Régence

La Régence
Philippe with Marie-Madeleine de Parabère as Athena; Jean-Baptiste Santerre, 1716
Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans
In office 1 September 1715 – 15 February 1723
Monarch	Louis XV of France
Prime Minister	Guillaume Dubois (in 1723)

The Régence (French pronunciation: ​[ʁeʒɑ̃s], Regency) refers to a time between 1715 and 1723, when King Louis XV was a minor and France was governed by Philippe d'Orléans, a nephew of Louis XIV o France, as Regent of the Kingdom. In French the period is also called le Régence de Philippe'Orléans.

Contemporary European rulers included Philip V of Spain, John V of Portugal, George I of Great Britain, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (faither o Empress Maria Theresa) and Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, the maternal grandfather of King Louis XV.

Chronology

1714

• 29 July 1714: the Duke o Maine an the Coont o Toulouse, Louis XIV's illegitimate sons (bi Madame de Montespan), are made Princes o the Bluid.

1715

• 1 September 1715: Louis XIV dies, his will entrusts the government of France to a regency council, with Philippe d'Orléans, Duke o Orléans aa honorary president and the Duke of Maine as the real power, until the young Louis o Fraunce, Duke o Anjou reaches his majority (1723)
• 2 September 1715: the Duke of Orléans allies himself with the Parlement de Paris, who cancelled Louis XIV's will. As a Prince of the Bluid, Philippe o Orléans haed been a member o the Parlement.
• 9 September: Body o Louis XIV taken to Saunt Denis; Louis XV sets off for Vincennes with the Regent, Madame de Ventadour, Villeroy, Toulouse and Maine; Philip V of Spain hears of his grandfaither's daith;
• 12 September: Philippe d'Orléans recognised Regent bi order of the Parlement;
• 15 September: Parlement claims the Droit de remontrance, the right to revoke a law made bi a Keeng who haed died, further supporting the Regent's claim tae power.
• 1 October 1715: Polysynody was held in Paris; it was composed of the highest nobility o the country.
• 30 December: Removal o Louis XV from the Château de Vincennes to the Tuileries Palace;
• Louis XV put under the care o François de Neufville, Duke o Villeroy; Guillaume Delisle an the Cardinal de Fleury are put in charge of Louis' education.

1716

• 14 Mairch: Creation o the Chambre Ardente; an extraordinary court of justice in France, mainly held for the trials o heretics;
• 2 Mey: Philippe d'Orléans allows John Law tae found the Banque générale;
• 27 Jin: Birth o Mademoiselle de Chartres at the Palais Royal; she wis the last child o the Regent;
• 9/10 October: Alliance with Great Britain;

1717

• Triple Alliance (1717); a treaty between the Dutch Republic, France an Great Britain, against Spain, attempting tae maintain the agreement o the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht;
• 31 Mairch: The Regent's second surviving daughter Louise Adélaïde takes the veil an becomes a nun under the name o Sœur Sainte Bathilde.
• 21 Mey: Arrival o Peter I of Russia in Paris; he visits the Keeng, Versailles, the Regent, his daughter Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans; he stays in Paris; he does not see the Duchess of Orléans despite her pleas; Peter stays at the Grand Trianon;
• 6 June 1717: Purchase of the Regent Diamond; later part of the French Crown Jewels;
• Julie: the Duke o Maine and the Count of Toulouse are stripped of their rank o Princes of the Blood by the Parlement
• September: Foundation of the Compagnie d'Occident et du Mississippi;

1718

• Mairch: Arrival o the Duke o Lorraine and his consort, Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans (sister o the Regent);
• 31 March: Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain born in Madrid; later betrothed to Louis XV;
• 11 April: Daith o the Dowager Duchess of Vendôme;
• 7 Mey: Daith o Mary of Modena at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye; she wis Queen consort o the exiled James II of England;
• 2 August: Quadruple Alliance with Austrick, Fraunce, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain – aimed at revising (principally at Spain's expense) the treaties which ended the War of the Spanish Succession;
• 24 September: end of the Polysynody an the reestablishment of ministers;
• 4 December: Banque générale becomes the Banque Royale;
• December Exposure of the Cellamare Conspiracy headed by the Duke of Maine and his wife Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, which aimed at placing Philip V of Spain as regent o Fraunce with the help of the Spaingie Ambassador, the "Príncipe de Cellamare"; the Duke an Duchess are exiled from court and return in 1720 to the Sceaux;

1719

• 9 Januar: Declaration of War with Spain;
• 15 Aprile: Death of Madame de Maintenon at Saint-Cyr-l'École;
• Mey foundation of the East India Company by John Law;
• 21 Julie: Death of Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans; favourite daughter of the Regent who participated in the hectic nightlife o his court, even during several pregnancies with different men.

1720

• 5 January: John Law made Controller General of Finances;
• 11 February: Marriage of Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans to Francesco d'Este, Hereditary Prince of Modena at the Tuileries Palace;
• March : Great Plague of Marseille;
• 21 March: Death of Marie Anne de Bourbon, wife of the Duke o Bourbon;
• 26 March: Execution of the leaders of the Pontcallec Conspiracy against the Regency.

1721

• Publication of the Persian Letters by Montesquieu; negotiations between the Regent and Peter I of Roushie begin regarding the proposed marriage o the Regents only legitimate son to a daughter of the Emperor, namely either the Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna o Russia or the future Elizabeth of Russia; plans fail an Louis d'Orléans marries in 1724;
• 6 January: Arrest of Louis Dominique Bourguignon;
• 27 March: Alliance of Spain and France;
• May : Visit of Mehmet Effendi; Turkish Ambassador;
• 18 July: Death of Antoine Watteau;
• 17 September: Death of the Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, Grand Duchess of Tuscany; cousin of the Regent;
• 29 December : Birth of the future Madame de Pompadour;
• Marie Anne de Bourbon is put in charge o the Infanta's education in France;

1722

• The Dowager Duchess of Bourbon starts the construction of the Palais Bourbon in Paris tae a design by the Italian architect Lorenzo Giardini, approved by Jules Hardouin Mansart;
• 20 Januar: Marriage of Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans to the future Louis I of Spain;
• 10 Mairch: Arrival of Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain in Paris; daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese;
• 15 Juin: Louis XV and the court return to Versailles; the Regent takes the old apartments of his dead cousin, the late Louis, Dauphin of Fraunce (1661–1711);
• 22 August: Guillaume Dubois made the Prime Minister o the Regent;
• 25 October: Coronation of Louis XV at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Reims;
• 8 December: Death of Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (Madame), mother of the Regent;

1723

• Louis XV orders plans for the future Salon d'Hercule to begin;
• 2 Februar: Secret marriage of the Count o Toulouse and Marie Victoire de Noailles (already widowed daughter in law of Madame de Montespan) in Paris; their marriage was only announced after the death of the Regent;
• 16 February: Majority of Louis XV;
• 23 February: Daith of Anne of Bavarie, Dowager Princess of Condé;
• 10 August: Death of Dubois; Role later took on by Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, Prince of Condé;
• 2 December: death of the Regent at the Palace of Versailles;