Douglas Johnson

Cut-Throat Courtiers

The Affair of the Poisons: Murder, Infanticide and Satanism at the Court of Louis XIV

By ‘THE FRANCE of Louis XIV’ historians often really mean the court of Louis XIV The King felt that his own court ought to mimic that of the heavens – a multitude of stars, with him, ‘le Roi-Soleil’, at its centre. The royal court, whether it was travelling or stationary, was at the heart of government. It was at court that the life of the King unfolded. It was the only life he knew.

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