Author: Antonia Fraser Publisher: Anchor Canada ISBN: 0385672519 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 466
Book Description
The superb historian and biographer Antonia Fraser, author of Marie Antoinette, casts new light on the splendor and the scandals of the reign of Louis XIV in this dramatic, illuminating look at the women in his life. The self-proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth-century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well-known tales of Louis’s accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. The king’s mother, Anne of Austria, had been in a childless marriage for twenty-two years before she gave birth to Louis XIV. A devout Catholic, she instilled in her son a strong sense of piety and fought successfully for his right to absolute power. In 1660, Louis married his first cousin, Marie-Thérèse, in a political arrangement. While unfailingly kind to the official Queen of Versailles, Louis sought others to satisfy his romantic and sexual desires. After a flirtation with his sister-in-law, his first important mistress was Louise de La Vallière, who bore him several children before being replaced by the tempestuous and brilliant Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. Later, when Athénaïs’s reputation was tarnished, the King continued to support her publicly as Athénaïs left court for a life of repentance. Meanwhile her children’s governess, the intelligent and seemingly puritanical Françoise de Maintenon, had already won the King’s affections; in a relationship in complete contrast to his physical obsession with Athénaïs, Louis XIV lived happily with Madame de Maintenon for the rest of his life, very probably marrying her in secret. When his grandson’s child bride, the enchanting Adelaide of Savoy, came to Versaille she lightened the King’s last years – until tragedy struck. With consummate skill, Antonia Fraser weaves insights into the nature of women’s religious lives – as well as such practical matters as contraception – into her magnificent, sweeping portrait of the king, his court, and his ladies.
Author: Philip Mansel Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022669092X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 669
Book Description
Louis XIV was a man in pursuit of glory. Not content to be the ruler of a world power, he wanted the power to rule the world. And, for a time, he came tantalizingly close. Philip Mansel’s King of the World is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography in English of this hypnotic, flawed figure who continues to captivate our attention. This lively work takes Louis outside Versailles and shows the true extent of his global ambitions, with stops in London, Madrid, Constantinople, Bangkok, and beyond. We witness the importance of his alliance with the Spanish crown and his success in securing Spain for his descendants, his enmity with England, and his relations with the rest of Europe, as well as Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We also see the king’s effect on the two great global diasporas of Huguenots and Jacobites, and their influence on him as he failed in his brutal attempts to stop Protestants from leaving France. Along the way, we are enveloped in the splendor of Louis’s court and the fascinating cast of characters who prostrated and plotted within it. King of the World is exceptionally researched, drawing on international archives and incorporating sources who knew the king intimately, including the newly released correspondence of Louis’s second wife, Madame de Maintenon. Mansel’s narrative flair is a perfect match for this grand figure, and he brings the Sun King’s world to vivid life. This is a global biography of a global king, whose power was extensive but also limited by laws and circumstances, and whose interests and ambitions stretched far beyond his homeland. Through it all, we watch Louis XIV progressively turn from a dazzling, attractive young king to a belligerent reactionary who sets France on the path to 1789. It is a convincing and compelling portrait of a man who, three hundred years after his death, still epitomizes the idea of le grand monarque.
Author: Voltaire Publisher: e-artnow ISBN: 8075835883 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 470
Book Description
This eBook edition of "The Age Of Louis XIV" has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Voltaire had an enormous influence on the development of historiography through his demonstration of fresh new ways to look at the past. The Age of Louis XIV is one of his best-known histories. In this book, Voltaire is painting to posterity, not the actions of one man, Louis XIV, but more importantly the minds of men in the most enlightened age that ever was. François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He was an outspoken advocate of several liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.
Author: Peter Fuhring Publisher: Getty Publications ISBN: 1606064509 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 348
Book Description
Once considered the golden age of French printmaking, Louis XIV’s reign saw Paris become a powerhouse of print production. During this time, the king aimed to make fine and decorative arts into signs of French taste and skill and, by extension, into markers of his imperialist glory. Prints were ideal for achieving these goals; reproducible and transportable, they fueled the sophisticated propaganda machine circulating images of Louis as both a man of war and a man of culture. This richly illustrated catalogue features more than one hundred prints from the Getty Research Institute and the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, whose print collection Louis XIV established in 1667. An esteemed international group of contributors investigates the ways that cultural policies affected printmaking; explains what constitutes a print; describes how one became a printmaker; studies how prints were collected; and considers their reception in the ensuing centuries. A Kingdom of Images is published to coincide with an exhibition on view at the Getty Research Institute from June 18 through September 6, 2015, and at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris from November 2, 2015, through January 31, 2016.
