0:00:05 > 0:00:08The world's most magnificent palace
0:00:08 > 0:00:11is about to become its most notorious.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Home to decadence on a truly royal scale.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20Prostitution and gluttony.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Gambling and torture.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29And enough sex to scandalised even the French.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35This is the story of a king who took Versailles,
0:00:35 > 0:00:38turned it into his palace of pleasure,
0:00:38 > 0:00:41and brought the monarchy to the brink of collapse.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02The waking ceremony of the Duke of Anjou,
0:01:02 > 0:01:07by grace of God, King Louis XV, Monarch of France and Navarre,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09and just an 11-year-old boy.
0:01:29 > 0:01:30Louis will reign for 58 years,
0:01:30 > 0:01:35but his whole life will be lived in the shadow of another man's glory,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38his predecessor, Louis XIV.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Louis XIV was an incredibly tough act to follow.
0:01:49 > 0:01:50He is seen as The Great.
0:01:50 > 0:01:51He is the Conqueror of Europe.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53He adds to France.
0:01:53 > 0:01:54He is the greatest monarch
0:01:54 > 0:01:55of the 17th century.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00He was the first act on the stage of Versailles.
0:02:01 > 0:02:02He was the sun,
0:02:02 > 0:02:04he was Apollo the sun god.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Everything orbited around him.
0:02:09 > 0:02:11The etiquette of the court, the day of the court,
0:02:11 > 0:02:17the extraordinary life lived entirely in the public gaze.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22In his patronage of the arts, in his building projects,
0:02:22 > 0:02:24in his personal conduct,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26in the way he dressed,
0:02:26 > 0:02:28the way he ate, the way he looked,
0:02:28 > 0:02:29the way he walked...
0:02:31 > 0:02:35From the fountains in his gardens to the silver by his bed,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37he had established a form of etiquette
0:02:37 > 0:02:40with the sole view of making the whole country of France
0:02:40 > 0:02:41entirely focused upon his person
0:02:41 > 0:02:44and his power.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04Louis XV never expected to be king, but both his father
0:03:04 > 0:03:07and grandfather died before they could reach the throne.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12Louis XV loses his parents and his grandparents
0:03:12 > 0:03:15when he's two years old.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19He's an orphan brought up by people
0:03:19 > 0:03:21that he doesn't know very well,
0:03:21 > 0:03:23some of whom are probably fairly
0:03:23 > 0:03:24terrifying as courtiers.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27He is a sickly child very early on.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34Wherever he went,
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Louis was surrounded by the legacy of his great-grandfather,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40the man who first built the extraordinary palace
0:03:40 > 0:03:41that was his home.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49Certainly, one would imagine Louis XV has been traumatised
0:03:49 > 0:03:51by the death of all his near family,
0:03:51 > 0:03:53and is a lonely and probably
0:03:53 > 0:03:55slightly disturbed child in his youth,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59and I think this carries through the rest of his life.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Louis had been called the King of France since he was five,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09but others ran the country in his name.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14On his 12th birthday, it was time for him to take his crown,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17and his place on the world stage.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23The coronation of Louis XV was a moment of great hope
0:04:23 > 0:04:25and expectation for the French people.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28They'd had long years of war,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30and now the country was at peace,
0:04:30 > 0:04:31and it had a young king,
0:04:31 > 0:04:35in whom it was possible to invest every conceivable hope.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38So, they could project their ambitions
0:04:38 > 0:04:44and expectations for the new reign on this young, as yet, untested king.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48But, there was a shadow over Louis's inheritance,
0:04:48 > 0:04:53cast not by an eclipse, but by a mountain of debt.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57Despite all his success in war and diplomacy,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Louis XIV never managed to balance the books,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03or even pay for the building of his enormous palace.
0:05:17 > 0:05:22Louis XIV, when he died, left France in absolutely dire straits.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25After a long war he, of course, left France,
0:05:25 > 0:05:27something like, 20 years revenue in debt,
0:05:27 > 0:05:292 billion livres in debt, at least.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32And this was going to be an absolutely massive problem.
0:05:32 > 0:05:382 billion livres. That's £160 billion in today's money.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40But, before he could start work on that problem,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43there was one other thing that demanded
0:05:43 > 0:05:45the new King's immediate attention,
0:05:45 > 0:05:47marriage.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51Louis XV was more than ready to get married.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53When he was 15, his original fiance,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57who was the little Infanta of Spain, was still only five years old.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00And, since 15-year-old boys loathe sweet, little girls,
0:06:00 > 0:06:03he was rather embarrassed to have her around the place.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07Also, the ministers were terribly keen to get him breeding,
0:06:07 > 0:06:10so the little Infanta and her dolls were packed off back to Madrid,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14and a new wife had to be found.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16They cast about for princesses,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19and they eventually settled on Marie Leszczynska,
0:06:19 > 0:06:21who wasn't the most obvious choice,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24since her father was the deposed king of Poland,
0:06:24 > 0:06:26and she really had no money.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28She was 22, quite pretty,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31although, as the female courtiers disparagingly remarked,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35"Her complexion had never known any other cosmetic than snow."
