On this day, Louis XV writes to the Duke of Parma:
“Today, my dear grandson, I have only very good news to tell you of the Queen. The Faculty have declared her free of fever. Nonetheless, she coughed quite a bit this evening. Since we can never be at ease, it is the Dauphine who causes us worry. In the wake of her grief, she caught a cold and spit up blood, for which reason she was bled twice yesterday. Tomorrow she is to begin taking ass’s milk, which ought to do her good, according to what everyone says. Her small children are also a little indisposed, but that is nothing to worry about at all. As for me, I went out for a long hunt today, but it was not at all tiring. Worries apart, I am very well. I embrace you tenderly my dear grandson. Louis.”
Commentary:
The Faculty means the doctors charged with treating the royal family.
The Queen, Marie Leczinska, is in failing health, but will live for 2 more years.
The poor Dauphine has been a widow for less than 4 months at this date. It will soon be realized that she caught tuberculosis from her husband the late Dauphin. She has 5 surviving children at this date, all of whom will live to adulthood.
Pictured: Marie-Josephe de Saxe (1731-1767), Dauphine de France, with one of her sons, next to a bust of Louis XV and under a portrait of her husband, the Dauphin Louis (1729-1765). Credit — By Maurice Quentin de la Tour. Public domain.
The couple’s eldest surviving son, hitherto Duc de Berry, is now Dauphin in his father’s place. It is therefore he who will become Louis XVI. He had 2 older brothers, one of whom died infancy. The other, the Duc de Bourgogne, died at the age of 10.
Pictured: Louis-Auguste de France (1754-1793), Duc de Berry, later Louis XVI, as painted at the age of 15 by L.M. van Loo. Public domain.
Alert readers will realize that the new Dauphin and Ferdinand of Parma are first cousins since they are both grandchildren of Louis XV along with their respective siblings.
If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.