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Hello and welcome to the Spectator's Book Club podcast.

I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor for the spectator.

My guest this week is historian Philip Mansell,

his new book, just out in paperback,

is King of the World, A Life of Louis the 14th.

Philip, welcome. Hello. Louis the 14th. Philip, welcome. Hello.

Louis XIV, much written about. What was it when he started that made you think there's

something fresh to say here? I wanted to take a European approach, an international approach to

show he's thinking about Germany, England, Italy, the world, America, just as much as about France.

And also a lot of new documents have come to light, like the complete correspondence of his

second wife, Madame de Mantonne, and many other documents. So there was always something new

to say about Louis XIV and Versailles.

And Louis 14th, you know, to those of us who aren't buried in French history,

he kind of, we think of him generally, caricaturally, sort of in his pomp.

But when he came to the throne, or, you know, before he came to the throne,

France was absolutely on the brink of, you know, it he came to the throne, France was absolutely on the brink of,

you know, it was a very unstable country, wasn't it? Yes, it was in meltdown. The great nobles were rebelling. The Parliament de Paris, the Supreme Law Court, was challenging royal authority.

The people of Paris was putting up barricades and attacking royal officials.

At one time, the royal family had to flee at night from Paris to Saint-Germain in secret.

And it was touch and go. Often provincial cities would close their gates to Louis XIV,

...