Used book – Les reines de France au temps des Bourbons, Simone Bertière

An extension of the fascinating saga of the Queens of France, crowned with the Chateaubriand-La-Vallée-aux-Loups History Prize, this volume, which can be read independently, brings to life the longest reign in our history.

Of Louis XIV's two women, one, the insignificant Marie-Thérèse of Spain, held the title of queen, but not the vocation. Françoise de Maintenon, his secret wife,

had the abilities, but her obscure birth prevented her from claiming the title.

Between them, the gallery of mistresses, alternately showered with favors and sacrificed, illuminated and burned by the overwhelming personality of the Sun King: Marie Mancini, the lost love of his youth; the tender Louise de la Vallière, whose disgrace would be a Stations of the Cross;

the dazzling Montespan, splashed by the sinister Affair of the Poisons... Many others, certainly kept away from political affairs, but whose personalities would give the reign its successive colors.

As a scrupulous historian, but also an inspired biographer, Simone Bertière brings these exceptional figures back to life. She recreates around them the Court of Versailles and the history of the reign, all the rustle of the Grand Siècle with its alternately pleasant and serious, splendid and tragic aspects.