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Nonetheless, 15-year-old boys aren't really very choosy,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41and Louis fell madly in love with her at once.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59Royal sex lives were public property,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02and Louis's was much discussed in the corridors of Versailles,
0:07:02 > 0:07:03if not always believed.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Louis was now a husband, but he had yet to truly become a ruler.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36So, he set out to copy his great-grandfather.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44Louis XIV had begun his reign by becoming his own Prime Minister.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47So, now, number 15 decided to do exactly the same.
0:07:52 > 0:07:58It would have been very simple for Louis XV to choose a prime minister,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00which would have been a much better solution for him,
0:08:00 > 0:08:03because he could have then had someone
0:08:03 > 0:08:06picked and appointed for the job.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33He's got this sense of,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36he has to follow in the footsteps of his great grandfather,
0:08:36 > 0:08:42Louis XIV, and to be a real king, he has to be a new Louis XIV.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Louis was living just like his great-grandfather,
0:08:49 > 0:08:51ruling as an absolute monarch,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55enjoying the hunting in the forests around Versailles,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59and soon fulfilling the first and most important
0:08:59 > 0:09:01of all his Royal roles,
0:09:00 > 0:09:01fathering an heir.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24The relationship between Louis XV and his wife,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Marie Leszczynska, started very well, really.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30They managed to put together a relationship,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34which, over a period of ten years, certainly, was quite a happy one.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40They had a string of children and they seemed to have found a certain,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43you know, sort of, emotional support in each other's company.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51More children followed, at regular intervals,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54over the next ten happy years.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56Eight girls and two boys.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Louis may have enjoyed being a father, but the Queen,
0:10:07 > 0:10:09after a decade of non-stop pregnancies,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12was fed up with it all.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The Queen began to complain that she was either pregnant, in bed,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20or being brought to bed.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Eventually, they had ten children by the time Louis, himself, was 27.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26The Queen had really had enough.
0:10:26 > 0:10:27So, she began to tell the king
0:10:27 > 0:10:30that he wasn't allowed to come into her bedroom on certain saints days,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32because she was a very pious woman.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37Gradually the saints days got more frequent,
0:10:37 > 0:10:41and the saints, themselves, became increasingly obscure until,
0:10:41 > 0:10:44finally, Louis lost his temper and asked Lebel,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47who was the concierge of Versailles, to bring him a woman, any woman.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Louis only had to ask,
0:10:49 > 0:10:55and just about anything and anyone could be provided, and was.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58The King gradually got into the habit of first having dalliances
0:10:58 > 0:11:02with the court ladies and then full-blown affairs.
0:11:04 > 0:11:06Louis began a life of carnal adventures
0:11:06 > 0:11:11that would turn him into one of history's greatest libertines.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16He was a great womaniser, but there was nothing unusual about that.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18French kings were expected to be womanisers.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21This was seen as a sign that they were virile,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23and we're going to produce an heir, and were, in fact,
0:11:23 > 0:11:27acting in an aristocratic and masculine way.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29Indeed, within the aristocratic society
0:11:29 > 0:11:31that the King had been raised,
0:11:31 > 0:11:34the idea of marriage or fidelity was seen as laughable.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38Louis's first illicit amour was Louise Julie de Nesle,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41a beautiful young aristocrat
0:11:41 > 0:11:44and the eldest of five equally attractive sisters.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55What was interesting was that he proceeded
0:11:55 > 0:11:59to take all the other sisters in her family as his mistresses, too.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01And, although it's slightly doubtful
0:12:01 > 0:12:02that he had an affair with the fourth,
0:12:02 > 0:12:03it's probable that he did.
0:12:16 > 0:12:22It was rumoured that one of the sisters, the Duchesse de Chateauroux,
0:12:22 > 0:12:24would ask her other sister to come along
0:12:24 > 0:12:27and give matters a helping hand, occasionally.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39In some senses, it was a scandal,
0:12:39 > 0:12:44but I think people thought it was funny, rather than disgraceful.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Both Louis XIV and Louis XV had huge sexual appetites
0:12:51 > 0:12:56and perhaps four women were really what the Bourbon blood needed.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59Louis's affairs with his favourite sisters,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02and his simultaneous flings with many other women,
0:13:02 > 0:13:05produced the inevitable consequences.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08In the course of his reign,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11the King would father a whole brood of illegitimate children.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13We're not actually sure how many,
0:13:13 > 0:13:18but certainly in the region of 30, I think, would be a decent guess.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26But as the rooms of Versailles filled up with Louis's offspring,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29the King's mind moved to affairs of state.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34He decided to copy his illustrious predecessor in another way,
0:13:34 > 0:13:35by taking France to war.
0:13:41 > 0:13:47The decision of Louis XV to go to war in 1744 was hugely popular.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49This was what the King of France should do.
0:13:49 > 0:13:51He should be seen at the head of his armies,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54fighting and leading his troops.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Louis's declaration of war against France's traditional enemies,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01of Britain, and Austria, made him a hero on the streets.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08And so did his decision to lead his armies in person, accompanied,
0:14:08 > 0:14:10of course, by two of the de Nesle sisters.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16But war was to bring Louis his first brush with death.
