, predecessor = Philip V , successor = Philip V , reg-type1 = , regent1 = , spouse = , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father =

Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mo ...

, mother =

Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy (17 September 1688 – 14 February 1714), nicknamed ''La Savoyana'', was Queen of Spain by marriage to Philip V. She acted as regent during her husband's absence from 1702 until 1703 and had great influence as a ...

, birth_date = 25 August 1707 , birth_place =

Buen Retiro Buen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Anders Buen (1864–1933), Norwegian typographer, newspaper editor, trade unionist, and politician * Hauk Buen (1933–2021), Norwegian hardingfele fiddler and fiddle maker *Knut Buen ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Castile , death_date = , death_place = Buen Retiro, Madrid, Spain , place of burial =

El Escorial El Escorial, or the Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial ( es, Monasterio y Sitio de El Escorial en Madrid), or Monasterio del Escorial (), is a historical residence of the King of Spain located in the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, u ...

, date of burial = , religion =

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, signature = Louis I of Spain singature.svg Louis I (Luis Felipe Fernando Joseph; 25 August 1707 – 31 August 1724) was

King of Spain , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

from 15 January 1724 until his death in August the same year. His reign is one of the shortest in history, lasting for just over seven months.

Infante of Spain (1707–1709)

Louis was born at

Palacio del Buen Retiro Buen Retiro Palace (Spanish: ''Palacio del Buen Retiro'') in Madrid was a large palace complex designed by the architect Alonso Carbonell (c. 1590–1660) and built on the orders of Philip IV of Spain as a secondary residence and place of recre ...

, in

as the eldest son of the reigning King

and his wife

. He was named after his great-grandfather

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of ...

Prince of Asturias (1709–1721)

At birth he was the

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

but was not given the traditional title of "

Prince of Asturias Prince or Princess of Asturias ( es, link=no, Príncipe/Princesa de Asturias; ast, Príncipe d'Asturies) is the main substantive title used by the heir apparent or heir presumptive to the throne of Spain. According to the Spanish Constitution ...

" until April 1709. In 1714, when Louis was seven, his mother died, leaving him and his brothers, ''Infante'' Ferdinand and ''Infante'' Felipe Pedro. On 24 December 1714, Louis' father remarried to

Elisabeth Farnese Elisabeth Farnese ( Italian: ''Elisabetta Farnese'', Spanish: ''Isabel Farnesio''; 25 October 169211 July 1766) was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. She exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy and was the ''de facto'' r ...

, the young heiress to the

Duchy of Parma The Duchy of Parma and Piacenza ( it, Ducato di Parma e Piacenza, la, Ducatus Parmae et Placentiae), was an Italian state created in 1545 and located in northern Italy, in the current region of Emilia-Romagna. Originally a realm of the Farnese ...

Marriage (1722)

As heir not only to the vast Spanish empire, but also to a new dynasty, it was decided that Louis would take a wife as soon as possible. On 20 January 1722, at Lerma, he met and married

Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans ( es, Luisa Isabel; 9 December 1709 – 16 June 1742) was Queen of Spain as the wife of King Louis I. Their reign is regarded as one of the shortest in history, lasting for seven months. Louise Élisabeth was the f ...

, a daughter of Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, cousin of Louis' father and then the

Regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The dowry of this marriage was an enormous 4 million

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 g ...

King of Spain (1724)

Louis ruled for a short period between the time his father Philip V abdicated in his favour (14 January 1724) and his death from

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

, just over seven months. King Philip sent him a letter informing him of his decision. He calls his son a great king. Louis sent his father a humble reply thanking him and signed his letter as Prince of Asturias. His marital problems dominated during his reign. His father kept tabs on him from San Ildefonso. To counter his father's influence, he surrounded himself with officials who had not served under Philip. His plans were to focus more on the American colonies rather than the lost Italian territories. On his death, his father returned to the throne, and reigned 22 more years until his own death in 1746. Louis was buried in the ''Cripta Real del Monasterio de El Escorial'' part of the

complex.

Appearance and personality

Louis was tall and thin, with blonde hair. He was considered unattractive and the similarity between him and his maternal grandfather,

Victor Amadeus II of Savoy Victor Amadeus II (Vittorio Amedeo Francesco; 14 May 166631 October 1732) was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of Prince of Piedmont, Duke of Montferrat, Marquis of Saluzzo and Count of Aosta, Moriana and Nice. L ...

, was notable. Apart from it, Louis had weak arms, which emphasized his delicacy. Not much is known about Louis' personality. According to Vicente Bacallar, Marquis de San Felipe, he was ''extremely liberal, magnanimous and into making people to feel comfortable next to him''. However, neither his liberty as King nor gentilism eclipsed his strong religiosity. Other contemporaries allegedly pointed out Louis had inherited his father's intelligence and charm and mother's moral and submission. Apart from it, many have argued Louis inherited his father's sexual appeal. He would have been

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...

, being initiated into such a practice by a servant, originally from

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

. Historians believe that Lacotte, who was Louis' servant and who had a reputation of being a pedophile, was sent into Spanish royal court to seduce the prince, whose impotence was known. W. Clarke writes: ''the Spanish heir was as into boys as girls during the parties that he had, playing erotic games with both sexes''; a line about Louis' sexual life was sang across streets of Madrid: ''Fiery as his mother, lascive as his father, flaming as his stepmother and onanist as a pedophile''.

Ancestry

References

Sources

*Danvila, Alfonso. ''El reinado relámpago, Luis I y Luisa Isabel de Orleáns, 1707–1724''. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1952. Reprinted as ''Luis I y Luisa Isabel de Orleans: el reinado relámpago''. Madrid: Alderabán, 1997. * * *

External links

''Luis I''
Spanish *A roya
suit of armor
housed in The

Met Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 F ...

made for him at age five by his great-grandfather,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Louis 01 Of Spain 1707 births 1724 deaths 18th-century Spanish monarchs 18th-century Navarrese monarchs Nobility from Madrid Princes of Asturias House of Bourbon (Spain) Knights of Santiago Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain Deaths from smallpox Infectious disease deaths in Spain Spanish infantes Grand Masters of the Order of the Golden Fleece Burials in the Pantheon of Kings at El Escorial