Timeline December 1723

Events in December 1723 3

• 1674 – 1723 Philippe II, Duke of Orleans (1674-1723) Died 2 December 1723, aged 49 Philippe served as Regent of France for the young Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, presiding over the financial speculation and collapse of John Law's Mississippi Company. He pursued a foreign policy of alliance with Britain and relaxed some of the strict formality of Louis XIV's court. He died suddenly of a stroke shortly after relinquishing the regency.
• 1723 – 1789 Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (1723-1789) Died 21 January 1789, aged 65 D'Holbach was a French-German philosopher and encyclopedist who produced some of the most radically atheistic and materialist works of the Enlightenment. His System of Nature argued that the universe operates purely through physical causes, without need of a god. He hosted one of Paris's leading intellectual salons.
• 1723 – 1787 Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787) Died 20 June 1787, aged 63 Abel was a German composer and virtuoso viol player who settled in London, where he co-organised a long-running concert series with Johann Christian Bach. He died in London on 20 June 1787.