Louis XIV

Louis XIV by Dunlop, Ian. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780312261962.

Setting in motion events that would ultimately bring his nation to military and fiscal ruin-and his dynasty to a bloody end-Louis XIV also established France as the preeminent and, to this day, unchallenged seat of high culture in Europe. As a leader he simultaneously squandered a dominions political capital and established a nations spiritual hegemony. As a man he married brilliance and arrogance, shrewdness and excess. Ian Dunlop explores the Sun Kings many facets in this remarkable new biography. Understanding Louis in the context of his era, one of great strides for French artists, litterateurs, and architects, Dunlop presents the king as an inspirer, an enabler, and a patron of his countrys best and brightest minds. But even as his armies of laborers built the magnificent palace at Versailles, Louis warmongering brought the greatest power in Europe-his own-to repeated and humiliating defeats at the hands of more calculating foes. Ironically, Louis mixed legacy developed a culture that would become the envy of the world.