King Louis XIV: A Life from Beginning to End

Royalty Biography, Book 6

De: Hourly History

Narrado por: Chance Hartman

He was born on September 5, 1638, in the French lap of luxury otherwise known as the Chateau de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. This extravagant palace of French excess is located about 12 miles west of Paris. His birth name, Louis-Dieudonne, is French for, literally, "gift for God". This belief of divine right, initially inspired by his mother, Queen Anne, would be a powerful theme throughout Louis XIV’s life.

In this book you will learn about....

• "The Conflict of Kings"
• "War and Marriage"
• "The Noose Tightens"
• "The Scorched Earth of Louis XIV"
• "The Balance of Power"
• "Louis’s Last Stand"
• "The Death of the King"
• And much more!

Although he didn’t create absolutism in France, King Louis XIV seemed to embody the divine right of kings better than anyone had before him. Louis XIV directly correlated his own private good with that of the public good. There was really no concept of private property under Louis. The French king viewed all of France as his personal estate, with all who lived and toiled in his domain doing so only under his express permission; even so, not everyone in France had the same sentiment.

The ones who most notably resisted the notion of the king’s absolutism were the French nobles and aristocrats that Louis depended upon to raise armies and defend the country. Despite his theory of absolutism, this dependence on French nobility to bear arms gave them increasing autonomy and independence from the king. It was this independence that would one day come to a head and send Louis, the so-called "Sun King" of divine inheritance, into a full-blown conflict with his own subjects - and the world at large.

©2017 Hourly History (P)2017 Hourly History

Primarily a summary of foreign policy

This biography would have been more interesting if it had included some of Louis' personal life: his mistresses, his attachment to Jean-Baptiste Lully, Molière, etc. Also, the narrator could have done some research on French pronunciation.

An Audible Cribbs

Basic, boring, and uninspired. Louis would be dreadfully disappointed. The only people who could benefit from this are currently sitting in their 7th grade history class.

Disappointed

This is more about France during Louis’s reign than Louis himself. I neglected to look at the timing and this is only a 53 minute listen. I was expecting a full length book so I wasted a credit on something I should have been able to listen to for free on YouTube. Good performance by the reader but other than that, this is a miss for me.