0:14:18 > 0:14:19While he was at Metz,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23he fell terribly ill, and it was considered that he was going to die.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Certainly the doctors had given up hope,
0:14:30 > 0:14:35and back in France, the population were shocked, genuinely,
0:14:35 > 0:14:39absolutely frozen with fear that they would lose their king.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55In order, as a Catholic, to receive the last sacraments,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57he had to confess.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00And, in order to confess, he had to send away his mistress
0:15:00 > 0:15:01and renounce her.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06Louis didn't think much of his marriage vows,
0:15:06 > 0:15:11but like most people of his age, he did believe in heaven and hell.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13And he knew which one he wanted to avoid.
0:15:22 > 0:15:23The King,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25like the least of his subjects,
0:15:25 > 0:15:26was afraid of dying
0:15:26 > 0:15:28without absolution,
0:15:28 > 0:15:30and was afraid for the state of his immortal soul.
0:15:35 > 0:15:39He knew that one day he would have to face God,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41and give an account of himself,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44and then he would just be a man before God,
0:15:44 > 0:15:46like any other man.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14The mistresses were sent away, but they refused to go completely.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16They hung around in the town of Metz,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18until the bishops were obliged to send a message
0:16:18 > 0:16:21saying that, "Our Lord wasn't really going to wait upon their pleasure,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23"and would they please get out."
0:16:25 > 0:16:29So, the de Nesle sisters were dispatched,
0:16:29 > 0:16:31the King promised that if he were saved,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34he would dedicate the rest of his life
0:16:34 > 0:16:37to the well-being of religion and his subjects.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53The King received the last rites, but then, miraculously recovered.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56And, it's from this period that his name
0:16:56 > 0:16:58"Bien-Aime", the Well-Beloved, dates,
0:16:58 > 0:17:01because the people were so pleased that their young king
0:17:01 > 0:17:02had recovered from his illness.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21But Louis's new-found piety didn't last long.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27As soon as he possibly could, he went back to his old ways.
0:17:27 > 0:17:28And, within a few months,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Madame de Chateauroux was back in his bed.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Louis, the beloved, became even more popular in 1745.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41He was present on the battlefield as the French army crushed
0:17:41 > 0:17:44the Austrians and the British at the Battle of Fontenoy.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47France was the dominant power in Europe, once again,
0:17:47 > 0:17:50just as she had been in the time of Louis XIV.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55It was the perfect moment for Louis to meet the love of his life.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58He's out hunting in the forests outside Versailles,
0:17:58 > 0:18:03and he comes across, in her carriage, this very beautiful,
0:18:03 > 0:18:05very striking young woman.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07Everyone knows he's taken by her.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14People referred to her as Louis XV's latest piece of game.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18She was called Jeanne Antoinette Poisson,
0:18:18 > 0:18:20the future Marquise de Pompadour,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23and she was much more than a piece of game.
0:18:23 > 0:18:29In fact, Madame de Pompadour is a rather well-connected woman,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32with one of the key factions at the heart of power,
0:18:32 > 0:18:36who formed part of a big financial clique.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40What everyone says, she's strikingly beautiful.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43And her beauty is really the key to her initial success.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49She uses her beauty. She uses her very considerable political acumen
0:18:49 > 0:18:54to establish herself at the heart of the King's power.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17She was nicknamed Reinette, the little queen, as a child,
0:19:17 > 0:19:19because when she was eight she had gone to see a fortune teller,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22who had told her that the King of France would fall in love with her.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24So, she and her family were absolutely convinced
0:19:24 > 0:19:25that this was her destiny.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30SPEAKS FRENCH
0:19:33 > 0:19:35She sang, she danced, she had a beautiful voice,
0:19:35 > 0:19:38she was very well read, marvellous conversationist,
0:19:38 > 0:19:41extremely charming woman.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour were really very much in love,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03and, at first, in fact, for some years,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05their relationship was sexually passionate.
0:20:07 > 0:20:08He found her very desirable.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Not so much, I think, because she was as sexy
0:20:10 > 0:20:12as the de Nesle sisters had been,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15but because she understood him very well.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18She knew how to amuse him, to captivate him, to charm him,
0:20:18 > 0:20:19and to divert him.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36She was a very emotionally intelligent woman,
0:20:36 > 0:20:39Madame de Pompadour, and I think it was this that Louis loved in her.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47Unfortunately, she herself said that she was physically a cold woman.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50She didn't really derive any pleasure from lovemaking.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54She didn't have the temperament for it. But, she tried very hard.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57She put herself on all these sorts of ridiculous diets of, you know,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00egg yolks, and red wine with gold flakes sprinkled on it
0:21:00 > 0:21:04to try and build herself up and increase the heat of her temperament,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08in order to satisfy Louis in bed, but her maid, Madame du Hausset,
0:21:08 > 0:21:09pointed out that
0:21:09 > 0:21:13she would kill herself rather than please Louis by doing this,
0:21:13 > 0:21:14and so she gave it up.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Madame Pompadour may have been a favourite with her lover, the King,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26but most other inhabitants of Versailles
0:21:26 > 0:21:29were not impressed with her.
