Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were still only teenagers when they got married, a physiological problem came to spoil their first years of marriage.
Months go by… and nothing happens!
Our two young people were barely 14 and 15 years old when their union was declared on May 16, 1770 in Versailles. As tradition dictates, the wedding night is supposed to be the apotheosis of the union and the spouses can finally get to know each other intimately. But Louis XVI, having eaten a lot during the banquet, did not know how to live up to it. Several months after the wedding, he still has not honored his wife as he should. As for talking about an heir of course… We are a long way from that ! Months go by… and nothing happens! The future Louis XVI, he does not seem in a hurry. These things don’t interest him. Marie-Antoinette exchanges desperate letters with her mother, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.
Louis XV worried
In all the courts of Europe, we talk, we wonder… and we do not hesitate to slander ! Although Marie Antoinette, by virtue of her youth, was as clumsy as her husband, it was the latter who turned out to have a problem. For years, he consulted many doctors. His grandfather Louis XV even personally inspected him, worried that the dolphin had not yet been able to begin his procreation process. When King Louis XV died, the matter became even more pressing. Joseph II, the brother of Marie-Antoinette, then comes to Versailles to provoke the act, their mother being afraid that her daughter will be repudiated. He announces that Louis XVI is not impotent, since he has “very well conditioned erections” but “without ever unloading”. Obviously, something is blocking him, surely phimosis, which would cause him great pain when taking action, forcing him to curb his potential ardor. Full of good intentions, he would have made several attempts… But his desire to satisfy his wife would be hampered by a very misplaced pain…
Only a phimosis
Doctors call it phimosis. Clearly, it is an abnormal narrowness of the foreskin that would prevent the royal member from unfolding in all its splendor. Hooray! The diagnosis is made. There is a very simple solution to remedy this embarrassing, but altogether banal inconvenience: the operation. Terrorized at the thought of having surgery, it is not known if the king ended up having surgery or if the problem resolved itself naturally. In any case, Marie Antoinette finally put world Louis, her first child, December 18, 1778.
