Download or read book Godfather of the Revolution written by Tom Ambrose and published by Peter Owen Publishers. This book was released on 2008-05-01 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While there are a great many books on Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the rest of the French Royal Family, the crucial role of the Duc d'Orleans—the man who bankrolled the French Revolution—has been inexplicably overlooked, and this is the first biography to appear in English for many years. This is despite the fact that he was the only member of a royal house ever to join a revolution against its monarchy and to vote for the judicial murder of the king. As well as bringing vividly to life the famous heroes and villains of the French Revolution, Tom Ambrose introduces the reader to a host of colorful and truly unforgettable characters, including Philippe's friend the Chevalier de Saint-George ("the Black Mozart") with whom he cofounded the first French anti-slavery society, the Duc's mistress Madame de Genlis, femme fatale and leading intellectual of the age, and—most significantly—Philippe himself, a towering figure in one of the most significant periods of European history.
Download or read book Brother to the Sun King written by Nancy Nichols Barker and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 1989-03-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In battle he fought with legendary valor ...At court, dressed in silks and ribbons, he openly favored his male lovers ...Despised but feared by his brother, he was the perpetual loser in a lifelong sibling rivalry ...Brother to the Sun King: Philippe, Duke of Orleans.
Download or read book Philippe Duc D Orleans written by Christine Pevitt and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of the true ruler of France after the death of Louis XIV explores his unconventional personal life, the challenges he faced at home, and his unprecedented foreign policy
Download or read book The Orl ans Collection written by Vanessa I. Schmid and published by GILES. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new volume on the exceptional art collection of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, including masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Veronese, Correggio, Poussin, Rubens, and Rembrandt.
Download or read book A Prince of Pleasure written by Hugh Stokes and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Love and Louis XIV written by Antonia Fraser and published by Anchor Canada. This book was released on 2010-06-25 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The superb historian and biographer Antonia Fraser, author of Marie Antoinette, casts new light on the splendor and the scandals of the reign of Louis XIV in this dramatic, illuminating look at the women in his life. The self-proclaimed Sun King, Louis XIV ruled over the most glorious and extravagant court in seventeenth-century Europe. Now, Antonia Fraser goes behind the well-known tales of Louis’s accomplishments and follies, exploring in riveting detail his intimate relationships with women. The king’s mother, Anne of Austria, had been in a childless marriage for twenty-two years before she gave birth to Louis XIV. A devout Catholic, she instilled in her son a strong sense of piety and fought successfully for his right to absolute power. In 1660, Louis married his first cousin, Marie-Thérèse, in a political arrangement. While unfailingly kind to the official Queen of Versailles, Louis sought others to satisfy his romantic and sexual desires. After a flirtation with his sister-in-law, his first important mistress was Louise de La Vallière, who bore him several children before being replaced by the tempestuous and brilliant Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. Later, when Athénaïs’s reputation was tarnished, the King continued to support her publicly as Athénaïs left court for a life of repentance. Meanwhile her children’s governess, the intelligent and seemingly puritanical Françoise de Maintenon, had already won the King’s affections; in a relationship in complete contrast to his physical obsession with Athénaïs, Louis XIV lived happily with Madame de Maintenon for the rest of his life, very probably marrying her in secret. When his grandson’s child bride, the enchanting Adelaide of Savoy, came to Versaille she lightened the King’s last years – until tragedy struck. With consummate skill, Antonia Fraser weaves insights into the nature of women’s religious lives – as well as such practical matters as contraception – into her magnificent, sweeping portrait of the king, his court, and his ladies.
Download or read book A Woman s Life in the Court of the Sun King written by Charlotte-Elisabeth Orléans (duchesse d') and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 16 November 1671, Liselotte von der Pfalz, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the Elector of Palatine, was married to Philippe d'Orleans, "Monsieur, " the only brother of Louis XIV. The marriage was not to be a happy one. Liselotte (known in France as Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchesse d'Orleans, or "Madame") was full of intellectual energy and moral rigor. Homesick for her native Germany, she felt temperamentally ill-suited to life at the French court. The homosexual Monsieur, deeply immersed in the pleasures and intrigues of the court, shared few of his wife's interests. Yet, for the next fifty years, Liselotte remained in France, never far from the center of one of the most glorious courts of Europe. And throughout this period, she wrote letters - sometimes as many as forty a week - to her friends and relatives in Germany. It is from this extraordinary body of correspondence that A Woman's Life in the Court of the Sun King has been fashioned. As introduced and translated by Elborg Forster, the letters have become the remarkable personal narrative of Liselotte's transformation from an innocent, yet outspoken, girl into a formidable observer of great events and human folly.
