding to the throne of France. However, Louis Stanislas did not remain heir to the throne much longer, as on 22 October 1781, Marie Antoinette gave birth to the Dauphin, Louis Joseph. Louis Stanislas and the Comte d’Artois served as godfathers by proxy for the Holy Roman Emperor, the Queen’s brother. When Marie Antoinette gave birth to her second son, Louis Charles, in March 1785, Louis Stanislas slid further down the line of succession.

In 1780, Anne Nompar de Caumont de La Force, comtesse de Balbi entered the service of Marie Joséphine. Louis Stanislas soon fell in love with his wife's new lady-in-waiting, and installed her as his mistress, which resulted in the couple's already small affection for each other cooling entirely. Louis Stanislas commissioned a pavilion for his mistress on a parcel that became known as the Parc Balbi, near the Pièce d’eau des Suisses and the Potager du Roi at Versailles.

Louis Stanislas lived a quiet and sedentary lifestyle at this point, not having a great deal to do since his self-proclaimed political exclusion in 1774. He kept himself occupied with his vast library of over 11,000 books at Balbi's pavilion, reading for several hours each morning. In the early 1780, he also incurred huge debts totaling 10 million livres, which his brother Louis XVI paid for him.

An Assembly of Notables (the members consisted of magistrates, mayors, nobles and clergy) was convened in February 1787 to ratify the financial reforms sought by the Controller-General of Finance Charles Alexandre de Calonne. This provided Louis Stanislas, who abhorred the radical reforms proposed by Calonne, the opportunity he had long been waiting for to establish himself in politics. The reforms proposed a new property tax, and new elected provincial assemblies that would have a say in local taxation. Calonne's proposition was rejected outright by the notables, and, as a result, Louis XVI dismissed him. The Archbishop of Toulouse, Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne, acquired Calonne's ministry. Brienne attempted to salvage Calonne's reforms, but ultimately failed to convince the notables to approve them. A frustrated Louis XVI dissolved the assembly.

Brienne's reforms were then submitted to the Parlement de Paris in the hopes that they would be approved. (A parlement was responsible for ratifying the King’s edicts. Each province had its own parlement, but the parlement de Paris was the most significant of all.) The Parlement de Paris refused to accept Brienne’s proposals, and pronounced that any new taxation would have to be approved by an Estates-General (the nominal parliament of France). Louis XVI and Brienne took a hostile stance against the parlement's rejection, and Louis XVI had to implement a Lit de justice (which automatically registered an edict in the Parlement de Paris) to ratify the desired reforms. On 8 May, Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil and Goislard de Montsabert, two of the leading members of the Parlement de Paris were arrested. There was rioting in Brittany, Provence, Burgundy and Béarn in reaction to their arrest. This unrest was engineered by local magistrates and nobles, who enticed the people to revolt against the Lit de Justice, which was quite unfavourable to the nobles and magistrates. The clergy also joined the provincial cause, and condemned Brienne's tax reforms. Brienne conceded defeat in July and agreed to calling the Estates-General to meet in 1789. He resigned from his post in August and was replaced by the Swiss magnate Jacques Necker.

In November 1788, a second Assembly of Notables was convened by Jacques Necker, to consider the makeup of the next Estates-General. The Parlement de Paris recommended that the Estates should be the same as they were at the last assembly, in 1614 (this would mean that the clergy and nobility would have more representation than the Third Estate). The notables rejected the "dual representation" proposal. Louis Stanislas was the only notable to vote to increase the size of the Third Estate. Necker disregarded the notables' judgment, and convinced Louis XVI to grant the extra representation — Louis duly obliged on 27 December.