In the orbit of the Sun King

[Wombat]

In the orbit of the Sun King ~` The Globe & Mail

She has taken a fascinating slant, examining this charismatic and sexy king (I think of him as the Mick Jagger of kings) by looking at the women he loved. Wisely, she begins with Louis's mother, Queen Anne of Austria (who was, in fact, Spanish), a powerful emotional and moral force in his life. She was a beauty in her youth; one princess noted that she would vouch for the Queen's virtue "from the waist down, but not from the waist up."

[heather]

  I didn't realise that Lady Antonia Fraser was 74 ! :huh?:

[LouisFerdinand]

King Louis XIII appointed a regency council for his son, Louis XIV so that his wife, Anne of Austria would not be able to govern alone. Within a short period of Louis XIII's demise, Anne called upon the Parlement de Paris to abolish the council and have herself named as sole regent.

[LouisFerdinand]

Anne of Austria fostered in Louis XIV a belief that he was imbred with a divine and absolute mandate to rule France.