On this day, Louis XV writes from Saint-Hubert to the Duke of Parma:
“My very dear grandson, I give you my sincere condolences on the loss that I learned the day before yesterday that you suffered of the Queen of Spain your grandmother. She surely loved you with the same extreme tenderness that she had for your father. There have been so many misfortunes in our family in the last while; let us hope that we will not see any more for some time. The Dauphine is much better, above all since she has started to go out, her mourning having ended. The Queen is also quite well, but her strength is returning rather slowly. I count on being at Compiègne by the 7th of next month, where the whole family will join me successively. You do very well to exercise and especially to ride; my own example is the strongest recommendation I can give you. It is also very warm here, but it has only been so for the last few days, and we cannot doubt that we are now in summer. Adieu, my dear grandson, I embrace you very tenderly. Louis.”
Commentary:
The Dowager Queen of Spain, known in that country as Isabel de Farnesio, died on 11 July. The King says he got the news “the day before yesterday,” indicating that it took 8 days for it to reach him. He is currently staying at one of his favourite hunting lodges, Saint-Hubert in the forest of Rambouillet.
Pictured: Elisabeth Farnese (1692-1766), née Princess of Parma, Queen of Spain and the Indies by marriage to Philip V, mother of Charles III of Spain, grandmother of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, and of Ferdinand of Parma, to mention only her descendants reigning at the time of her death. Public domain.
The misfortunes that the King refers to are the deaths of his eldest daughter, his eldest grandson, his only son, his only son-in-law (Ferdinand of Parma’s father), and his father-in-law, all of which have occurred in the last 7 years. Despite his hopes, more deaths are to come in the next 2 years. He also lost Mme de Pompadour in 1764.
Pictured: Mme de Pompadour by Drouais, photographed by me in the National Gallery in London in January, 2020. This portrait was commissioned before her death, but completed after it.
The court goes to Compiègne every summer and stays for up to 6 weeks. The King usually travels in advance of everyone else, which is why he says that the rest of the family will arrive successively. The Queen, being not well, will likely travel the most slowly and arrive last.
Pictured: The entrance court of Compiègne, which may or may not be complete as of this date; the re-building of this château started in 1753 and will go on into the next reign.
The translation from the French is my own, as it always is unless I credit someone else. If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.
That’s a lot of losses.
Great picture of Pompadour.