On this day, Louis XV writes to the Infante Ferdinand of Parma:
“I am very glad, my dear grandson, that you are appreciative of the gift of my Order that I am sending you. I trust that M de Perseville will not be long in arriving, having left several days ago already.
I embrace you very tenderly, my dear grandson. Cardinal de Rochechouart gave me real pleasure in telling me all the good that he had to tell me of you.
Louis.”
Commentary:
Ferdinand of Parma is 11 years old at this date. He is the only son of the King’s favourite child, the late Madame Louise-Élisabeth. He is called Infante because his father, the reigning Duke of Parma, is simultaneously an Infante of Spain as a younger son of Philip V of Spain.
Pictured: Ferdinand of Parma (1751-1802) by Pécheux, my own photo taken in the Nat’l Gallery in Parma in May, 2024.
The Order to which the King refers is the Order of the Saint-Esprit, the highest chivalric honour of the French crown. M de Perseville is an usher of the order and it seems he has been tasked with delivering the star of the Order to the young prince in person.
Pictured: A cross and collar of the Order of the Saint-Esprit. Members of the Order may also wear its blue ribbon or sash across their chests.
The Cardinal de Rochechouart, Bishop of Laon and Queen Marie’s Grand Almoner, is the brother of the French ambassador in Parma. He has evidently praised the young Infante to the King on the basis of his brother’s reports.
Pictured: Jean-François-Joseph de Rochechouart (1707-1777), Cardinal de Rochechouart.
Diplomacy seems to run in the family. The Cardinal himself has been Louis XV’s ambassador in Rome.
If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary, please ask in the comments.
The portrait of Rochechouart has a very contemporary feel, no? Well, the head…not the vestments…clearly.