Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King

Description

Louis XIV, the highly-feted Sun King, was renowned for his political and cultural influence and for raising France to a new level of prominence in seventeenth-century Europe. And yet, as Antonia Fraser keenly describes, he was equally legendary in the domestic sphere. Indeed, a panoply of women his mother, Anne; mistresses such as Louise de la Valliere, Athenais de Montespan, and the puritanical Madame de Maintenon; and an array of courtesans moved in and out of the court. The highly visible presence of these women raises many questions about their position in both Louis XIV s life and in France at large. With careful research and vivid, engaging prose, Fraser makes the multifaceted life of one of the most famous European monarchs accessible and vibrantly current.”