Louis XIV and his Mistresses

Louis XIV ruled France for more than 72 years, the longest recorded reign of any monarch of any sovereign country in history. Despite the devotion of his wife Maria Theresa of Spain, Louis took a series of mistresses, a number of them "official", with whom he had numerous illegitimate children. Yet, for the last three decades of his life, after Maria Theresa's death, he settled down more loyally with the Marquise de Maintenon. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more about the powerful and fascinating women behind the throne of the Sun King, with Dr Linda Kiernan Knowles.

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