The Secret Wife Of Louis Xiv

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The Secret Wife of Louis XIV

Author : Veronica Buckley
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0374158304
Total Pages : 557 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (741 download)

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Book Synopsis The Secret Wife of Louis XIV by : Veronica Buckley

Download or read book The Secret Wife of Louis XIV written by Veronica Buckley and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon and secret wife of the Sun King, Louis XIV, was born in a bleak French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden’s seduced daughter. A timely pardon and a hopeful Caribbean colonial venture failed to mend the family’s fortunes, and Françoise was reduced to begging in the streets. Yet, armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment, she was to make her way to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and ambitious court in all Europe. At fifteen, she was married off to the forty-two-year-old satirical poet Paul Scarron, a former roué now grievously deformed by rheumatism—“a sort of human Z,” as he described himself. Despite his ailments, Scarron presided over the liveliest and most scandalous literary salon in Paris, and Françoise quickly became its most prized ornament. After Scarron’s death, she enjoyed a merry widowhood in the fashionable Marais district, in the company of the courtesan Ninon de Lenclos and the King’s splendid mistress, Athénaïs de Montespan, who made the young widow governess to her brood of illegitimate children. The appointment transformed Françoise’s life, but was fatal to the temperamental Athénaïs herself, with the King soon turning his attentions to the graceful governess. Françoise was raised to the nobility as Madame de Maintenon—and, unofficially, “Madame de Maintenant,” the lady of the moment. The acclaimed biographer Veronica Buckley traces the extraordinary story of Françoise’s progress from pauper child to salonnière to the compromised position of Louis’s secret wife and uncrowned Queen. An absolute ruler, Louis turned away his many other mistresses to live with Françoise only, trusting her as his closest confidante and remaining in love with her for forty years. Sparkling with the irresistible wit of contemporary chroniclers such as Madame de Sévigné, this exactingly researched biography is a pinnacle of the form. In vibrant colors, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV paints a portrait of Europe in an age of violent change, and the Sun King’s France in the process of becoming its modern self.

Queen of Versailles

Author : Mark Bryant
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN 13 : 0228004322
Total Pages : 527 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Queen of Versailles by : Mark Bryant

Download or read book Queen of Versailles written by Mark Bryant and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the life and court career of Madame de Maintenon. A study in queenship, it reveals how the dynamics of power and gender operated within the realms of early modern high politics, church-state affairs and international relations while providing unique insights into the Sun King and his court.

Love and Louis XIV

Author : Antonia Fraser
Publisher : Anchor Canada
ISBN 13 : 0385672519
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (856 download)

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Book Synopsis Love and Louis XIV by : Antonia Fraser

Download or read book Love and Louis XIV written by Antonia Fraser and published by Anchor Canada. This book was released on 2010-06-25 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Louis XIV

Author : Aurora von Goeth
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1526726408
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (267 download)

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Book Synopsis Louis XIV by : Aurora von Goeth

Download or read book Louis XIV written by Aurora von Goeth and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.”

Strange Revelations

Author : Lynn Wood Mollenauer
Publisher : Penn State Press
ISBN 13 : 0271029153
Total Pages : 225 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (71 download)

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Book Synopsis Strange Revelations by : Lynn Wood Mollenauer

Download or read book Strange Revelations written by Lynn Wood Mollenauer and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Affair of the Poisons was the greatest court scandal of the seventeenth century. From 1679 to 1682 the French crown investigated more than 400 people&—including Louis XIV&’s official mistress and members of the highest-ranking circles at court&—for sensational crimes. In Strange Revelations, Lynn Mollenauer brings this bizarre story to life, exposing a criminal magical underworld thriving in the heart of the Sun King&’s capital. The macabre details of the Affair of the Poisons read like a gothic novel. In the fall of 1678, Nicolas de la Reynie, head of the Paris police, uncovered a plot to poison Louis XIV. La Reynie&’s subsequent investigation unveiled a loosely knit community of sorceresses, magicians, and renegade priests who offered for sale an array of services and products ranging from abortions to love magic to poisons known as &“inheritance powders.&” It was the inheritance powders (usually made from powdered toads steeped in arsenic) that lent the Affair of the Poisons its name. The purchasers of the powders gave the affair its notoriety, for the scandal extended into the most exalted ranks of the French court. Mollenauer adroitly uses the Affair of the Poisons to uncover the hidden forms of power that men and women of all social classes invoked to achieve their goals. While the exercise of state power during the ancien r&égime was quintessentially visible&—ritually displayed through public ceremonies&—the affair exposes the simultaneous presence of other imagined and real sources of power available to the Sun King&’s subjects: magic, poison, and the manipulation of sexual passions. Highly entertaining yet deeply researched, Strange Revelations will appeal to anyone interested in the history of court society, gender, magic, or crime in early modern Europe.