Download or read book My Dearest Minette written by Charles II (King of England) and published by Peter Owen Publishers. This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles II was a renowned ladies' man but, arguably his greatest love--though not in the Biblical sense--was his sister Minette. Separated from her in their youth by a royal inter-marriage, his letters reveal a tender and humane side not often seen in biographies of this cunning and calculating monarch.
Download or read book The World That Made New Orleans written by Ned Sublette and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: STRONGNamed one of the Top 10 Books of 2008 by The Times-Picayune. STRONGWinner of the 2009 Humanities Book of the Year award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.STRONG STRONGAwarded the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award for 2008. New Orleans is the most elusive of American cities. The product of the centuries-long struggle among three mighty empires--France, Spain, and England--and among their respective American colonies and enslaved African peoples, it has always seemed like a foreign port to most Americans, baffled as they are by its complex cultural inheritance. The World That Made New Orleans offers a new perspective on this insufficiently understood city by telling the remarkable story of New Orleans's first century--a tale of imperial war, religious conflict, the search for treasure, the spread of slavery, the Cuban connection, the cruel aristocracy of sugar, and the very different revolutions that created the United States and Haiti. It demonstrates that New Orleans already had its own distinct personality at the time of Louisiana's statehood in 1812. By then, important roots of American music were firmly planted in its urban swamp--especially in the dances at Congo Square, where enslaved Africans and African Americans appeared en masse on Sundays to, as an 1819 visitor to the city put it, &“rock the city.&” This book is a logical continuation of Ned Sublette's previous volume, Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, which was highly praised for its synthesis of musical, cultural, and political history. Just as that book has become a standard resource on Cuba, so too will The World That Made New Orleans long remain essential for understanding the beautiful and tragic story of this most American of cities.
Download or read book Monsieur Second Sons in the Monarchy of France 1550 1800 written by Jonathan Spangler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-28 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, this volume brings together the history of the royal spare in the monarchy of early modern France, those younger brothers of kings known simply as ‘Monsieur’. Ranging from the Wars of Religion to the French Revolution, this comparative study examines the frustrations of four royal princes whose proximity to their older brothers gave them vast privileges and great prestige, but also placed severe limitations on their activities and aspirations. Each chapter analyses a different aspect of the lives of François, duke of Alençon, Gaston, duke of Orléans, Philippe, duke of Orléans and Louis-Stanislas, count of Provence, starting with their birth and education, their marriages and political careers, and their search for alternative expressions of power through the patronage of the arts, architecture and learning. By comparing these four lives, a powerful image emerges of a key development in the institution of modern monarchy: the transformation of the rebellious, politically ambitious prince into the loyal defender – even in disagreement – of the Crown and of the older brother who wore it. This volume is the perfect resource for all students and scholars interested in the history of France, monarchy, early modern state building and court studies.
Download or read book The Betrayal of the Duchess written by Maurice Samuels and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fighting to reclaim the French crown for the Bourbons, the duchesse de Berry faces betrayal at the hands of one of her closest advisors in this dramatic history of power and revolution. The year was 1832, a cholera pandemic raged, and the French royal family was in exile, driven out by yet another revolution. From a drafty Scottish castle, the duchesse de Berry -- the mother of the eleven-year-old heir to the throne -- hatched a plot to restore the Bourbon dynasty. For months, she commanded a guerilla army and evaded capture by disguising herself as a man. But soon she was betrayed by her trusted advisor, Simon Deutz, the son of France's Chief Rabbi. The betrayal became a cause célèbre for Bourbon loyalists and ignited a firestorm of hate against France's Jews. By blaming an entire people for the actions of a single man, the duchess's supporters set the terms for the century of antisemitism that followed. Brimming with intrigue and lush detail, The Betrayal of the Duchess is the riveting story of a high-spirited woman, the charming but volatile young man who double-crossed her, and the birth of one of the modern world's most deadly forms of hatred. !--EndFragment--
Download or read book Anne of Austria written by Ruth Kleinman and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Anne of Austria (22 September 1601? 20 January 1666) was Queen consort of France and Navarre, regent for her son, Louis XIV of France, and a Portuguese and Spanish Infanta by birth. During her regency (1643?1651) Cardinal Mazarin served as France's chief minister. Accounts of French court life of her era emphasize her difficult marital relations with her husband Louis XIII, her closeness to her son Louis XIV, and her disapproval of her son's marital infidelities."--Wikipedia.
