Louis XIV was the French king whose long reign became a model of dynastic absolutism. He centralised court life at Versailles and fought repeated wars, including the War of Devolution, Dutch War and War of the Spanish Succession.
Louis XIV also held the offices or ranks of King of France and Navarre and French co-prince of Andorra. Louis XIV belonged to the House of Bourbon in France; House of Bourbon and operated within Kingdom of France. Louis XIV was born in Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and died in Palace of Versailles.
Charles Spencer’s Blenheim combines strategy, diplomacy and battlefield experience, explaining how Marlborough’s long march to the Danube and the commanders’ cooperation produced the Allied victory at Blenheim on 13 August 1704. Spencer places the battle within the wider struggle over the Spanish succession and Louis XIV’s power, while also examining the soldiers and political calculations behind a campaign that changed the balance of the war. Hourly History’s King Louis XIV examines the reign of the monarch who made royal absolutism and the court of Versailles central symbols of early modern France. Further fictional perspectives on Louis XIV can be found in Edward Marston’s A Very Murdering Battle, Alexandre Dumas’ Louise de la Valli`ere, Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver, and Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion. For broader historical treatment of Louis XIV, see Jonathan Keates’ William III & Mary II (Penguin Monarchs).
