Rhinoceros of Versailles Rhinoceros of Versailles The Rhinoceros of Versailles was a living Indian rhinoceros which was kept in the Palace of Versailles menagerie from 1770 until 1793. The live rhinoceros was a gift from M. Chevalier, French governor of Chandernagor, to Louis XV. It left Calcutta, West Bengal on 22 December 1769, and arrived six months later in the seaport of Lorient, in Brittany on 11 June 1770. From there it was transported to the royal Ménagerie which had been built in response to increasing interest in zoology and Louis XIV's passion for the exotic, in 1664. The rhino was installed in
Treaty of Versailles (1757) Treaty of Versailles (1757) The Treaty of Versailles was a diplomatic agreement signed between Austria and France at the Palace of Versailles on 1 May 1757 during the Seven Years' War. It expanded on the 1756 First Treaty of Versailles, which had established the Franco-Austrian Alliance. It is thus commonly known as the Second Treaty of Versailles. In the new treaty, France agreed to assist Austria in regaining the province of Silesia from Prussia in exchange for Austria ceding the Austrian Netherlands to France at the war's conclusion, the acquisition of which had long been a goal of the French