How to Get Ahead at Versailles

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Stephen Smith

Basil Comely

Ian Leese

Grace Brassington

Nicholas Franklin

How to Get Ahead: Episode 3: At Versailles

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At Versailles

Episode 3

Episode 3: At Versailles

How to Get Ahead

BBC Four - How to Get Ahead, At Versailles

Stephen Smith explores the flamboyant Baroque court of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

Stephen Smith explores the Baroque court of Louis XIV, who created the Palace of Versailles to surround himself with artists, designers, gardeners, chefs and musicians.

Stephen Smith explores the flamboyant Baroque court of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Louis created the Palace of Versailles so he could surround himself with aristocrats, artists, interior designers, gardeners, wigmakers, chefs and musicians. Hordes of ambitious courtiers scrambled to get close to the king, but unseemly goings-on in the royal bedchamber reflected the quickest path to power.

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Factual: History

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

What it took to prosper in the most artistic, decadent and dangerous royal courts.

Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith finds out what it took to survive and prosper in the most artistic, decadent and dangerous royal courts in history.

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