Love and Louis XIV - The Women in the Life of the Sun King

Love and Louis XIV - The Women in the Life of the Sun King

by Antonia Fraser

Phoenix, HK$170

On a research expedition to Versailles, Antonia Fraser was perplexed by the cheers and waves of a group of Japanese tourists. Despite being taller, of fairer hair, and alive, they thought she was Britain's Queen Mother. Fraser has a delicious sense of humour, which gives a delightfully indiscreet air to Love and Louis XIV - The Women in the Life of the Sun King. This is a first-rate look at the French monarchy at its apogee, from the perspective of the women in Louis' life. Fraser brings forward his mother, Anne of Austria, his 'political' wife the Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain, who insisted that he return to the marriage bed each night, his three mistresses and countless courtesans. The Roman Catholic Church, ever ready to remind Louis that he ruled by divine right, frowned on his philandering and withheld communion. His second mistress, Athenais de Montespan, continued to attend Mass. 'Just because I commit one sin, it does not mean that I commit them all.' His third mistress, Madame de Maintenon, whom he secretly married after Maria Teresa's death, endured into her 70s his rampant sexual appetite, her confessor pointing out it was an act 'of patience, of submission, of justice and of charity'.