At the ceremony, the Cardinal de Vendôme and the Princess of Conti acted as proxies for the godparents, Pope Clement IX and Henrietta Maria of England.

He received Charles de Sainte-Maure, as his governor and was tutored by the great French preacher and orator Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux, seemingly without acceptable results.

Instead of a devoted mother and an affectionate and likeable tutor, the Dauphin had the repellent and misanthropic Duc de Montausier, who ruthlessly applied the same methods that had so disturbed Louis XIII.

Bossuet overwhelmed his backward pupil with such splendid lessons that the Dauphin developed a lasting horror of books, learning and history.

According to John B. Wolf, Louis XIV had a low opinion of his son, writing: ...indolent, fatuous, and dull, only the saving grace of his bourgeois morals kept him from outraging the pious people about him.

Apart from the minor political role that he played during his father's reign, Louis engaged in more leisurely pursuits and was esteemed for his magnificent collection of art at Versailles and Meudon.

The Dauphin employed Jules Hardouin Mansart and the office of the Bâtiments du Roi but most particularly his long-term "house designer", Jean Bérain, head of the Menus Plaisirs, to provide new decors.

He lived quietly at Meudon for the remainder of his life and was surrounded by his two half-sisters Marie Anne de Bourbon and the Princess of Condé, both of whom he loved dearly.

The three made up the main part of the Cabal de Meudon, which opposed the Dauphin's son Louis and his Savoyard wife, the Duchess of Burgundy.

Louis's courage was shown when he visited the soldiers in the inundated trenches under heavy fire to observe the progress of the siege.

[5]Louis's capture of Philippsburg prevented the large gathering Imperial Army from crossing the Rhine and invading Alsace.

Louis's position in the Conseil d'en haut gave him an opportunity to have his voice heard in the years and in the crises leading up to the War of the Spanish Succession.

Moreover, in the discussions in the Conseil d'en haut regarding the French response to Charles II's last will and testament, which indeed left all Spanish possessions to Anjou, Louis persuasively argued for acceptance.

Pregnant at the time of her marriage, de Choin gave birth to a son, who was secretly sent to the countryside; the child died aged two, in 1697, without having been publicly named.