Author: Will Durant Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1451647654 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 892
Book Description
The Story of Civilization, Volume VIII: A history of European civilization in the period of Pascal, Moliere, Cromwell, Milton, Peter the Great, Newton, and Spinoza: 1648-1715. This is the eighth volume of the Pulitzer Prize-winning series.
Author: William James Roosen Publisher: Transaction Publishers ISBN: 9781412816670 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 220
Book Description
William James Roosen has written the first general study of European diplomacy in the age of Louis XIV which is based on the actual practices and institutions of that era, rather than on the writing of early theoreticians. Though the seventeenth century may not have been a period of great innovations in international diplomacy, it provides us with an important illustration of the "workings of a system which was well suited to the gradually changing needs of its time" and which has been called "the best form of diplomacy ever developed." Dr. Roosen demonstrates both the obvious differences and the many similarities between diplomatic procedures and practices of the seventeenth century and the twentieth. Any student of diplomacy and international relations will gain valuable insight and understanding from this study of the early modern diplomatic personalities, institutions, and practices. One of Dr. Roosen's goals in writing this book has been to discover the relationships between the ideological and socioeconomic structures and the diplomatic personalities who have influenced modern diplomacy. Further, he supplies the only available study of the realities of diplomatic practices in seventeenth century Europe, and provides an excellent basis for comparison with twentieth century international relations, in the hope that "studying early modern diplomatic personalities, institutions and practices should increase our understanding of international relations today." There are chapters on "The States of Europe," "Kings and Ministers," "Ambassadors," "Second Class Diplomats," "A Typical Early Modern Embassy," "Information: Important Objective of Diplomatic Activity," and "The Variety of Diplomatic Duties.
Author: Laurence Bradford Packard Publisher: Holt McDougal ISBN: Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 166
Book Description
During the Age of Louis XIV more lasting than political ascendancy were the cultural achievements that make this epoch as significant as the Renaissance. Paris became the chief international center of Western culture, a position the city still holds, at least in part. The French came to regard themselves as the pre-eminent leaders in European culture, a form of self-conscious pride that still remains vigorous. The spirit of secularism and nationalism became pronounced, to the subordination of attitudes now recognized as medieval. To a very large degree Louis himself was the conscious embodiment of French greatness as well as the idea of divine-right monarchy. His contemporaries accepted him as a personification of the age with a respect and admiration difficult for twentieth-century Americans to comprehend or appreciate. All these considerations more than justify a special discussion of this period as a significant chapter in European history and an important phase in the history of Western civilization. -- Amazon.com.
Author: Aurora von Goeth Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 1526726424 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 146
Book Description
A concise, straightforward biography of the seventeenth-century French monarch and his seventy-two-year reign. Innovator. Tyrant. Consummate showman. Passionate lover of women. After the death of King Louis XIII in 1643, the French crown went to his first-born son and heir, four-year old Louis XIV. In the extraordinary seventy-two years that followed, Louis le Grand—France’s self-styled “Sun King”—ruled France and its people, leaving his unique and permanent mark on history and shaping fashion, art, culture and architecture like none other before. This frank and concise book gives the reader a personal glimpse into the Sun King’s life and times as we follow his rise in power and influence: from a miraculous royal birth no one ever expected to the rise of king as absolute monarch, through the evolution of the glittering Château de Versailles, scandals and poison, four wars and many more mistresses . . . right up to his final days. Absolute monarch. Appointed by God. This is Louis XIV, the man. We will uncover his glorious and not-so-glorious obsessions. His debilitating health issues. His drive and passions. And we will dispel some myths, plus reveal the people in his intimate circle working behind the scenes on the Louis propaganda machine to ensure his legacy stayed in the history books forever. This easy-to-read narrative is accompanied by a plethora of little-known artworks, so if you’re a Louis XIV fan or student, or just eager to know more about France’s most famous king, we invite you to delve into court life of seventeenth-century French aristocracy, the period known as Le Grand Siècle—“The Grand Century.”
Author: Antonia Fraser
Author: Philip Mansel
Author: Voltaire
Author: Peter Fuhring
Author: Will Durant
Author: William James Roosen
Author: VOLTAIRE. VOLTAIRE
Author: Laurence Bradford Packard
Author: Voltaire
Author: Aurora von Goeth