Louis I of Spain

Louis I of Spain, called "the Well Beloved" or "the Liberal" (Madrid, August 25, 1707-Madrid, August 31, 1724), was King of Spain from January 15, 1724 until his death 229 days later, making his reign the most ephemeral in Spanish history. He was the eldest son of Philip V and Maria Luisa of Savoy.

Prince of Asturias

She was born on the day that Saint Louis, King of France, her ancestor and patron saint of the House of Bourbon, was celebrated. He was baptized on December 8 of the year of his birth by Cardinal Portocarrero, his godparents being his great-grandfather Louis XIV of France and his great-aunt Francisca Maria, Duchess Consort of Orleans.

On April 7, 1709, he was sworn in as Prince of Asturias in the Parliament meeting in the Monastery of San Jerónimo in Madrid. Between 1717 and 1720 he was educated and prepared to be king by the Marquis of Riscal de Alegre, Don Baltasar Hurtado de Amézaga Unzaga, gentleman of the King's Chamber, military scholar and Grand Commander of the Order of Santiago. On January 10, 1724, King Felipe V signed a decree abdicating in favor of his son Luis. The prince received the documents on the 15th and the provision was published the following day.

Marriage

Luis had been married to the French princess Luisa Isabel de Orleáns, daughter of Felipe II of Orleáns, since January 20, 1722. When they got married in the Ducal Palace of Lerma, he was fifteen years old and she was twelve.

Luisa Isabel, as queen, earned strong censure for her extravagant behavior due to borderline personality disorder she suffered from. Luisa Isabel appeared before the entire court dirty and smelly, she refused to wear underwear and tried to provoke the staff by exposing her private parts in a sneaky way. She is also said to have refused to touch the food on the table, but then she would hide and compulsively gobble up whatever was at hand, edible or inedible. Her behavior seemed to worsen over time, since overnight she was seen cleaning handkerchiefs, glass, tiles, and fabrics of all kinds in the palace. The subjects present there watched astonished as the sovereign undressed, she grabbed her dress and strove to clean the windows of the room with it. Even Luis, horrified by the situation, wrote to his father:

I see no other remedy than to lock her up as soon as possible, because her breakdown is increasing.

Death

However, when the young king fell ill with smallpox in August of that same year, Luisa Isabel cared for him diligently, exposing herself to contagion, as was the case, although with a different outcome from that of her husband. Seven months after he ascended the throne, the monarch died of smallpox in Madrid on August 31, 1724, when he had just turned seventeen.

This lightning reign was inconsequential due to its brevity and because, in reality, it was governed not so much from Madrid (court of Luis I), as from the Royal Site of La Granja (in the Segovian town of de San Ildefonso), the other parallel court of Felipe V and his wife Isabel de Farnesio, since Luis I was only in charge of parties with his friends. Her father returned to the throne after her death and the widowed queen Luisa Isabella was sent back to France, since her stay in Spain was useless and she enjoyed little sympathy at the Spanish court. They had no offspring.

Ancestors