Louis' predecessor had in many ways covered up the nation's problems without solving any of them, while also being considered immoral and debauched, something Louis wished to distance himself from. After losing the Seven Years' War, France was facing debt and public discontent with the monarchy. In 1774, Louis XV died, making the twenty-year-old Louis-Auguste King of France. 'The king spent his whole life saying each evening that he was mistaken that same morning.' ―A deputy on the indecisiveness of Louis. As such, it would take eight years before the couple conceived the first of four children, much to the derision of the French people. While he retired to bed before midnight and got up early in the morning, she enjoyed partying and gambling and slept until the afternoon. The young Archduchess found her marriage to the shy and ineffectual Louis-Auguste unpleasant and lackluster, as their personalities were complete opposites. The celebrations of their wedding ended in tragedy when 132 Parisians were killed following a stampede at a fireworks display at the Place Louis XV. In May 1770, the 15-year-old Louis-Auguste married his second cousin once removed, the 14-year-old Habsburg Archduchess Maria Antonia, better known as Marie Antoinette, in an arranged marriage. They taught him that austerity and aloofness were desirable attributes for a king and showed strong character, instead of encouraging him to be decisive and personable. Having been largely ignored in his childhood, Louis-Auguste appears to have received many of his characteristic traits from his tutors. His mother, Maria Josepha of Saxony, never recovered from the shock of losing her eldest son and husband, and died of tuberculosis herself in 1767. Louis-Auguste's father died of the same disease four years later, making the former Dauphin at the age of 11.

In 1761 however, the 9-year-old heir died of tuberculosis. Instead, his parents' attention went to his eldest brother and heir to the throne, the Duc de Bourgogne. 1.1.3 Financial crisis and Estates-Generalīiography Early life and reign Early life īorn as the third son of Louis, Dauphin of France and the grandson of King Louis XV, Louis-Auguste was never expected to become king.

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