Overview

Since BBC 2 premieres its new play set at the sumptuous surroundings of Versailles, Lucy Worsley and also Helen Castor tell the stories of earth's grandest buildings. They disclose the world of intrigue, drama and gender which his courtiers and Louis XIV inhabited. Lucy untangles Louis's complex world of court etiquette, fashion and feasting, while Helen unpicks the world of court legislation and delves in to the archives that Louis created. We meet up with the folks behind the on screen characters and see that which drove Louis to glorify his reign on a scale unmatched by any preceding monarch, examine the strain between Louis and his brother Philippe, a battle protagonist and overt homosexual, plus so they meet up with the coterie of women who competed for Louis's attention. We see that Louis was succeeded in beating his enemies and callous in his quest for glory. In his reign, France became renowned.