Biographies of French Royalty

Biographies of French Royalty follows major royal figures from the Carolingian world through the Angevin inheritance, the religious conflicts of sixteenth-century France and the absolutist court of Louis XIV. The volumes examine how conquest, marriage, succession, religion and court culture determined the authority available to kings and queens.

Charlemagne, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Catherine de’ Medici and Louis XIV represent very different forms of monarchy, but each stood at the centre of political systems extending beyond France itself. The series therefore connects personal biography with European empire, crusading, dynastic rivalry and the long development of the French state.