0:21:33 > 0:21:39The courtiers loathed Madame de Pompadour, because she was bourgeois.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44They could not forgive her for being middle class.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48It was just about acceptable for a king to have liaisons
0:21:48 > 0:21:50with lower class prostitutes,
0:21:50 > 0:21:53but a maitresses en titres had always been an aristocratic woman.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57Ignoring the snobs at court, Pompadour used all her charm
0:21:57 > 0:21:59and intelligence
0:21:59 > 0:22:02to advance the interests of her small group of friends,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04and do down her rivals.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09She was associated with a cabal, a cabal at court,
0:22:09 > 0:22:12who were constantly trying to promote the interests
0:22:12 > 0:22:14of such and such a general.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17So, she had a kind of political baggage that she carried.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26Children are rarely keen on their father's new girlfriend,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29and the same was true at Versailles.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Especially when Louis's many children
0:22:31 > 0:22:33saw him spending a fortune on her.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41They felt, rightly or wrongly, that her presence, somehow,
0:22:41 > 0:22:42demeaned their father.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46As a consequence, of course, they famously dubbed her...
0:22:49 > 0:22:50..mummy whore.
0:22:52 > 0:22:53Louis's children may have loathed her,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57but their mother, the Queen, was rather impressed.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00She was particularly nice to the Queen,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03which poor old Marie Leszczynska was very grateful for,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05because until Madame de Pompadour arrived,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08nobody had ever taken any notice of her, at all.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10In fact, the first time she was ever sent flowers
0:23:10 > 0:23:13was at Madame de Pompadour's instigation.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16And, although, obviously, the difference in their positions
0:23:16 > 0:23:19meant that they could never be anything like friends,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21the Queen was heard to say, if there must be a mistress,
0:23:21 > 0:23:22better that it is this one.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Louis was victorious in war and lucky in love.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31And it made him grow over confident.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38In a grand personal gesture, he agreed to a peace deal with Austria.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40One that handed back most of the territory
0:23:40 > 0:23:42his generals had just won for him.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46His ministers thought it was a terrible idea, and told him so.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08The peace is not a very good peace for France,
0:24:08 > 0:24:11because France gets absolutely nothing for it,
0:24:11 > 0:24:13except enormous debts from its participation in the war.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18The French public, having dispensed millions of livres,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21and lost countless men dead,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24could not understand why their king was giving up his conquests.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26As a result, schoolchildren and fishwives
0:24:26 > 0:24:28were said to be running around in Paris
0:24:28 > 0:24:30with a line, "You're as stupid as the peace."
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Just as Louis's popularity began to wane,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37his love affair with Madame Pompadour
0:24:37 > 0:24:40was also drawing to a close.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43His solution was a private harem in the town of Versailles,
0:24:43 > 0:24:45known as the Deer Park.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49When Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour
0:24:49 > 0:24:52ceased to have a sexual relationship,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Louis XV didn't really want to replace her with another mistress,
0:24:54 > 0:24:56they got onto well for that,
0:24:56 > 0:24:57and from now on,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01his sexual appetite was catered for
0:25:01 > 0:25:06by a series of young women who were brought out from Paris.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Teenage nymphets, uneducated,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12often they had no idea who their powerful lover was.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Young, virginal,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23beautiful girls are brought in for his sexual gratification.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26But, this is developed into something
0:25:26 > 0:25:30altogether more salacious by the press at this time.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34When things had been going well, Louis was forgiven,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36even praised, for indulging his royal lust.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39But after his hated peace treaty,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43people saw their king's behaviour very differently.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47There's a, sort of, gutter press, effectively,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49which just amplifies this,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51makes him an absolute sexual debauchee
0:25:51 > 0:25:53of the worst imaginable kind.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59The Deer Park, obviously, did create rumours, at the time.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01It was, according to them,
0:26:01 > 0:26:02the scene of these terrible orgies,
0:26:02 > 0:26:06in which underage girls would be shipped in droves from Paris
0:26:06 > 0:26:08for wicked Louis XV to enjoy.
0:26:10 > 0:26:12And one of the worst things that was said,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16was that Madame de Pompadour acted as a sort of procuress,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19that she would find the girls for Louis
0:26:19 > 0:26:22and entice them to the Deer Park.
0:26:22 > 0:26:24It couldn't have been less true.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Madame de Pompadour knew about it, and she accepted it as a necessity.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36Faced with a deluge of criticism,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Louis turned to the one person he could trust completely.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58Ironically, the influence of Madame de Pompadour actually increases
0:26:58 > 0:27:01as she stops sharing the King's bed.
0:27:04 > 0:27:07She grew more important to him, because she was his friend.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11She was one of the few people, almost the only person,
0:27:11 > 0:27:13that he could actually trust at court.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16You have to remember that the court
0:27:16 > 0:27:18is a place of intrigue and masks and pretence,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22and nobody tells the truth to the King, so he really needed her.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24He needed her in his life as his friend.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31As the top powerbroker in Versailles,
0:27:31 > 0:27:35Pompadour was drawn more and more into the business of government.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Madame de Pompadour's excursion into politics
0:27:38 > 0:27:42is not something that would make a feminist proud.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45She was a clever woman, but she really didn't understand politics.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53Louis, very foolishly,
0:27:53 > 0:27:58entrusted her as a go-between with the Austrian ambassador,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00and Madame de Pompadour was so proud of herself,
0:28:00 > 0:28:02being given this important role,
0:28:02 > 0:28:05she took it terribly seriously, and was very excited,
0:28:05 > 0:28:08and she was completely manipulated by the ambassador.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Louis's peace with Austria was unpopular,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27but his decision to allow Madame Pompadour to secure an actual
0:28:27 > 0:28:30alliance with the old enemy was downright detested.
