If he failed to cultivate the good qualities which Louis XV. showed as a child, and cannot therefore escape some of the responsibility for the scandals and the disasters of that unfortunate reign, he succeeded little by little in gaining the entire confidence of his pupil. Jealous of his influence, Philippe d’Orléans endeavoured to separate him from the boy by the offer of the archbishopric of Rheims, the first episcopal dignity in the realm. But Fleury knew where his true interests lay, and declined it. Nothing, he declared, should distract him from the duty which he owed to his young Sovereign. When, in 1722, Louis XV.’s gouverneur, the Maréchal de Villeroy, was banished by the Regent from Court, Fleury, deeming that his honour obliged him to share the disgrace of his superior and protector, followed him into exile. But his departure occasioned the young King such distress that he lost no time in recalling him, by a letter in his own hand—an action upon which it is probable the astute old gentleman had confidently counted.
At the time of the death of Philippe d’Orléans, Fleury was in his seventy-first year, an age at which most men have renounced ambition and are thinking only of repose. The Bishop of Fréjus, however, felt that he had some years of activity yet before him, and he was resolved to climb to the very pinnacle of fortune. He might easily have persuaded Louis XV. to make him Prime Minister, but he counselled the young King to entrust the direction of affairs to the Duc de Bourbon; perhaps, because he hoped to govern through him; more probably, because he foresaw that Monsieur le Duc’s Ministry must be of brief duration, and that his own elevation would be far better received after the prince had been allowed his chance.
Monsieur le Duc and Madame de Prie were not blind to the danger which threatened from this quarter. In his quality of priest, Fleury could not fail to disapprove of the relations existing between them, and that he had communicated his sentiments to his royal pupil was very evident from the coldness with which his Majesty treated the marchioness. Nor could it be said that the King regarded Monsieur le Duc with any marked degree of favour; indeed, he appeared to avoid him, and not infrequently when the Prime Minister had requested an audience, he was informed that M. de Fréjus would receive any communication that he might wish to make.
Encouraged by this, the Orléans party began to make overtures to Fleury with a view to an alliance. But the preceptor preferred to retain his liberty of action, and their advances met with no formal response. It was, however, impossible to say how long he would continue to remain neutral, and the possibility of so powerful a coalition being formed against them occasioned the Duc de Bourbon and his mistress profound uneasiness.
The third power was Philip V. of Spain.
After the conclusion of peace between France and Spain at the beginning of 1720, the Regent and Dubois, anxious to re-establish friendly relations between the two great branches of the House of Bourbon, proposed a triple matrimonial alliance, to which Philip V. and Isabella Farnese readily consented. In accordance with this arrangement, the Infanta Isabella Luisa, then in her fifth year, was sent to the Court of France, to be brought up until she had reached a marriageable age, when she was to become the wife of Louis XV.; the fourth of the Regent’s six daughters, Mlle. de Montpensier, was married to the Prince of the Asturias, heir to the Crown of Spain; while the fifth of the Orléans princesses, Mlle. de Beaujolais, who was only six years old, was sent to Madrid, where it was proposed that, in due course, she should wed Don Carlos, the eldest son of Philip V. and his second wife, Isabella Farnese.
Connected thus closely with the Orléans, Philip V. had everything to lose by events which excluded his allies from power. In January, 1724, he had abdicated in favour of the Prince of the Asturias, though the new king’s authority was merely nominal, and on the son’s death, some months later, the father resumed the Crown. Some writers maintain that this abdication was in fulfilment of a vow that he had made in 1720; others believe that it was intended to facilitate his designs on the French throne; and this is far from improbable. For it is certain that Philip had not abandoned the hopes which he had cherished since the death of his grandfather, and which the feeble health of Louis XV., the well-known incapacity of the new Duc d’Orléans, and the false reports of his partisans concerning the popularity which he enjoyed in Paris, served to sustain. But Monsieur le Duc was determined to resist to the uttermost any such pretensions, if only from jealousy of the Orléans. Hence, Philip detested the new Prime Minister, who was well aware that his Catholic Majesty would employ all the influence he possessed at the Court of France to effect his overthrow.
In the face of these dangers and embarrassments, it was only natural that Monsieur le Duc should have proceeded at first with caution and moderation, and have gone as far as he could reasonably be expected to go to disarm the malice of his foes. Such a course, indeed, was dictated by the most elementary prudence. It served, however, no useful purpose beyond proving to him the futility of attempting to conciliate those whom nothing but a virtual renunciation of his authority would be likely to satisfy. The Duc d’Orléans, it is true, declared himself, in his own name and that of his party, perfectly willing for an immediate reconciliation, and offered to marry Mlle. de Sens, the youngest sister of his rival. But the conditions he desired to impose—the recall of Le Blanc and his restoration to the Ministry for War, and his own admission to every audience which Monsieur le Duc had with the King—were quite impossible for the other to accept.
However, the Prime Minster, on the advice of his mistress, begged to be excused from giving an immediate answer and demanded a few weeks for reflection. A brief truce followed, during which Monsieur le Duc still further strengthened his reputation for impartiality by including a number of combatants from the opposite camp in an important promotion to the Ordre du Saint-Esprit. The new cordons bleus also included the husband and personal friends of Madame de Prie, who, at the same time, obtained for herself a lodging in the Château of Versailles. This was a move of the first importance, since it enabled Monsieur le Duc to have close at hand in every emergency the woman who was not only his mistress, but his most trusted counsellor.
In these early days of the new régime, the favourite appeared to be taking little or no interest in politics and to be absorbed wholly in pleasure. Never had Chantilly received so many visitors; while, when Monsieur le Duc was in Paris or at Versailles, the Hôtel de Condé or the Hôtel of the Grand Master was always the centre of animation. The latter hôtel, which the King had lately purchased from the Dowager-Princess de Conti and presented to the prince, was transformed by Monsieur le Duc and his mistress, whose good taste was indisputable, into the most charming residence imaginable. The two Coypels, Jean François de Troy, Louis de Boulogne, Lemoine, Verdier, Restout, Cazes—all the best painters and sculptors of the day—were employed in the decoration of its salons; splendid tapestries, exquisite porcelain, costly objets d’art were to be seen on every side.