Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/31

Rh L O U L O U 19 self succeeded to the throne of France on September 1, 1715. His majority was declared in February 1723, and on September 5, 1725 (his cousin, to whom he had been engaged since 1721, having been sent back to Spain), his marriage to Maria Leczinski of Poland, his senior by seven years, was solemnized at Fontainebleau. This union continued to subsist after a fashion until the queen s death in 1768; but the successive relations of the king with De Chateauroux, De Pompadour, and Du Barry are elements of much greater interest and importance to the student of his reign. His surname of &quot; Le Bien-airne &quot; is said to date from August 1744, when he was seized with a dangerous illness at Metz ; the people of Paris rushed in crowds to the churches to pray for his recovery, nor could they sleep, eat, or enjoy any amusement until the &quot; well- beloved king&quot; was out of danger. He died of small -pox on May 10, 1774, having been predeceased for some years by his only son Louis. His successor was his grandson Louis XVI. For his reign see FRANCE (vol. ix. pp. 584- 593). LOUIS XVI., third son of Louis the Dauphin, and grandson of Louis XV., was born at Versailles on August 23, 1754, was married to Marie Antoinette, archduchess of Austria, at Versailles, on May 16, 1770, succeeded his grandfather on May 10, 1774, and was beheaded ou January 21, 1793. See FRANCE (vol. ix. pp. 593-604). LOUIS XVII., titular king of France, the third son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, was born at Versailles on March 27, 1785, became dauphin in June 1789, was proclaimed king after the execution of his father, was recognized as such by the Governments of England and Russia, but died in captivity in the Temple, Paris, June 8, 1795. LOUIS XVIIL, brother of Louis XVI., was the fourth grandson of Louis XV., and was born at Versailles on November 17, 1755, receiving at his birth the title of count of Provence. During the earlier stages of the revolutionary struggle he showed considerable sympathy with the popular party, but in June 1791 he found it necessary to withdraw to Coblentz, and subsequently lie took some part in the operations of the army of Conde. He was at Hamm in Westphalia when tidings of his brother s murder arrived, and lost no time in proclaiming the succession of his nephew Louis XVI L, himself being recognized as regent. In June 1795 he succeeded to the regal title ; after several years of involuntary wandering he found an asylum in England from October 1807 till April 1814, when he re-entered France. He only once left it again, during the &quot; Hundred Days &quot; (March to June 1815); his death took place at Paris on September 18, 1824. For his reign, see FRANCE (vol. ix. pp. 617-619). He was succeeded by his brother Charles X. LOUIS-PHILIPPE, king of the French, was born at the Palais Pioyal, Paris, on October 6, 1773. His father was Louis-Philippe-Joseph, duke of Orleans, a descendant of the younger brother of Louis XLV,, and by his mother he derived his origin from the Comte de Toulouse, the legitimized son of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan. At his birth he received the title of duke of Valois ; and after 1785, when his father succeeded to the Orleans title, he himself bore that of duke of Chartres. In 1781 Madame de Genlis was appointed his &quot;gouverneur.&quot; From 1789 onwards he manifested sincere sympathy with the new ideas then gaining currency, and in June 1791 he joined at Vendome the regiment of dragoons of which he had been colonel since 1785. In 1792 he took part in the battles of Valmy and Jemmapes, holding high military rank under Kellermann and Dumouriez ; in the following year he was present at the bombardment of Venloo and of Maestricht, and showed remarkable courage at Neerwinden. Proscribed along with Dumouriez, he entered upon a period of twenty- one years of exile from France, spent partly in Switzerland and other European countries, partly in the United States and in the Spanish American colonies. By the execution of his father he became duke of Orleans in 1793; and he was married to Marie Amelie, daughter of Ferdinand IV. of Naples, at Palermo, on November 25, 1809. In April 1814 he returned to Paris, where his old military rank and the property of his father were restored to him ; the &quot;Hundred Days&quot; in 1815 condemned him to a renewed but much briefer exile; during the reign of Louis XVIIL he was regarded with some jealousy by the court on account of his liberal opinions, but enjoyed greater favour under Charles X.; immediately after the three days of July 1830 he was called to exercise the functions of &quot;lieutenant- general of the kingdom,&quot; and on August 9 he accepted the title of king of the French. For his reign see FRANCE (vol. ix. p. 620-622). Escaping in disguise from Paris at the Revolution of 1848, he on March 3 reached England, where Claremont was his home until his death on August 26, 1850. LOUISA (1776-1810), queen of Prussia, was born March 10, 1776, in Hanover, where her father, Duke Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was commandant. After the death of her mother, who was by birth a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, she was entrusted to the care of a Fraulein von Wolzogen, and afterwards to that of her grandmother, the landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt. During the period of the revolutionary wars, she lived for some time with her sister Charlotte, the wife of Duke Frederick of Saxe- Hildburghausen. In 1793 she met at Frankfort the crown prince of Prussia, afterwards King Frederick William III., who was so fascinated by her beauty, and by the nobleness of her character, that he asked her to become his wife. On April 24 of th& same year they were betrothed, and on the 24th of December they were married. As queen of Prussia she commanded universal respect and affection, and nothing in Prussian history is more pathetic than the patience and dignity with which she bore the sufferings inflicted on her and her family during the war between Prussia and France. After the battle of Jena she went with her husband to Konigsberg, and when the battles of Eylau and Friedland had placed Prussia absolutely at the rnercy of France, she made a personal appeal to Napoleon at his headquarters in Tilsit, but without success. Earl;, in 1808 she accompanied the king from Memel to Konigs berg, whence, towards the end of the year, she visited St Petersburg, returning to Berlin on the 23d of December 1809. During the war Napoleon, with incredible bru tality, attempted to destroy the queen s reputation, but the only effect of his charges in Prussia was to make her more deeply beloved. On the 19th of July 1810 she died in her husband s arms, while visiting her father in Strelitz. No other queen in modern times ha;; been more sincerely mourned. She was buried in the garden of the palace at Charlottenburg, where a beautiful mausoleum, containing a fine recumbent statue by Ilauch, was built over her grave. In 1840 her husband was buried by her side. The Louisa Foundation (Luisenstift) for the education of girls was established in her honour, and in 1814 Frederick William III. instituted the Order of Louisa (Luisenorden). On the 10th of March 1876 the Prussian people celebrated the hundredth anniversary of her birth, and it was then decided to.erect a statue of Queen Louisa in the Thiergarten at Berlin. See Adami, Luise, Konigin von Prcusscn, 7th ed., 1875 ; Engel, Konigin Luise, 1876 ; Kluckhohn, Luise, Konigin von Preussen, 1876 ; Mommsen and Treitschke, Konigin Luise, 1876 ; in English, Hudson, Life and Times of Louisa, Queen of Prussia, 1874.