Neither Duchess of Burgundy nor Archduchess of Austria, but Princess of Asturias: Louis XV of France and the Marriage of his Granddaughter Marie-Louise of Parma

Abstract

This article analyses the behaviour and interference of Louis XV of France in the face of a possible marriage between his granddaughter, Marie-Louise of Parma, and the Archduke Joseph of Austria, heir to the Empress Maria Theresa. The aim is to discern whether the moral arguments put forward by the French monarch were merely a political excuse to avoid this union or if the fears he expressed were genuine. Other cases of royal marriages prior to this one are examined in order to assess this question, as is the extent to which the sovereign used his role as head of the House of Bourbon to impose his will. The negotiation of the engagement of the princess of Parma reveals how dynastic interests still had a strong presence in eighteenth-century Europe, at a time when the ‘national interest’ prevailed as the dominant political element.