1718 in France

Incumbents

• Monarch: Louis XV
• Regent: Philip II of Orleans

Events

• January - France declares war on Spain, leading to the 2-year War of the Quadruple Alliance.
• May 7 - New Orleans is founded.
• November 18 - Voltaire's first play, Oedipus, premières at the Comédie-Française in Paris. This is his first use of the pseudonym.

Births

• January 29 - Paul Rabaut, Huguenot pastor
• October 19 - Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France

Deaths

• February 18 - Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist
• April 3 - Jacques Ozanam, mathematician
• April 27 - Jacques Bernard, theologian
• May 22 - Gaspard Abeille, lyric and tragic poet
• June 13 - Louis, Count of Armagnac, noble
• July 28 - Étienne Baluze, scholar
• September 12 - Louise de Maisonblanche, illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV of France
• October 19 - Alphonse Henri, Count of Harcourt, noble