Combining Scopes: A Study of the Early Reign of Louis XV through a Combination of National and International French Political Perspectives

Abstract

During the summer of 1742 around 200.000 French soldiers were fighting in the Holy Roman Empire, in a war that France never had to get militarily involved in. The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) was to become the end of an era for France, with changes occurring in both its internal and external politics. Internally the death of first minister André-Hercule de Fleury (1653 -1743), last of the four great cardinal-ministers, and the subsequent choice made by King Louis XV (1710-1774) to rule without a premier ministre, marked the end of the age of first ministers. At the same time it meant the rise of the court factions, forever struggling for the favor of the King. Externally, the international status of France was greatly damaged by the war. The careful diplomacy with which Fleury had successfully increased the international standing of France during the 1730’s would come undone in less than a year. The overarching aim of the paper is to show that internal and external political developments of France in the period between Louis XV ascension to the throne in 1726 and the death of Fleury in 1743 are interwoven and should not be seen separately. The internal power struggles before and during the war have greatly influenced France’s external policy. For lack of a better term, I have called this study of the links between these internal and external political developments ‘combining scopes’.