Descendants of Louis XIV

Such a prospect was intensely enticing to Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV and aunt of María Teresa, who desired an end to hostilities between her native country, Spain, and her adopted one, France, and who hoped this to come by her niece becoming her daughter-in-law.

[2] However, Spanish hesitation and procrastination led to a scheme in which Cardinal Mazarin, the First Minister of France, pretended to seek a marriage for his master with Margaret of Savoy.

When Philip IV of Spain heard of the meeting at Lyon between the Houses of France and Savoy, he reputedly exclaimed of the Franco-Savoyard union that "it cannot be, and will not be".

Therefore, according to primogeniture rules, Henri, Count de Chambord was the Heir-Male of Louis XIV and also the Legitimist claimant of the throne of France.

There remained only the descendants of Philip V of Spain, formerly Philippe de France, Duke of Anjou, who was Louis XIV's second grandson.

Some French royalists recognized Louis-Philippe's grandson, Philippe, Count of Paris, as the rightful heir; others transferred their loyalty to members of the Spanish Royal Family who were descended from Philip V of Spain.

Legitimists regard this as invalid, because under the fundamental law of French monarchy neither a king nor his heirs can renounce the claim to a throne they hold but do not possess.

Moreover, Philip quickly revived Spanish ambition; taking advantage of the power vacuum caused by Louis XIV's death in 1715, Philip announced he would claim the French crown if his infant nephew Louis XV died, and attempted to reclaim Spanish territory in Italy, precipitating the War of the Quadruple Alliance in 1717.

His youngest son, Alfonso Carlos, willed his rights to the Spanish throne to Xavier, Duke of Parma, who became the Carlist pretender.

A minority of Carlists supported Archduke Karl Pius of Austria, Prince of Tuscany, a grandson through the female line of Carlos VII.

Francis was Isabella II's consort; therefore the claim was inherited by the Spanish Royal Family in the person of King Alfonso XIII.

However, if a non-Salic primogeniture is followed, the eldest surviving descendant, in other words, the heir-general of Louis XIV is the present Duke of Calabria.