Louis XIV

Author : Anthony Levi
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Louis XIV by : Anthony Levi

Download or read book Louis XIV written by Anthony Levi and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the seventeenth century France was Europes most powerful nation, and its monarch, the flamboyant and headstrong young Louis XIV was almost an object of worship. Popularly depicted as the sun god Apollo, and known as Le Roi soleil, he was invested with unprecedented power and privilege. For almost 50 years he was the magnificent public face of an exceedingly rich, diverse culture. Louis XIV was also one of the most politically effective European monarchs ever, able to present himself within France and throughout Europe as the model of royal absolutism. But as a man he was irredeemably flawed and his reign proved ultimately damaging both to France and its monarchy. At the core of Levis enthralling biography lies the conflict between Louis role as custodian of the grandeur of France, and his undoubted sense of personal guilt at the effects of his rule on France and its people. It might be said he confused Frances glory with his own, and this was behind his prodigious expenditure and the lavish brilliance of his court. Levis attempt to understand this most extravagant of rulers leads him to ask, who was his father? Was it really Louis XIII? More likely, Levi claims, it was Cardinal Mazarin, the man with his hands on the reins of power during the regency. A fascinating psychological portrait of the king is explored in the context of this possibility. Levi looks in particular at what created in Louis the unlikely mixture of devotion and promiscuity that was his hallmark. This intricate, controversial and absorbing account fully examines the lengthy and testing role that fate cast for the Sun King in European history.

The Life of Louis XVI

Author : John Hardman
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300220421
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Life of Louis XVI by : John Hardman

Download or read book The Life of Louis XVI written by John Hardman and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thought-provoking, authoritative biography of one of history's most maligned rulers Louis XVI of France, who was guillotined in 1793 during the Revolution and Reign of Terror, is commonly portrayed in fiction and film either as a weak and stupid despot in thrall to his beautiful, shallow wife, Marie Antoinette, or as a cruel and treasonous tyrant. Historian John Hardman disputes both these versions in a fascinating new biography of the ill-fated monarch. Based in part on new scholarship that has emerged over the past two decades, Hardman's illuminating study describes a highly educated ruler who, though indecisive, possessed sharp political insight and a talent for foreign policy; who often saw the dangers ahead but could not or would not prevent them; and whose great misfortune was to be caught in the violent center of a major turning point in history. Hardman's dramatic reassessment of the reign of Louis XVI sheds a bold new light on the man, his actions, his world, and his policies, including the king's support for America's War of Independence, the intricate workings of his court, the disastrous Diamond Necklace Affair, and Louis's famous dash to Varennes.

The French Mistress

Author : Susan Holloway Scott
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101082186
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis The French Mistress by : Susan Holloway Scott

Download or read book The French Mistress written by Susan Holloway Scott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of The King's Favorite-a new novel based on a dazzling and decadent true story of Restoration England. The daughter of a poor nobleman, Louise leaves the French countryside for the court of King Louis XIV, where she must not only please the tastes of the jaded king, but serve as a spy for France. With few friends, many rivals, and ever-shifting loyalties, Louise learns the perils of her new role. Yet she is too ambitious to be a pawn in the intrigues of others. With the promise of riches, power, and even the love of a king, Louise creates her own destiny in a dance of intrigue between two monarchs-and two countries.

