Louis XIV

Description

I was an invited panellist for BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, the acclaimed series presented by Melvyn Bragg which attracts weekly audiences of over two million listeners. Of the three panellists I was the close expert while the other two had more general expertise in the 16th-17th and 17th-18th centuries respectively. The series, going for almost 25 years, deals with a vast range of topics about the shaping of the world and brings expert academics to the general public in a free-flowing discussion based around a series of questions. This episode examined the life, impact, importance, state and governmental system of King Louis XIV of France (r.1643-1715), the so-called Sun King, whose reign has been the centre of my professional work since 1992.