What do you think?
Rate this book
Louis XIV: King Of France And Navarre
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1928
22 people want to read
About the author
C.S. Forester
237 books987 followersCecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 13, 2018
C.S. Forester – Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre
A biography of King Louis XIV written by an author who mostly appears to write historical fiction making the book a very enjoyable and easy to follow read. It’s less a life and times of King Louis XIV and more a focus on Louis’ life alone homing in on the different character which were most important to him at different stages in life; e.g. His mother Anne of Austria, Cardinal Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, Montespan and Mainenon are probably the main 6 if we exclude his mortal enemies e.g. William of Orange, Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough.
Rather than preceding in a strictly linear sequence through the years, chapters are laid out in a thematic way (different life events/priorities) and therefore many can overlap. My favourite chapters are probably 2, 6 and 11.
Chapter 2 focuses on the civil war before Louis XIV’ birth resolved by Cardinal Richelieu, largely put down to the rift in King Louis XIII and Anne of Austria’s marriage whilst acknowledging the multitude of other causal factors involved (e.g. Spain, religion, anti-monarchy sentiment within the nobility mirroring issues in England and the Holy Roman Empire to some extent.) According to this it’s astounding that King Louis and his brother Phillipe were even born 20 years into their parent’s marriage.
Chapter 6 offers great technical insight into Colbert’s efforts to fix the economy and civil service and the author seems to favour Colbert above many of King Louis’ associates.
Chapter 11, beginnings of the duel delivers the great ups and downs of Louis’ wars that continue in later chapters and often harkens back to how close a universal kingship of Europe or unmatched power must have been to Louis’ grasp had he not made some tremendously foolish decisions often based on his segregation from normal people, democracies and underlings who were there to obey not to advise when it came to later years.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is the author’s fair and justified evaluations of Louis’ character, motivation and weaknesses rather than just writing in a ‘this happened at this time resulting in that…’ formula.
The best examples of the author’s fair conclusions around Louis’ character and failings seem to apply when something goes wrong. E.g. Louis’ inability to act effectively against Monstespan, likely the biggest culprit in the killing of rival nobles during the Affaire des Poisons because it would not be ‘dignified’ to arrest the mother of one batch of his children.
This same weakness can be seen Louis’ failure to take an undefended Amsterdam at the height of France’s apparent victory during the Franco Dutch war. His caution or ‘dignity’ compelled him instead to safely take every city, castle and fort one at a time, which ultimately allowed William of Orange’s first escape and the opening of the dikes, defensively flooding the low lands.
I do like the redeeming quality of King Louis’ loyalty in his last 30 years to his final mistress Maintenon and how this compounded a lot of the larger back decisions he was already making e.g. edict of Nantes.
The only improvements I would suggest for the book is that there could be more of it, written in the same style. There are quite a limited number of pages compared to many other historical biographies.
A biography of King Louis XIV written by an author who mostly appears to write historical fiction making the book a very enjoyable and easy to follow read. It’s less a life and times of King Louis XIV and more a focus on Louis’ life alone homing in on the different character which were most important to him at different stages in life; e.g. His mother Anne of Austria, Cardinal Mazarin, Colbert, Louvois, Montespan and Mainenon are probably the main 6 if we exclude his mortal enemies e.g. William of Orange, Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough.
Rather than preceding in a strictly linear sequence through the years, chapters are laid out in a thematic way (different life events/priorities) and therefore many can overlap. My favourite chapters are probably 2, 6 and 11.
Chapter 2 focuses on the civil war before Louis XIV’ birth resolved by Cardinal Richelieu, largely put down to the rift in King Louis XIII and Anne of Austria’s marriage whilst acknowledging the multitude of other causal factors involved (e.g. Spain, religion, anti-monarchy sentiment within the nobility mirroring issues in England and the Holy Roman Empire to some extent.) According to this it’s astounding that King Louis and his brother Phillipe were even born 20 years into their parent’s marriage.
Chapter 6 offers great technical insight into Colbert’s efforts to fix the economy and civil service and the author seems to favour Colbert above many of King Louis’ associates.
Chapter 11, beginnings of the duel delivers the great ups and downs of Louis’ wars that continue in later chapters and often harkens back to how close a universal kingship of Europe or unmatched power must have been to Louis’ grasp had he not made some tremendously foolish decisions often based on his segregation from normal people, democracies and underlings who were there to obey not to advise when it came to later years.
