Louis XV and small pox

Hello,
I had a question for the forum members who are familiar with the subject.
I read recently online (and yes, the internet might not always be accurate) that Louis XV was believed to have had small pox when he was a child and many (including the unfortunate king himself) thought he was immune to the disease. However, small pox ended up killing him. Does anyone know about this? I couldn't find any information on this in the web.


Princess Soo-Won

Thank you for bringing up this topic, Princess, and welcome to the forum. It is an excellent point of discussion. Either Louis XV really was not exposed enough to the smallpox as an infant because his nurse hid him away and saved his life, and so was not immune to it OR he did not really die of smallpox. Some people think he died of syphilis which they often gave the euphemism of smallpox. There are some dreadful stories about how the King contracted his fatal illness which hopefully are just vicious rumors but who knows.

Thank you Elena,
When I was reading a biography of Katherine the Great I was surprised to find out that despite her successfully inoculation, very few power houses of Europe at the time paid any heed to it. More than a decade later, Louis XV of France would lose his life to small pox. It makes one wonder... If Louis XV had been inoculated like the Empress of Russia, he could have sat on the throne for 10 or 20 more years which, in turn, could have altered the history of France!

I suppose it's my "could have, would have, should have" moments.

All we can do is speculate:confused:! Louis XVI was quite diligent about having the family inoculated, except for Marie-Antoinette who had suffered the illness as a child.