Louis XIV: Sun King and Propagandist
Not Just the Tudors
History Hit
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How did Louis XIV use his day-to-day life, especially his marriage, to help create the mythology of the Sun King as semi-divine, radiant and unrivalled?
In 17th-century France, monarchy was performed, witnessed, and widely circulated. Using portraits, medals, sculptures and official pamphlets, Louis XIV meticulously constructed his own image, appearing as Apollo, Jupiter, Hercules, Neptune, a Roman emperor, and even as the sun itself. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and Dr. Abby Zanger explore the Sun King's carefully staged world.
More:
Marie Antoinette
Montaigne: Philosopher of the French Renaissance
Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to walk the halls of Anne Boleyn's childhood home or explore the castles that made up Henry |
| 0:06.8 | the 8th's English stronghold? With a subscription to history hit, you can dive into our Tudor |
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| 0:28.1 | historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:34.9 | Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, |
| 0:40.7 | the podcasts in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, |
| 0:45.2 | from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise, |
| 0:49.8 | relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. |
| 0:54.0 | Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. |
| 1:02.4 | From the moment he woke up, the life of Louis XIV was a performance. |
| 1:13.9 | At 7.30 or 8 o'clock every morning, he was woken by his head, Vallet de Chambre. |
| 1:19.8 | For most of his reign, a man called Alexandre Botton. |
| 1:23.8 | Around the king stood the princes of the blood. |
| 1:27.1 | His chamber pot was removed and Louis drank a cup of sage tea. |
| 1:31.1 | Then the curtains of his bed were drawn and at a quarter past the hour |
| 1:35.4 | the Grand Chamberlain brought in those of the aristocracy |
| 1:38.5 | who had the privilege of the Grand Entree. |
| 1:41.8 | The king remained in bed in his night shirt wearing a short wig. He was |
| 1:46.3 | presented with holy water and his clothes were laid out by the Grand Chamberlain. Then the master |
| 1:52.6 | of the bedchamber and the first servant each took a sleeve of the king's nightshirt and poured |
... |
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