Louis XV (1710 - 1774). Louis XV, known as Louis the Beloved, was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity on 15 February 1723, the kingdom was ruled by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, as Regent of France. Cardinal Fleury was his chief minister from 1726 until the Cardinal's death in 1743, at which time the king took sole control of the kingdom. His reign of almost 59 years was the second longest in the history of France, exceeded only by his predecessor and great-grandfather, Louis XIV, who had ruled for 72 years. In 1748, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745. He ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain at the conclusion of the disastrous Seven Years' War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France. He was succeeded in 1774 by his grandson Louis XVI, who was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution. Two of his other grandsons, Louis XVIII and Charles X, occupied the throne of France after the fall of Napoleon I. Historians generally give his reign very low marks, especially as wars drained the treasury and set the stage for the French Revolution of 1789. Main article: Régence Louis XV was the great-grandson of Louis XIV and the third son of the Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Marie Adélaide of Savoy, the eldest daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy. He was born in the Palace of Versailles on 15 February 1710. When he was born, he was named the Duke of Anjou. The possibility of his becoming King seemed very remote; the King's oldest son and heir, Louis Le Grand Dauphin, Louis's father and his elder surviving brother were ahead of him in the succession. However, the Grand Dauphin died of smallpox on 14 April 1711. On 12 February 1712 the mother of Louis, Marie Adélaide, was stricken with measles and died, followed on 18 February by Louis's father, the former Duke of Burgundy, who was next in line for the throne. On 7 March, it was found that both Louis and his older brother, the former Duke of Brittany, had the measles. The two brothers were treated in the traditional way, with bleeding. On the night of 8-9 March, the new Dauphin died from the combination of the disease and the treatment. The governess of Louis, Madame de Ventadour, would not allow the doctors to bleed Louis further; he was very ill but survived. When Louis XIV died on 1 September 1715, Louis, at the age of five, inherited the throne. The Ordinance of Vincennes from 1374 required that the kingdom be governed by a regent until Louis reached the age of thirteen. The title of Regent was given to his nearest relative, his cousin Philippe, the Duke of Orleans. Louis XIV, however, distrusted Philippe, who was a renowned soldier, but was regarded by the King as an atheist and libertine. The King referred privately to Philippe as a Fanfaron des crimes. Louis XIV wanted France to be ruled by his favorite but illegitimate son, Duke of Maine, who was in the council. In August 1714, shortly before his own death, the King rewrote his will to restrict the powers of the regent; it stipulated that the nation was to be governed by a Regency Council made up of fourteen members until the new king reached the age of thirteen. Philippe, nephew of Louis XIV, was named president of the council, but other members included the Duke of Maine and his allies. Decisions were to be made by majority vote, meaning that the Regent could be outvoted by Maine's party. Orléans saw the trap, and immediately after the death of the King, he went to the Parlement of Paris, an assembly of nobles where he had many allies, and had the Parlement annul the King's will. In exchange for their support, he restored to the Parlement its droit de remontrance-the right to challenge the King's decisions, which had been removed by Louis XIV. The droit de remontrance would impair the monarchy's functioning and marked the beginning of a conflict between the Parlement and King which eventually led to the French Revolution in 1789. On 9 September 1715, the Regent had the young King transported away from the court in Versailles to Paris, where the Regent had his own residence in the Palais Royal. On 12 September, he performed his first official act, opening the first lit de justice of his reign at the Palais Royal.