Louis XIV - Tapa blanda

First published 25 years ago, this biography of the Sun King uses contemporary sources to examine what sort of monarch Louis XIV really was. The author's researches reveal a portrait of the man and an account of the principal events of his long reign (1642-1715). The book provides an overview of the entire civilization inspired by and reflecting the glory of the Sun King. Thus, while Louis occupies the foreground, artists like Racine, Moliere, Lully and Mansart, the architect of Versailles, share the middleground with politicians such as Cardinal Mazarin and Nicolas Fouquet and courtiers such as the king's mistress, Louise de La Valliere.

Louis XIV came to the throne at the age of four, and by 1715, the year of his death, he had made France into the most powerful and civilized nation in Europe. Treating accepted views with proper scepticism, Vincent Cronin has gone back to contemporary sources to discover the true nature of Louis XIV. From this classic biography emerges not only a masterful portrait of a vigorous and cultivated monarch but also an overview of an entire civilization inspiring and reflecting the glory of the Sun King.