The government of Louis XIV developed two taxes during the last thirty years of the king's reign that forced the privileged to pay. This book is a study of how

A detailed analysis of the limitations of the system which relied on intermediaries and private suppliers to finance, build and maintain the French navy. Althou

The personal rule of Louis XIV, following on from a long period of royal minority and apprenticeship, lasted 54 years from 1661 to 1715. But the second half of

Explores the life and court career of Madame de Maintenon. A study in queenship, it reveals how the dynamics of power and gender operated within the realms of e

The first truly global history of the Napoleonic Wars, the world's first world war