The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B

Author : Sandra Gulland
Publisher : Atria Books
ISBN 13 : 0684856069
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (848 download)

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Book Synopsis The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B by : Sandra Gulland

Download or read book The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B written by Sandra Gulland and published by Atria Books. This book was released on 1999-08-03 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Passion intertwines with fate in this riveting and historically rich novel about the journey of a woman from poverty to ultimate power in Revolution-era France. In this first of three books inspired by the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Sandra Gulland has created a novel of immense and magical proportions. We meet Josephine in the exotic and lush Martinico, where an old island woman predicts that one day she will be queen. The journey from the remote village of her birth to the height of European elegance is long, but Josephine's fortune proves to be true. By way of fictionalized diary entries, we traverse her early years as she marries her one true love, bears his children, and is left betrayed, widowed, and penniless. It is Josephine's extraordinary charm, cunning, and will to survive that catapults her to the heart of society, where she meets Napoleon, whose destiny will prove to be irrevocably intertwined with hers.

King of the World

Author : Philip Mansel
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022669092X
Total Pages : 669 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (266 download)

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Book Synopsis King of the World by : Philip Mansel

Download or read book King of the World written by Philip Mansel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 669 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

The Affair of the Poisons

Author : Anne Somerset
Publisher : St. Martin's Press
ISBN 13 : 1466862807
Total Pages : 592 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis The Affair of the Poisons by : Anne Somerset

Download or read book The Affair of the Poisons written by Anne Somerset and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Affair of the Poisons, as it became known, was an extraordinary episode that took place in France during the reign of Louis XIV. When poisoning and black magic became widespread, arrests followed. Suspects included those among the highest ranks of society. Many were tortured and numerous executions resulted. The 1676 torture and execution of the Marquise de Brinvilliers marked the start of the scandal which rocked the foundations of French society and sent shock waves through all of Europe. Convicted of conspiring with her adulterous lover to poison her father and brothers in order to secure the family fortune, the marquise was the first member of the noble class to fall. In the French court of the period, where sexual affairs were numerous, ladies were not shy of seeking help from the murkier elements of the Parisian underworld, and fortune-tellers supplemented their dubious trade by selling poison. It was not long before the authorities were led to believe that Louis XIV himself was at risk. With the police chief of Paris police alerted, every hint of danger was investigated. Rumors abounded and it was not long before the King ordered the setting up of a special commission to investigate the poisonings and bring offenders to justice. No one, the King decreed, no matter how grand, would be spared having to account for their conduct. The royal court was soon thrown into disarray. The Mistress of the Robes and a distinguished general were among the early suspects. But they paled into insignificance when the King's mistress was incriminated. If, as was said, she had engaged in vile Satanic rituals and had sought to poison a rival for the King's affections, what was Louis XIV to do? Anne Somerset has gone back to original sources, letters and earlier accounts of the affair. By the end of her account, she reaches firm conclusions on various crucial matters. The Affair of the Poisons is an enthralling account of a sometimes bizarre period in French history.

Precious Women

Author : Dorothy Backer
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Precious Women by : Dorothy Backer

Download or read book Precious Women written by Dorothy Backer and published by . This book was released on 1974-09-12 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Ruin of a Princess

Author : Marie-Thérèse Charlotte Angoulême (duchesse d')
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ruin of a Princess by : Marie-Thérèse Charlotte Angoulême (duchesse d')

Download or read book The Ruin of a Princess written by Marie-Thérèse Charlotte Angoulême (duchesse d') and published by . This book was released on 1912 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Man in the Iron Mask

Author : Wilkinson Josephine
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1643137433
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis The Man in the Iron Mask by : Wilkinson Josephine

Download or read book The Man in the Iron Mask written by Wilkinson Josephine and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-07-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid, dramatic, and eye-opening historical narrative, The Man in the Iron Mask reveals the story behind the most enduring mystery of Louis XIV’s reign. The Man in the Iron Mask has all the hallmarks of a thrilling adventure story: a glamorous and all-powerful king, ambitious ministers, a cruel and despotic jailor, dark and sinister dungeons— and a secret prisoner. It is easy for forget that this story, made famous by Alexandre Dumas, is that of a real person, Eustache Danger, who spent more than thirty years in the prison system of Louis XIV’s France—never to be freed. This narrative brings to life the true story of this mysterious man and follows his journey through four prisons and across decades of time. It introduces the reader to those with whom he shared his imprisonment, those who had charge of him, and those who decided his tragic fate. The Man in the Iron Mask reveals one of the most enduring mysteries of Louis XIV’s reign; but it is, above all, a human story. Using contemporary documents, this book shows what life was really like for state prisoners in seventeenth-century France—and offers tantalising insight into why this mysterious man was arrested and why, several years later, his story would become one of France’s most intriguing legends that still sparks debate and controversy today.

The Kings' Mistresses

Author : Elizabeth C Goldsmith
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1586488902
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (864 download)

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Book Synopsis The Kings' Mistresses by : Elizabeth C Goldsmith

Download or read book The Kings' Mistresses written by Elizabeth C Goldsmith and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mancini Sisters, Marie and Hortense, were born in Rome, brought to the court of Louis XIV of France, and strategically married off by their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, to secure his political power base. Such was the life of many young women of the age: they had no independent status under the law and were entirely a part of their husband's property once married. Marie and Hortense, however, had other ambitions in mind altogether. Miserable in their marriages and determined to live independently, they abandoned their husbands in secret and began lives of extraordinary daring on the run and in the public eye. The beguiling sisters quickly won the affections of noblemen and kings alike. Their flight became popular fodder for salon conversation and tabloids, and was closely followed by seventeenth-century European society. The Countess of Grignan remarked that they were traveling "like two heroines out of a novel." Others gossiped that they "were roaming the countryside in pursuit of wandering lovers. "Their scandalous behavior -- disguising themselves as men, gambling, and publicly disputing with their husbands -- served as more than just entertainment. It sparked discussions across Europe concerning the legal rights of husbands over their wives. Elizabeth Goldsmith's vibrant biography of the Mancini sisters -- drawn from personal papers of the players involved and the tabloids of the time -- illuminates the lives of two pioneering free spirits who were feminists long before the word existed.

Madame Royale

Author : Elena Maria Vidal
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 0557560926
Total Pages : 371 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (575 download)

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Book Synopsis Madame Royale by : Elena Maria Vidal

Download or read book Madame Royale written by Elena Maria Vidal and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2010-08-02 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MADAME ROYALE is the epic saga of Marie-Antoinette's daughter, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte. The period which follows the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, called by historians "the Bourbon restoration" (1814-1830), was outwardly one of rest and peace for France. Yet beneath the surface, the forces of revolution were engaged in a ruthless duel for power with those of the reaction. At the center of the drama one woman, consumed by a quest for love and restoration, struggles to survive amid deception and betrayal. A tale of murder, mystery and secret romance, the novel searches the conflicted heart of the orphaned princess who from childhood had been called "Madame Royale."

The Fabrication of Louis XIV

Author : Peter Burke
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300059434
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (594 download)

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Book Synopsis The Fabrication of Louis XIV by : Peter Burke

Download or read book The Fabrication of Louis XIV written by Peter Burke and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Louis XIV was a man like any other, but the money and attention lavished on his public image by the French government transformed him into a godlike figure. In this engrossing book, an internationally respected historian gives an account of contemporary representations of Louis XIV and shows how the making of the royal image illuminates the relationship between art and power. Images of Louis XIV included hundreds of oil paintings and engravings, three-hundred-odd medals struck to commemorate the major events of the reign, sculptures, and bronzes, as well as plays, ballets (in which the king himself sometimes appeared on stage), operas, odes, sermons, official newspapers and histories, fireworks, fountains, and tapestries. Drawing on an analysis of these representations as well as on surviving documentary sources, Peter Burke shows the conscious attempt to "invent" the image of the king and reveals how the supervision of the royal image was entrusted to a commitee, the so-called small academy. This book is not only a fascinating chronological study of the mechanics of the image-making of a king over the course of a seventy-year reign but is also an investigation into the genre of cultural construction. Burke discusses the element of propaganda implicit in image-making, the manipulation of seventeenth-century media of communication (oral, visual, and textual) and their codes (literary and artistic), and the intended audience and its response. He concludes by comparing and contrasting Louis's public image with that of other rulers ranging from Augustus to contemporary American presidents.