0:28:30 > 0:28:36Madame de Pompadour certainly is in favour of an alliance with Austria.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38So, it's an absolute shock to courtiers,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41many of whom have long-term loyalties,
0:28:41 > 0:28:43and, no doubt, family connections,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46to find that France is now allied with a traditional enemy.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Criticism of Louis and Pompadour became even more lurid,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56and it reached every corner of Versailles.
0:28:56 > 0:28:57They would accuse her
0:28:57 > 0:28:58of sexual diseases.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00They would accuse her of procuring
0:29:00 > 0:29:02young girls for the King,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04they would say anything they wanted.
0:29:04 > 0:29:09There were secret pamphlets, secret poems,
0:29:09 > 0:29:13extremely rude poems about her physique and her body.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Poems would be left in Versailles by court officials,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19perhaps even members of his family.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38Some of the secret notes even threatened the King with death.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44One of the most famous of these contained the phrase,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47"Wake-up," or, "Stir yourselves, the sons of Ravaillac!"
0:29:47 > 0:29:50which was a direct reference to the man
0:29:50 > 0:29:55who had assassinated Henry IV in 1610,
0:29:55 > 0:29:57and so, for the first time,
0:29:57 > 0:29:59we start to see references in these pamphlets
0:29:59 > 0:30:02to calls for the killing of the King.
0:30:42 > 0:30:47In 1750, there is the extraordinary episode where there is a rumour,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50and there are riots, that Louis XV is having his police force
0:30:50 > 0:30:54kidnap children so that he can cure himself of some horrible illness
0:30:54 > 0:30:57by bathing in the blood of these kidnapped Parisian children.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01So, this is a very serious, and very shocking state of affairs.
0:31:19 > 0:31:24Louis's one-man diplomacy was supposed to bring peace to Europe,
0:31:24 > 0:31:29but instead, in 1756, he joined his new ally, Austria,
0:31:29 > 0:31:31in a war against Britain and Prussia.
0:31:31 > 0:31:32It started well,
0:31:32 > 0:31:35but messengers were soon arriving at Versailles
0:31:35 > 0:31:37with bad news from the front.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44As the tide of war changed against the French,
0:31:44 > 0:31:47the Parisian public actually got into the habit
0:31:47 > 0:31:51of dancing in the streets to celebrate their defeats,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55and by doing so, showing how much they detested that Austrian alliance.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04The war was not going well for Louis or for France,
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and public frustration with the King took a dangerous turn.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18In January, 1757, Louis XV is going to his carriage,
0:32:18 > 0:32:20going down the steps,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24and a certain individual called Damiens rushes up.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35And then he feels blood and he says,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39"I've been hit. That's the man that did it."
0:32:49 > 0:32:54Damiens is immediately arrested, tortured on his feet
0:32:54 > 0:32:59by the Chancellor, although Louis XV did not want him to be tortured,
0:32:59 > 0:33:00to see whether he had any accomplices,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03and whether the knife was, in fact, a poison knife,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06which is the great fear that they have at the time.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19As far as we can see, he seems to be a nobody.
0:33:19 > 0:33:22He's a Lee Harvey Oswald figure, if you like,
0:33:22 > 0:33:27but what makes people suspicious is that he's a "nobody"
0:33:27 > 0:33:29connected to some quite important "somebodies".
0:33:29 > 0:33:33He's worked as a servant for a number of members of the Paris Parlement.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37People are never quite certain whether he's not part of a, sort of,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40wave of hostility towards Louis XV.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44Louis took this amateurish attempt on his life very badly.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46Although his doctors promised a full recovery,
0:33:46 > 0:33:49he was convinced that this was the end of him.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03It's a flesh wound, the mildest of cuts, effectively,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06but it has a disproportionate effect on Louis XV.
0:34:06 > 0:34:10He goes into a very deep depression after this because he feels that,
0:34:10 > 0:34:12you know, he has become, instead of the Well-Beloved,
0:34:12 > 0:34:13he's become the Well-Hated.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Rather amusingly, an old marshal comes along
0:34:36 > 0:34:38and asks him to cough, spit, and piss,
0:34:38 > 0:34:41and he says, "Well, you're OK, my lad.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44"There's nothing important been touched."
0:34:44 > 0:34:47But that's not, of course, the way Louis XV sees it.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00The psychological shock of one of his own subjects attacking him,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03this situation is the culmination
0:35:03 > 0:35:06of his lack of virtue,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09so he's bound to feel that it's his own fault,
0:35:09 > 0:35:10he's bound to feel guilty,
0:35:10 > 0:35:15and it's bound to give rise to a great deal of self-questioning.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Hearing the grim details of the punishment
0:35:19 > 0:35:23planned for his would-be assassin did nothing to improve Louis's mood.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35He's going to pay for this very, very dearly,
0:35:35 > 0:35:37in that he's not merely going to be executed.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41He's going to be put to death in the most horrible way that can be
0:35:41 > 0:35:43devised by judicial cruelty.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51He's executed in the most extraordinarily gory way
0:35:51 > 0:35:54on the Place de Greve, in Paris.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Strapped down to the wheel,
0:35:56 > 0:35:58and the executioner goes round
0:35:58 > 0:36:01breaking most bones in his body with an iron bar.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04He is burnt with tongs
0:36:04 > 0:36:08and his flesh is knowingly pulled away from his body.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11And it goes on and on and on, but at the end of it,
0:36:11 > 0:36:15four horses are attached to each of his limbs, and they're encouraged
0:36:15 > 0:36:18to gallop off in different directions,
0:36:18 > 0:36:20pulling his body to pieces.
0:36:20 > 0:36:22Well, they do that and it's not working,
0:36:22 > 0:36:24so the executioner goes back and he starts hacking at various pieces,
0:36:24 > 0:36:27so, effectively, he can be pulled to pieces.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31Damiens stays alive and conscious for much of this operation.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35He finally dies after four hours of absolute torment,
0:36:35 > 0:36:40which is going to disgust people by its reports.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48Louis had had nothing to do with the grisly execution,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52but accounts of it stained his reputation right across Europe.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59It gives the reign of Louis XV this incredibly ghastly,
0:36:59 > 0:37:05sort of, backward, sort of, feeling to it.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09Although his physical suffering was nothing
0:37:09 > 0:37:11compared to that meted out to Damiens,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Louis's mental stability was badly shaken by the affair.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20His closest aides described him as troubled and depressed.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25For a monarch who takes being a king extremely seriously,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27this is a big thing,
0:37:27 > 0:37:29and all the court talk about, over the next couple of years,
0:37:29 > 0:37:35is this depression, this, sort of, melancholic vein to Louis XV.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49To make matters worse,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52the conflict with Britain was proving to be disastrous.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55By the end of what's called the Seven Years War,
0:37:55 > 0:37:58the French were driven out of Canada, India,
0:37:58 > 0:38:00and much of the Caribbean.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03The British, largely because of their Navy,
0:38:03 > 0:38:08were able, completely, to turn the tables on France.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11France has really lost all her pretensions
0:38:11 > 0:38:15to becoming a global superpower,
0:38:15 > 0:38:17and she has lost that to England, basically.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19If the world is speaking English today,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23it is partly because of the outcome of the Seven Years War
0:38:23 > 0:38:24in the 18th century.
0:38:24 > 0:38:29It was a disaster for France, it was a disaster for the French monarchy.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35For a king
0:38:35 > 0:38:39whose greatest hope was to live up to the glory of his predecessor,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41this was almost too much to bear.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04The main thing that a King of France was supposed to do,
0:39:04 > 0:39:07which is sometimes forgotten, le metier du roi,
0:39:07 > 0:39:10was the conduct of foreign policy.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13Now, he wasn't really supposed to mess around
0:39:13 > 0:39:16with things like the Parlement, internal politics.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19That wasn't his job. It was foreign policy.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22And, if you can't even get that right, you're going to be hated.
0:39:28 > 0:39:32Badly shaken by the assassination attempt,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36and widely blamed for a each fresh military disaster,
0:39:36 > 0:39:40Louis hid himself away at Versailles.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45The Seven Years War was, undoubtedly, the nadir for Louis XV.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48He withdrew into himself,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52and instead of doing what he had done during the Austrian War,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55of getting to the front and leading his troops,
0:39:55 > 0:39:59instead he spent his time hunting, and if he wasn't hunting,
0:39:59 > 0:40:03he was with the girls in the Deer Park.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09Louis may have lost a war,
0:40:09 > 0:40:14but he was still the absolute ruler of France.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17And when the criticism of him became too much to bear,
0:40:17 > 0:40:21he came up with a suitably absolutist response.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23Even the first Encyclopaedia in the French language,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26one of the great intellectual achievements of the age,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29went on to the bonfire.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34Unfortunately, Louis XV was, by nature,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37suspicious of anything he saw as unorthodox,
0:40:37 > 0:40:39and as a consequence,
0:40:39 > 0:40:41he just didn't associate himself
0:40:41 > 0:40:44with this great outpouring of French culture and knowledge.
0:40:44 > 0:40:48Louis was still close to Madame Pompadour,
0:40:48 > 0:40:51who tried to change his mind.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53At a dinner party one evening in Versailles,
0:40:53 > 0:40:58a Duke said, "What is gunpowder made of?"
0:40:58 > 0:41:01And Madame de Pompadour seized the moment, and said,
0:41:01 > 0:41:03"It's true, we don't know what gunpowder is.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07"What a pity it is that your Majesty, in his wisdom,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09"you've banned the encyclopaedia,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12"otherwise we could have looked in the encyclopaedia
0:41:12 > 0:41:16"and found out what gunpowder is constituted from."
0:41:16 > 0:41:18So, they sent for a copy of the banned encyclopaedia,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20which, of course, the King had in his private library,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22and they spent the rest of the evening reading articles
0:41:22 > 0:41:24from the encyclopaedia,
0:41:24 > 0:41:26and of course, he was intrigued by this,
0:41:26 > 0:41:30and this was supposed to be one of the reasons why he had it reinstated.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36Getting Louis to rescind the ban on the encyclopaedia was to be
0:41:36 > 0:41:39one of Madame Pompadour's last contributions to his life.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42In 1764 she contracted tuberculosis.
