The End of Louis XV's Reign

Louis XV's final years witnessed the complete collapse of royal authority and prestige. The king, aged and unpopular, retreated into private pleasures while crises multiplied. Madame du Barry's influence symbolized the regime's decadence—a former prostitute effectively governing France. The parlements' triumph over Maupeou's reforms demonstrated royal impotence. Foreign policy failures and financial crisis completed the monarchy's discredit.

The king's death from smallpox (May 10, 1774) occasioned little mourning. His rushed burial at Saint-Denis, conducted at night to avoid demonstrations, contrasted sharply with the elaborate obsequies of earlier monarchs. Parisians celebrated, as they had at Louis XIV's death, but with greater bitterness. Popular songs mocked the dead king's vices and failures. The monarchy that had seemed divinely ordained increasingly appeared a corrupt human institution.

Louis XV's legacy was almost entirely negative. He left crushing debts, a discredited government, and widespread cynicism about royal authority. His reign demonstrated that mediocre kings could not operate the absolutist system, which required exceptional dedication and ability. His failure to produce reforms that might have saved the monarchy stemmed partly from personal weakness but mainly from structural obstacles that defeated abler rulers. The Old Regime's contradictions had become irreconcilable.