Publishers Weekly
03/18/2019
This biography of Louis XIV, king of France (1643–1715), from historian Wilkinson (The Princes in the Tower), is an entertaining, if unnecessary, work that brings no new understanding of the thoroughly studied royal. Wilkinson traces Louis’s life in chronological order, from his ascent to the throne at age four upon his father’s death, through his education, first loves, and the initial signs of his weakness for women other than his wife. Wilkinson identifies the traumatic experience of the Fronde, a series of civil wars in which Louis was challenged by and prevailed over members of the nobility, as the cause of the young king’s fear of nobles; “Louis therefore entrapped his nobility within a gilded cage and controlled them with court ceremonial” while expanding his power abroad, affirming his dominance through his lifelong renovations of the palace at Versailles. The Louis XIV that emerges is by turns pious and pitiably impulsive, though there’s little examination of either state. And Wilkinson’s text requires of the reader a level of historical knowledge that would render this book redundant. Readers hoping for a new authoritative biography of the Sun King will be left wanting. (Mar.)
The Times (London) [praise for Josephine Wilkinson]
"An impressive revisionist biography."
Huffington Post [praise for Josephine Wilkinson]
"Wilkinson bravely tackles the question head on: what really happened to Richard’s nephews, the Princes in the Tower? The writing is incisive, rigorous and academic whilst also being accessible and engaging. Wilkinson will certainly get you thinking."
Kirkus Reviews
2018-11-21
A new biography of "the most legendary king ever to sit on the throne of France."
In this surprisingly dry treatment, British biographer Wilkinson (The Princes in the Tower: Did Richard III Murder His Nephews, Edward V & Richard of York?, 2015, etc.) focuses more on the king's romantic entanglements than on his acts and legacy. For a staggering 72 years, Louis XIV (1638-1715) reigned over an efflorescent France, inheriting the throne at age 4 in 1643 and ruling until just shy of age 77 in 1715. Early on during his reign, he was under the wing of his regent mother, Anne, and influential minister Cardinal Mazarin, and he saw France through numerous costly wars with his European neighbors, conflicts that allowed the country to enjoy political predominance, key annexations, and a flourishing French culture. Schooled by the Jesuits and in the statecraft of the crafty Mazarin, Louis liked the work of running a country and decided to do it himself, breaking with precedent and dispensing with a first minister. He had learned that his noble sycophants, such as the superintendent of finances, Nicolas Fouquet, were robbing him blind, and he embraced his kingly role with relish. Moreover, he desired that France be self-sufficient in various industries and became a fervent patron of French arts and culture, establishing royal academies of dance and letters and subsidizing the work of playwright Molière and composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. Too much of Wilkinson's plodding narrative details the romantic court intrigues, including Louis' extramarital affairs with Louise de La Vallière and Madame de Montespan, and his happy late-life second marriage to the governess of the royal children, Madame de Maintenon. Sadly, the romance rarely sizzles, and the author doesn't provide enough big-picture analysis of significant points in his subject's life—e.g., his stoking of the War of Spanish Succession.
Wilkinson offers little in the way of passion or illumination to enliven this account of the dazzling reign of the Sun King.