0:42:01 > 0:42:06She's shifted out of Versailles, and courtiers record that,
0:42:06 > 0:42:09I think, as he's seeing the carriage taking her out of Versailles,
0:42:09 > 0:42:14he weeps a tear. So, he is upset, undoubtedly, by it.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24He stood on the balcony and he cried,
0:42:24 > 0:42:28because he had lost the person he had trusted the most in the world,
0:42:28 > 0:42:30and he felt very alone without her.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40Her death in 1764 is followed by the death of his son, the Dauphin,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43in 1765, and a couple of years later in 1768,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47the death of his Queen, Marie Leszczynska,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51so, this is the removal of some very important people in his life.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59The deaths of these people who are close to him,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02in the mid-1760s, undoubtedly has a very big impact on him emotionally.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07The death of his closest confidant began the worst
0:43:07 > 0:43:10period of Louis's life.
0:43:10 > 0:43:12He spent days lost in introspection,
0:43:12 > 0:43:17or deep in discussion with philosophers and astronomers.
0:43:40 > 0:43:45You can see that he did have a clear tendency
0:43:45 > 0:43:47towards some sort of depression.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51For the rest of his life, he remains withdrawn, somewhat depressive,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54and obsessed with death.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20Just as his courtiers were almost giving up hope for Louis,
0:44:20 > 0:44:22he recovered his lust for life.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26The reason was a new mistress, nearly 40 years younger than him.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28I'm rather fond of Madame du Barry.
0:44:28 > 0:44:33She was as beautiful as an angel, and as stupid as a basket,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36but she made Louis very happy. She was utterly, utterly gorgeous.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39I mean, all the King's mistresses were always described as ravishing,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42but I think she was the one who truly was.
0:44:42 > 0:44:44She was fabulously sexy.
0:44:48 > 0:44:54She was, I suppose, the 18th-century version of the tart with a heart.
0:44:56 > 0:45:01Madame du Barry had an instant effect on the ageing King.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03He could think of nothing else but her.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05She was extremely beautiful.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08She was supposed to have looked like a kind of debauched angel.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Not too bright, but very good fun.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Madame du Barry sort of gives him a bit of a,
0:45:23 > 0:45:25a bit of a perk up, really.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34Madame du Barry has an enormous effect upon Louis XV.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38He's a man of 60 at this point, and she has been a kept woman.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40I wouldn't necessarily say she's been a prostitute,
0:45:40 > 0:45:43but she suddenly learnt a thing or two in the long periods
0:45:43 > 0:45:47that she spent with a certain number of particular individuals.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53And, I think, Louis XV is delighted with the various tricks
0:45:53 > 0:45:57that she's learned to keep him young,
0:45:57 > 0:46:00and so, it is very good for his mental health, we might say.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04Madame du Barry may have perked up the ageing Louis,
0:46:04 > 0:46:08but that did not make her, or him, any more popular.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12She was absolutely loathed. Everyone hated her.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14The Parisians hated her because she wasn't an aristocrat.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16The aristocrats hated her
0:46:16 > 0:46:18because she was really little better than a streetwalker.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22But, the King adored her, and he made her very happy.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31Louis XV went far too far, and he was seen, really, as slumming it.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37It was beneath the dignity of the king to have these sorts of liaisons.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41There is no doubt that Louis XV was somebody who was seen as becoming
0:46:41 > 0:46:44increasingly dissolute, even degenerate,
0:46:44 > 0:46:45and who was just failing
0:46:45 > 0:46:49to live up to the standards expected of a man who was king.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Whatever people said about him, the new relationship
0:46:56 > 0:47:00gave Louis the confidence to embark on a grand project,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03to give his new heir, the future Louis XVI,
0:47:03 > 0:47:07the greatest wedding of the century.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10The young Louis was due to marry Marie Antoinette of Austria,
0:47:10 > 0:47:12and Louis wanted the ceremony to take place
0:47:12 > 0:47:15in a brand-new theatre inside Versailles,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19a project abandoned years before by Louis XIV.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40Louis XV felt the Crown was under threat from the Parlement,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43from different sections of society.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46It had suffered the defeats of the Seven Years War,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50therefore, he wanted a spectacular royal wedding
0:47:50 > 0:47:53to assert the splendour and power of the monarchy.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06The politicians grumbled about the crippling cost of the Royal wedding,
0:48:06 > 0:48:08but Louis just kept on spending.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Parlement becomes an endless thorn in the side of the Crown.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32Sometimes the King is conciliatory towards them,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35at other times he's very repressive against them.
0:48:35 > 0:48:41But in 1770 he decides to tackle the problem in a different way.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44He basically tries to abolish the Parlement.
0:48:44 > 0:48:48Louis's decision to remove the one organisation in France
0:48:48 > 0:48:51that could challenge him for authority
0:48:51 > 0:48:54was a flagrant abuse of royal power.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21So, this is coups d'etat in the sense that
0:49:21 > 0:49:24one of the things that is absolutely key
0:49:24 > 0:49:27for the self-image of the French monarchy is that it is a legitimate,
0:49:27 > 0:49:31absolute monarchy that rules according to the laws,
0:49:31 > 0:49:33so to abolish the law courts, themselves,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37is a very powerful signal,
0:49:37 > 0:49:40and a very blatant act of royal despotism.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54Louis believed he was acting in the best interests of France,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58whose outdated legal system stood in the way of progress.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11So, he introduced wholesale reforms, for example, free justice.
