The future Louis XIV was born in 1638 at the royal palace of his father, King Louis XIII, and his mother, Queen Anne. Born into ostentatious luxury and unlimited power, he wanted for nothing.

The “Sun King” Louis XIV (reigned 1643-1715) was not only one of the most cultured kings of France, but one of the cruellest. He started wars, bombarded cities, and persecuted French ...

Josephine Wilkinson’s admiring biography of Louis XIV covers war and politics efficiently, but this is very much a personal biography. The king’s ministers receive less attention than his ...

Louis XIV, for example, stopped carrying golden notebooks of his expenditures and revenues, and his nation plunged into the red under the weight of multiple wars and opulent palaces.

September 1 marks the 300th anniversary of the death of King Louis XIV, France’s longest-reigning monarch. Logging 72 years on the throne, Louis eclipsed Queen Victoria by a decade. But this ...

Louis XIV: The Power and the Glory Josephine Wilkinson. Pegasus, $29.95 (468p) ISBN 978-1-64313-015-6 ...

Louis had a lot on his plate, what with wars with England, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, not to mention the costly expansion of his colossal palace and estate at Versailles, but he also took a ...

Giant wigs were a must-have for any man in the court of Louis XIV. The king’s absolute love for big hair sparked a trend that spread all over 17th-century Europe.