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Shadow of the Sun King

Shadow of the Sun King: Episode 1

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Episode 1

BBC Radio 4 - Shadow of the Sun King, Episode 1

The 300th anniversary of Louis XIV's death - glorious monarch or glorious failure?

Professor Julian Swann offers a 300th anniversary re-evaluation of the life and achievements of Louis XIV of France, known as the Sun King. Glorious monarch or glorious failure?

As we approach the 300th anniversary of the death of Louis XIV, Professor Julian Swann assesses the Sun King's life and achievements - and also examines his key role in unwittingly spurring Britain to become a global super-power.

In the first of two programmes, Swann travels to Paris to visit many of the sites that can claim to be haunted by Louis XIV's legacy - from Versailles and the Louvre to the Palais Royal and Les Invalides.

Louis has often been portrayed as a kind of totalitarian dictator within France and a triumphant warlord abroad. Swann argues that he was neither. As King, he was dependent on negotiating power-sharing with France's nobles - the splendour of Versailles was a political honey-trap, designed to entice the nobility rather than intimidate them. The glorious, glamorous picture we have of Louis was largely the result of frighteningly modern PR on the part of his right-hand man, Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

Abroad, the Sun King's obsessive military adventurism all but bankrupted the country, leaving Louis deeply regretful on his deathbed. His persecution of France's Huguenot Protestants was an appalling own goal, alienating other European powers and seriously harming the French economy.

However, Louis remains one of the most significant monarchs in European history, not least as he embedded a sense of France's greatness into the national consciousness. 

It's intriguing to reflect then that the Sun King's birth was the result of a very rare liaison between his parents, that France was in utter chaos when he was a child - and that his coronation was a fiasco.

Produced by Andrew Green
A Singing Wren production for BBC Radio 4.

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Professor Julian Swann marks the 300th anniversary of the death of Louis XIV of France.

Professor Julian Swann offers a 300th anniversary re-evaluation of the life and achievements of Louis XIV of France, known as the Sun King.

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