0:50:11 > 0:50:12Also the judges, themselves,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15were now to be appointed by the Crown for life.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18And they would no longer buy their position as judge,
0:50:18 > 0:50:20as had been the case before.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24So, for many, including Voltaire,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27this was seen as an enlightened reform.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32Unfortunately for Louis XV, by silencing the Parlement,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35the King unleashed opposition on a scale
0:50:35 > 0:50:38that had not been seen for generations.
0:50:46 > 0:50:50It was too late for Louis to play the reformer.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55Years of erotic self-indulgence, along with failed wars
0:50:55 > 0:51:00and bungled diplomacy, had cemented his subjects' opinion of him,
0:51:00 > 0:51:03a bad king and a bad man.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Louis XV, towards the end of his reign, is sunk in vice,
0:51:10 > 0:51:13and the people of Paris and the courtiers
0:51:13 > 0:51:15are all very well aware that he has, somehow,
0:51:15 > 0:51:19taken the path of personal pleasure and not been a very successful king.
0:51:19 > 0:51:21His reforms are falling flat,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24he's got a mistress who is, frankly,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27not of courtly rank,
0:51:27 > 0:51:29and he's simply not kingly.
0:51:29 > 0:51:35On top of it all, on Easter Sunday, 1774,
0:51:35 > 0:51:40The Abbe Beauvais, the most eloquent sermoniser at the court of Louis XV,
0:51:40 > 0:51:42makes this devastating sermon.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58This is really scandalous.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01It is such a direct attack on the morality of the King
0:52:01 > 0:52:05that's never been witnessed at court.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29Louis XV, himself, must be intensely mortified
0:52:29 > 0:52:34by the fact that he is not loved, that he faces opposition at court,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37and for the fact that he is so isolated
0:52:37 > 0:52:40within his own courtly environment.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42If the Abbe intended to wound Louis,
0:52:42 > 0:52:45he could not have expected what happened next.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56Weeks after this humiliating dressing down
0:52:56 > 0:53:00by the Abbe Beauvais at Easter, Louis XV falls ill.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13Nobody knows what's wrong with him.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16And it takes the doctors, gathered around him,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19several days to work out what's going on.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23They bleed him, which can only weaken him, to my mind,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26and then, suddenly, one of the doctor sees familiar blotches,
0:53:26 > 0:53:28and they realise that he has smallpox.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35It is a complete bolt out of the blue.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39Smallpox, in the 18th-century, is still an absolute killer disease.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46He had a particularly unpleasant form of it,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48which was the black variety,
0:53:48 > 0:53:53that changed the entire colour of the face to a sort of dark copper mask.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00And so, he was completely disfigured.
0:54:00 > 0:54:01Even as he approached death,
0:54:01 > 0:54:05Louis's enemies spread stories about his sex life.
0:54:05 > 0:54:11It was suggested that he may have caught his smallpox
0:54:11 > 0:54:14from a prostitute, but the whole idea of a corrupt body of a corrupt king
0:54:14 > 0:54:19were very resonant, and it is thought that this was a fitting punishment.
0:54:19 > 0:54:25The outward and visible sign of an inward, invisible damnation.
0:54:27 > 0:54:30It riddles his body and it produces a horrible stench
0:54:30 > 0:54:32as his inner organs start decaying.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Underneath it all, he is very devout.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57And he goes into ultra-devout mode.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00He sends away Madame du Barry from the court
0:55:00 > 0:55:01in the same way that he sent away
0:55:01 > 0:55:04the Duchesse de Chateauroux in 1744 at Metz.
0:55:14 > 0:55:15Once she had left, it was possible
0:55:15 > 0:55:21for him to receive the last rites of the church, and, in his final hours,
0:55:21 > 0:55:25he made a great effort, I think, to die as a Christian.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27Messieurs.
0:55:53 > 0:55:58In fact, he did face it, the last few days, with considerable courage.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03He goes about dying like a good Christian, like a good king,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05dying, in fact, like Louis XIV.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32When the announcement came, no-one seemed to care.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43When he actually dies, you can hear a stampede,
0:56:43 > 0:56:45almost a thunder of running feet,
0:56:45 > 0:56:48as everybody abandons the antechamber where he's lying.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53The death of every king, you had to have an autopsy,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and the King's physician offers this to the ceremonial offices,
0:56:56 > 0:56:57and they don't want to know, at all.
0:56:57 > 0:57:02They turned their back and run rather fast, clutching their noses,
0:57:02 > 0:57:06as they do so, and the King is sealed into an iron coffin.
0:57:09 > 0:57:15Once the news of his death was known, there was great celebration.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18There was a general sense of relief that the man who had once been
0:57:18 > 0:57:21Louis the Well-Beloved, had gone.
0:57:21 > 0:57:25The population had just lost any hope or confidence in their king,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27and indeed, I think it's fair to say,
0:57:27 > 0:57:28they'd fallen out of love with their king.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37It has been argued that the monarchy could never recover
0:57:37 > 0:57:41from the harm engendered by Louis XV.
0:57:41 > 0:57:46He had dragged it into such disrepute that there was no recovery.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52The abiding memory of Louis XV
0:57:52 > 0:57:54is a man who is morally corrupt
0:57:54 > 0:57:58and is unable to rise above his melancholy into any kind of grandeur.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01He is the least grand of the French monarchs, surely.
0:58:06 > 0:58:09Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd