The Last Days Of Louis XIV – September 2, 1715
Louis XIV’s body is opened for an autopsy. His leg is black with gangrene. His heart and guts are removed, his body put into a coffin of lead. It is noted that the King’s bowels are apparently twice as long as that of a normal man. In them, a tapeworm of ‘extraordinary’ size is discovered.
Outside of Louis XIV’s apartment, politics are made and the will of the late King overwritten, just as that of Louis XIII was by Louis XIV’s mother, Anne of Austria. The Marquis de Dangeau notes: “The Duc d’Orleans went to the Parliament in the morning, and after dinner, demanded the Regency before the opening of the King’s will. He claims it by his birth, and he had scarcely a doubt, from the conversations the King held with him, a week before his death, that he was declared Regent in the will. However, by the will, he was only appointed President of the Council of Regency. It was adjudged in his favour unanimously. Then are still further variations made from the King’s will, and all of them in favour of the Regent, who permits the parliament in future, to make remonstrances on all matters that may be brought before them. Monsieur le Duc, who was not to enter the Council of Regency, till after he was twenty-four years of age, and who is upwards of twenty-three, will not only take his seat in the council, but will be the President of it. The authority which the King, by his will, gave to the Duc du Maine, is diminished. He has solicited to be discharged from the care of the young King, and only retains the rank of superintendant of his education.“