One of the book’s greatest strengths is the author’s fair and justified evaluations of Louis’ character, motivation and weaknesses rather than just writing in a ‘this happened at this time resulting in that…’ formula.
The best examples of the author’s fair conclusions around Louis’ character and failings seem to apply when something goes wrong. E.g. Louis’ inability to act effectively against Monstespan, likely the biggest culprit in the killing of rival nobles during the Affaire des Poisons because it would not be ‘dignified’ to arrest the mother of one batch of his children.
This same weakness can be seen Louis’ failure to take an undefended Amsterdam at the height of France’s apparent victory during the Franco Dutch war. His caution or ‘dignity’ compelled him instead to safely take every city, castle and fort one at a time, which ultimately allowed William of Orange’s first escape and the opening of the dikes, defensively flooding the low lands.
I do like the redeeming quality of King Louis’ loyalty in his last 30 years to his final mistress Maintenon and how this compounded a lot of the larger back decisions he was already making e.g. edict of Nantes.
The only improvements I would suggest for the book is that there could be more of it, written in the same style. There are quite a limited number of pages compared to many other historical biographies.
August 5, 2021
A historical biography by Forester which means it's chock full of facts and arranged in a rather haphazard fashion. Very thorough, covering Louis' life from birth to death. Actually from the period leading up to his birth and the political climate of the time. Chapters cover both Louis and important members of his court, including ministers and several mistresses. Numerous battles are covered, plus Versailles and Louis' use of diplomacy. Each chapter is a scholarly work, and sometimes one needs to be a scholar to know what is going on. Having knowledge of the Six Year War, the Thirty Years War, and European geography along with the important people of the time is almost a necessity to follow the plot. And the chapters are arranged somewhat erratically. They jump from topic to topic, from person to person, often overlapping time periods.
Despite the problems it is a very informative biography. Louis spends his youth on the run before his succession can be secured. Because of this he becomes very security conscious. Before Louis the nobility of France all ran little fiefdoms with their own armies. Louis cleverly calls all the Barons and Dukes and such to Paris. Anyone who stays behind will not get any money, not get any new titles, not get any new land. They all come to live with Louis, and lose power in their own lands due to their absence, so that Louis need no longer fear them. Louis surrounds himself with sycophants, and important positions are generally filled with someone he can control. This includes military positions. A few of his generals are decent, most are inadequate, which is not good since Louis has France at war for practically his entire reign. Louis himself is an overly cautious general, but an exceptional diplomat.
Much time is spent of Louis' mistresses, which their were many. And a crazy lot they were. One in particular made liberal use of potions and poisons, which was common practice at the time. Love potions for Louis, poisons for her enemies. She also practiced some less common activities: black masses, devil worshipping, and human sacrifice. One must assume given the way that potential poisoning was prevented that there were several food tasters that were madly in love with this woman.
Of course there are interesting chapters on Versailles and its astronomical cost, to the detriment of the French people, and court etiquette. Even though it is clearly explained it is almost unfathomable to comprehend how the most important people in all of France fought amongst themselves for the right to watch Louis XIV put on his underwear every single day for fifty years. Good times!
Despite the problems it is a very informative biography. Louis spends his youth on the run before his succession can be secured. Because of this he becomes very security conscious. Before Louis the nobility of France all ran little fiefdoms with their own armies. Louis cleverly calls all the Barons and Dukes and such to Paris. Anyone who stays behind will not get any money, not get any new titles, not get any new land. They all come to live with Louis, and lose power in their own lands due to their absence, so that Louis need no longer fear them. Louis surrounds himself with sycophants, and important positions are generally filled with someone he can control. This includes military positions. A few of his generals are decent, most are inadequate, which is not good since Louis has France at war for practically his entire reign. Louis himself is an overly cautious general, but an exceptional diplomat.
Much time is spent of Louis' mistresses, which their were many. And a crazy lot they were. One in particular made liberal use of potions and poisons, which was common practice at the time. Love potions for Louis, poisons for her enemies. She also practiced some less common activities: black masses, devil worshipping, and human sacrifice. One must assume given the way that potential poisoning was prevented that there were several food tasters that were madly in love with this woman.
Of course there are interesting chapters on Versailles and its astronomical cost, to the detriment of the French people, and court etiquette. Even though it is clearly explained it is almost unfathomable to comprehend how the most important people in all of France fought amongst themselves for the right to watch Louis XIV put on his underwear every single day for fifty years. Good times!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews