Philip Mansel > Quotes

“If you have not seen the court of France, you have not seen what grandeur is.”
― Philip Mansel, King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV

“Here and there the great city takes as it were a breathing time in the country, and then begins again thicker, livelier, more highly coloured”
― Philip Mansel, Constantinople: City of the World's Desire 1453-1924

“The King and his mother sometimes quarrelled about whose dynasty was grander: Louis reminded his mother that his ancestors had been kings of France when hers were mere counts of Habsburg (although, more recently, which may explain part of his ambition, the Bourbons had been mere ducs de Bourbon when the Habsburgs were Holy Roman emperors and kings of Spain). Later, one of Louis XIV’s most admired preachers, Bossuet, would claim that the crown of France was ‘as much above the other crowns of the world as royal dignity surpasses private destinies’.71”
― Philip Mansel, King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV

“The population of the kingdom of France reached 17 million in 1300, more than any other country in Europe.”
― Philip Mansel, King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV