When we speak of "absolutism," most of us think immediately of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and his splendrous court at Versailles. But those glittering images cover over a centuries-long struggle by the Bourbon dynasty to consolidate power by forging quiet strategic alliances with the lower and middle classes against the nobility, building up a precarious potemkin village that would soon collapse under financial strain, throwing all of Europe into confusion.
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Image: Louis XIV as Jupiter, vanquisher of the Fronde, Charles Poerson, 1650s.
Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong