Louis was named Le Petit Dauphin because his father was the heir to the throne, Le Grand Dauphin. Grandson of the Sun King, Louis was a beautiful baby who grew into an obstinate, difficult child. Somehow his tutors beat the stubbornness and tantrums out of the boy and he grew up to be shy and very religious. Also a little dull.

He met his match in his bride Marie Adélaîde of Savoy. He married her when she was 12. She found Louis to be a bore.

Marie Adélaîde became mortally sick with the measles. Six days after she died he succumbed to the same illness at the age of 29.

Note: Louis’ surviving son, the two year old Duc d’Anjou, was spared becoming fatally ill with the measles only because he was kept away from the court’s doctors by his nurse. Doctors in that age tended to accelerate their patients to the grave by purging them and bleeding them to death. The Duc d’Angou grew to be Louis XV.