Age of Absolutism 3: Bourbon France, 1589-1789 - a podcast by Samuel Biagetti

When we speak of "absolutism," most of us think immediately of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and his splendrous court at Versailles. But those glittering images cover over a centuries-long struggle by the Bourbon dynasty to consolidate power by forging quiet strategic alliances with the lower and middle classes against the nobility, building up a precarious potemkin village that would soon collapse under financial strain, throwing all of Europe into confusion.

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Image: Louis XIV as Jupiter, vanquisher of the Fronde, Charles Poerson, 1650s.

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