Something new under the sun, neglected by historians for 300 years, motivates English biographer Antonia Fraser. She explores the influence of women on the life of Louis XIV, France's dazzling Sun ...

You could call Fraser's new book, Love and Louis XIV: ... It was the Sun King (1638-1715) who set himself up as the all-powerful constellation around which his court, ...

The exhibit "Louis XIV: The Man and the King" gives visitors the 17th century ruler in all his varied incarnations. A massive oil painting shows the cherub-faced child who ascended to the throne ...

King Louis XIV wed his cousin Maria Theresa of Spain in 1660 – when marrying a member of your family was not unusual. In fact, the real scandal was the King’s love of women.

Adelaide of Savoy, a favorite companion of Louis XIV during his dotage, remarked, “Under a king, a country is really ruled by women.” Fraser’s history of the court of the Sun King, seen ...

The advance copies of The Secret Wife of Louis XIV made copious use of what Buckley took to be the king’s secret diaries, unveiled a decade or so earlier—when they were actually a fictional re ...

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.

King Louis XIV ruled from 1643 to 1715 — a total of 72 years, the longest of any European sovereign to this day. Queen Elizabeth II, for context, reigned for 70 years. He had a public love for ...

Louis - handsome, virile, rich, and above all, king - would have had mistresses in any case, even if Marie-Thérèse had not been so dull. A near affair with his sister-in-law Henriette, sister of ...

It is curious that, though Louis XIV is the king we most associate with the phrase absolute monarchy, throughout her book, Fraser does not mention the word power once.