Louis XIV presided over the grandest and most extravagant court in Europe. This is the King

who built Versailles, who lived his life as a theatrical event, and who, being only

five foot three, wore red high-heeled shoes, lethala rouge, and a rather fabulous wig.

He was King of France from 1643 until 1715, 72 years and 110 days. He married in June

1660 to Marie-Thérèse of Austria, and he began his personal role from 1661 because he

had been a child when he first came to the throne. And one thing you may know about Louis

XIV is that he had a number of mistresses. So today, my guests will help me consider the

image, the influence, and the insecurity of the French royal mistress. Dr Linda Kernernos

is adjunct the system professor at Trinity College Dublin. She's written about the mistresses

of Louis XIV, and she helped shape an exhibition in Paris that you can see if you can get there

at the Centre Côte-Royle Irrande called How to Be Good, that looks into these themes.

Linda is an absolute joy to talk to you about women in 17th-century France, a subject

close to my heart, but we're going to be talking about women very different from the ones

I've studied, so we're going to be thinking about far more important, is that the word?

At least more elite women. We're going to be thinking about them at the court of Louis

XIV. So first of all, could you describe his court to us?

So first of all, thanks the million for having me, it's lovely to chat to you today. So

to describe the course of Louis XIV, it's a very different political system to any that

we would be aware of today, perhaps. It's very complex in the sense that the way that

power is distributed throughout the course is dependent really kind of from the centre

of power, the King, and Louis really situates himself at this centre, we all know him as

the sun king, so he heightens that imagery, and so a lot of the influence is derived from

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