From the critically acclaimed bestselling biographer of Marie Antoinette. 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. With consummate skill, Antonia Fraser weaves insights into the nature of women’s religious lives—as well as such practical matters such as contraception—into her magnificent, sweeping portrait of the king, his court, and his ladies.
They saw in the arms of this princess whom they had watched suffer great persecutions with so much staunchness, their child-King, like a gift given by Heaven in answer to their prayers. --Madame de Motteville, Mémoires
The first woman in the life of Louis XIV -- and probably the most important -- was his mother, Anne of Austria. When Louis, her first child, was born on 5 September 1638 the Spanish-born Queen of France was just short of her thirty-seventh birthday. This was an age at which a royal princess might well expect to be a grandmother (Anne herself had been married at fourteen). The Queen had on the contrary endured twenty-two years of childless union. Anne, as she told a confidante, had even feared the annulment of her marriage, since childlessness was one possible ground for repudiation according to the Catholic Church. In which case the former Spanish Princess, daughter of Philip III, would either have been returned to her native country or possibly dispatched to govern the so-called 'Spanish' Netherlands (approximately modern Belgium), as other princesses of her royal house had done, most recently her pious aunt, Isabella Clara Eugenia.
The birth of a child, and that child a son -- females could not inherit in France under the fourteenth-century Salic Law -- meant that the whole position of his royal mother was transformed. It was not only the obvious delight of a woman confronted with 'a marvel when it was least expected', as the official newspaper Gazette de France put it. It was also the traditionally strong position of any Queen of France who had produced a Dauphin, an interesting paradox in the land of the Salic Law. This strength derived from the claim of such a Queen to act as Regent should her husband die during the minority of her son; a rule which had applied to Louis XIII's mother when Henri IV had died, and the dominating Catherine de Médicis in the previous century.
It was a situation that had already been envisaged at the time of Anne of Austria's betrothal in 1612. In poetical language the future Queen was described as the moon to her husband's sun: 'Just as the moon borrows its light from the sun . . .' the monarch's death means that 'the setting sun gives way to the moon and confers on it the power of shedding light in its absence'. (The potential bride and bridegroom were then both ten years old.) A quarter of a century later, the reality was less poetical. Louis XIII was not in good health and a Regency in the next thirteen years -- the age at which a French King reached his majority -- was more likely than not. How long would it be before Anne, like Catherine de Médicis, was promoting herself as an image of revered maternality at the heart of government?
Furthermore the dynastic map of Europe was transformed. The heir presumptive to the throne of France, the King's younger brother Gaston Duc d'Orléans, on being shown 'physical proofs' of the baby's masculinity, had to accept that his rising hopes of accession had been fatally dashed. But Gaston himself had only daughters. Next in line were the French Princes of the Blood, notably the Prince de Condé and his two sons the Duc d'Enghien and the Prince de Conti; their hopes were similarly blighted.
On the other hand the birth of a prince not only cut off hopes but also instigated ambitious thoughts of his eventual marriage to a princess. Gaston's daughter by his first marriage, Anne-Marie-Louise de Montpensier, was the richest heiress in France from the fortune of her mother who had died at her birth. She did not allow an eleven-year gap in age to prevent her dallying with...
Reviews
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Any nonfiction account of royalty can be tricky--complex family trees and complicated names of people and places can be stumbling blocks for readers. Happily, the audio version of Antonia Fraser's study of Louis XIV is in the capable hands of Rosalyn Landor, whose brisk, efficient reading makes short work of a long history. True to its title, this history chronicles the lives of the Sun King's female influences, from his mother to his mistresses. Landor's resonant, precise enunciation easily navigates Louis's lineage and delivers any name with aplomb. Hers is an animated, pleasant voice for a nonfiction text, and, combined with Fraser's trademark skill with language, the history unfolds with grace. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
The Wall Street Journal...
"Excellent...a pleasure to read throughout."
The New Yorker...
"Highly readable....with vivid wit, Fraser demonstrates that within the edifice of the monarchy there were deep crannies of ordinary affection."
The New York Times...
"Entertaining and instructive....we must still be grateful to Antonia Fraser for devising so excellent a companion with which to lie back and think of France."
The Washington Post...
"Engaging...the sumptuously illustrated Love and Louis XIV focuses on the diverse array of women who 'lit up the court of the Sun King.'"
