A fascinating new television series - Versailles

Way back in 1966 a fascinating book was published by historian Nancy Mitford. Simply titled, "The Sun King," it was a very readable biography of how Louis IV became the most influential and secure of all western-world monarchs -- not by conducting wars (although he did a lot of that, and they did break the bank in the end) but by building the most elaborate palace in the western hemisphere, Versailles, and forcing everyone who wanted to be someone to live there.

He realized that to be a great king meant dominating all art and social interaction, and conducting it in one central location. Up until his reign, French noblemen dominated French kings, including Louis' father, even conducting humiliating power grabs such as the Fronde. Louis completely neutralized the influence of all French noblemen by forcing them to live in Versailles where "favor" and "status" were carefully handed out by none other than the king himself. He even used clothing as a tool, Acceptable attire for attending court was full of expensive French lace, French silk, lots of French ribbons, everything French, and a single outfit cost a month's wages.

As a result, Versailles became the glittering center of the entire Baroque age, and French styles and art dominated the world. I was fascinated by this story as related in Nancy Mitford's book, and somewhat surprised when the Beatles song, "Here Comes the Sun King." was released. It was only recently that I read an interview with Paul McCartney where he mentioned George Harrison reading the same book and then writing the song.

I was very surprised at this because I figured that I was one of maybe three people in the whole world who had actually read the book, and maybe one of two people who had actually purchased it.

I strongly recommend the book, but for those of us who like all things Baroque and especially all things Versailles, there is a new TV series out now titled, "Versailles." The really great news about this is that the series is done as historically accurate as possible without sacrificing the drama of the story. See http://dailyhistory.org/How_Historically_Accurate_is_season_1_of_Versailles%3F