Régence Explained
| La Régence |
| Office: | Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans |
| Term Start: | 1 September 1715 |
| Term End: | 15 February 1723 |
| Primeminister: | Guillaume Dubois (in 1723) |
The Régence (in French pronounced as /ʁeʒɑ̃s/, Regency) was the period in French history between 1715 and 1723 when King Louis XV was considered a minor and the country was instead governed by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (a nephew of Louis XIV of France) as prince regent. This was not the only regency in French history but the name is still associated with this period.
Philippe was able to take power away from Louis-Auguste, Duke of Maine (illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan) who had been the favourite son of the late king and possessed much influence. From 1715 to 1718 the Polysynody changed the system of government in France, in which each minister (secretary of state) was replaced by a council. The système de Law was also introduced, which transformed the finances of the bankrupted kingdom and its aristocracy. Both Cardinal Dubois and Cardinal Fleury were highly influential during this time.
Contemporary European rulers included Philip V of Spain, John V of Portugal, George I of Great Britain, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, and Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, the maternal grandfather of Louis XV.
Chronology
1714
1715
- 1 September 1715: Louis XIV dies, his will entrusts the government of France to a regency council, with Philippe II, Duke of Orléans as an honorary president and the Duke of Maine as the real power, until his great-grandson and successor, the five-year old Louis XV, reaches his majority (13 years old) in 1723.
- 2 September 1715: the Duke of Orléans allies himself with the Parlement of Paris, who cancelled Louis XIV's will. As a Prince of the Blood, Philippe of Orléans had been a member of the Parlement.
- 9 September: Body of Louis XIV taken to the Basilica of Saint-Denis; Louis XV sets off for Château de Vincennes with the Regent, Madame de Ventadour, Villeroi, Toulouse and Maine; Philip V of Spain hears of his grandfather's death;
- 12 September: Philippe of Orléans recognised Regent by order of the Parlement;
- 15 September: Parlement claims the Droit de remontrance, the right to revoke a law made by a King who had died, further supporting the Regent's claim to power.
- 1 October 1715: Polysynody was held in Paris; it was composed of the highest nobility of the country.
- 30 December: Removal of Louis XV from the Château de Vincennes to the Tuileries Palace;
- Louis XV put under the care of François de Neufville, Duke of Villeroi; Guillaume Delisle and the Cardinal Fleury are put in charge of Louis' education.
1716
1717
- a treaty between the Dutch Republic, France and Great Britain, against Spain, attempting to maintain the agreement of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht;
1718
1719
1720
1721
1722
1723
The Polysynody
There were seven parts of the Polysynody all of which had their own ministers for the Regency:
- Council of Conscience (Conseil de Conscience)
Members included Cardinal de Noailles, Armand Bazin de Bezons (Archbishop of Bordeaux), Henri François d'Aguesseau, René Pucelle, Cardinal Fleury.
- Council of Foreign Affairs (Conseil des Affaires étrangères, headed by Nicolas Chalon du Blé)
- Council of War (Conseil de la Guerre)
Members included: Duke of Villars, Dominique-Claude Barberie de Saint-Contest, Prince of Conti, Duke of Maine, Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Gramont, Claude le Blanc.
- Council of the Navy (Conseil de la Marine, headed by the Count of Toulouse)
- Council of Finances (Conseil des Finances, headed by the Duke of Noailles)
- Council of the Affairs the Kingdom (Conseil des Affaires du Dedans du Royaume, headed by the Duke of Antin – half brother of the Duke of Maine and Count of Toulouse)
Members included: marquis de Harlay, de Goissard, Marquis of Argenson,
- Council of Commerce (Conseil du Commerce)
General
People
The Men
- Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (2 August 1674 – 2 December 1723) Born at his father's Château de Saint-Cloud, he was the Duke of Chartres from birth; his mother, whom he was very close to, was a German princess of the Palatinate named Elizabeth Charlotte. In 1692 he married his first cousin, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon – the youngest illegitimate daughter of Philippe's uncle Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. He died at Versailles in the arms of his mistress;
- Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon (18 August 1692 – 27 January 1740) son of Louis III, Prince of Condé and Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, he was thus the nephew of Philippe d'Orléans and was the Chief minister of France 1723–26; he was a great rival of the Regent and the House of Orléans in general;
- Louis-Auguste, Duke of Maine (31 March 1670 – 14 May 1736) favourite but illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Maintenon, he was despised by the Princes of the Blood due to his constant honours and great wealth he accumulated from his father. He died at Sceaux aged 66;
- John Law (pronounced Jean Lass) (21 April 1671 – 21 March 1729) was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade. He was responsible for the Mississippi Bubble and a chaotic economic collapse in France; he died in Venice.
The Women
Places
- Palace of Versailles : Birthplace of Louis XV and the home of the French court before and after the Regency; it was at Versailles that the Duke of Orléans died in 1723;
- Palais-Royal : Paris home of the House of Orléans; it was from there that the Regent handled state affairs; his last daughter, Louise Diane, was also born at the palace;
- Tuileries Palace : the childhood home of Louis XV during the Regency; Louis XV was installed in the Grand Appartements of Louis XIV located on the second floor.
Politics
The Régence marked the temporary eclipse of Versailles as centre of policymaking, since the Regent's court was at the Palais Royal in Paris. It marked the rise of Parisian salons as cultural centres, as literary meeting places and nuclei of discreet liberal resistance to some official policies. In the Paris salons aristocrats mingled more easily with the higher Bourgeoisie in a new atmosphere of relaxed decorum, comfort and intimacy.
Art history
In the arts, the style of the Régence is marked by early Rococo, characterised by the paintings of Antoine Watteau (1684–1721).
Rococo developed first in the decorative arts and interior design. Louis XIV's succession brought a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. By the end of the old king's reign, rich Baroque designs were giving way to lighter elements with more curves and natural patterns. These elements are obvious in the architectural designs of Nicolas Pineau. During the Régence, court life moved away from Versailles and this artistic change became well established, first in the royal palace and then throughout French high society. The delicacy and playfulness of Rococo designs is often seen as perfectly in tune with the excesses of Louis XV's regime.
The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France. The style had spread beyond architecture and furniture to painting and sculpture, exemplified by the works of Watteau and François Boucher. Rococo still maintained the Baroque taste for complex forms and intricate patterns, but by this point, it had begun to integrate a variety of diverse characteristics, including a taste for Oriental designs and asymmetric compositions.
Colonialism
The Régence is also the customary French word for the pre-independence regimes in the western North African countries, the so-called Barbary Coast. It was applied to:
- First the Barbary Coast (Maghrebinian countries in North Africa) was formally Ottoman, but de facto independent (dominated by military governors, soon de facto princes, styled dey, bey or beylerbey, and by the raïs, Muslim corsairs).
References
Notes and References
- 41827152. Nevin . Seamus . Richard cantillon – The Father of Economics. History Ireland . 21 . 2 . 20–23 . 2013 .