Download or read book The Chevalier de Saint Georges written by Gabriel Banat and published by Pendragon Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Banat, a concert violinist and teacher, describes the life of this virtuoso violinist, who is thought to be the earliest black European composer, born on his father's plantation on Guadeloupe.
Download or read book The Life of Henrietta Anne written by Melanie Clegg and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography of the seventeenth-century English princess tells a sweeping tale of war and exile, marriage and scandal, and a triumphant reversal of fortune. Henrietta Anne Stuart, youngest child of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, was born in June 1644 in the besieged city of Exeter at the very height of the English Civil War. The hostilities had separated her parents, and her mother was on the run from Parliamentary forces when she gave birth with only a few attendants on hand. Within a few days she was on her way to the coast for a moonlit escape to her native France, leaving her infant daughter in the hands of trusted supporters. A few years later, Henrietta Anne would herself be whisked, disguised as a boy, out of the country and reunited with her mother in France, where she stayed for the rest of her life. But Henrietta’s fortunes dramatically changed for the better when her brother, Charles II, was restored to the throne in 1660. After being snubbed by her cousin Louis XIV, she would eventually marry his younger brother Philippe, Duc d’Orlans, and quickly become one of the luminaries of the French court—though there was a dark side to her rise to power and popularity when she became embroiled in love affairs with her brother-in-law Louis and her husband’s former lover, the dashing Comte de Guiche, giving rise to several scandals and rumors about the true parentage of her three children. However, Henrietta Anne was much more than just a mere court butterfly. She also possessed considerable intelligence, wit, and political acumen, which led to her being entrusted in 1670 with the delicate negotiations for a secret treaty between her brother Charles II and cousin Louis XIV—which ensured England’s support of France in their war against the Dutch. This is the story of her remarkable life.
Download or read book The Splendid Century written by W. H. Lewis and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2016-08-09 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Splendid Century,” penned by the brother of famous author C. S. Lewis (“Alice in Wonderland”), is a depiction of various aspects of life in France during the reign of Louis XIV, gleaned through the author’s thorough research of records, correspondence, and journals of the time. Using anecdotal evidence, the book probes in detail various facets of life in France during this time, including the lives of nobles (particularly those at court) as well as commoners, religious institutions and conflicts, the organization of the French army and its restructuring, rural life and city life, what life was like on galley ships and passenger sailing ships, how doctors were trained, and the state of women’s education. The author also discusses the background behind Louis XIV’s policies, illustrating their impact on French civilization, both during this time and for generations to come. A must-read for anyone interested in French history.
Download or read book The Life and Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds written by Sir Joshua Reynolds and published by . This book was released on 1853 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Secret Wife of Louis XIV written by Veronica Buckley and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon and secret wife of the Sun King, Louis XIV, was born in a bleak French prison in 1635, her father a condemned traitor and murderer, her mother the warden’s seduced daughter. A timely pardon and a hopeful Caribbean colonial venture failed to mend the family’s fortunes, and Françoise was reduced to begging in the streets. Yet, armed with beauty, intellect, and shrewd judgment, she was to make her way to the center of power at Versailles, the most opulent and ambitious court in all Europe. At fifteen, she was married off to the forty-two-year-old satirical poet Paul Scarron, a former roué now grievously deformed by rheumatism—“a sort of human Z,” as he described himself. Despite his ailments, Scarron presided over the liveliest and most scandalous literary salon in Paris, and Françoise quickly became its most prized ornament. After Scarron’s death, she enjoyed a merry widowhood in the fashionable Marais district, in the company of the courtesan Ninon de Lenclos and the King’s splendid mistress, Athénaïs de Montespan, who made the young widow governess to her brood of illegitimate children. The appointment transformed Françoise’s life, but was fatal to the temperamental Athénaïs herself, with the King soon turning his attentions to the graceful governess. Françoise was raised to the nobility as Madame de Maintenon—and, unofficially, “Madame de Maintenant,” the lady of the moment. The acclaimed biographer Veronica Buckley traces the extraordinary story of Françoise’s progress from pauper child to salonnière to the compromised position of Louis’s secret wife and uncrowned Queen. An absolute ruler, Louis turned away his many other mistresses to live with Françoise only, trusting her as his closest confidante and remaining in love with her for forty years. Sparkling with the irresistible wit of contemporary chroniclers such as Madame de Sévigné, this exactingly researched biography is a pinnacle of the form. In vibrant colors, The Secret Wife of Louis XIV paints a portrait of Europe in an age of violent change, and the Sun King’s France in the process of becoming its modern self.
