Season 1 • Episode 1
The story of a young Louis XIV on his journey to become the most powerful monarch in Europe, from his battles with the fronde through his development into the Sun King. Historical and fictional characters guide us in a world of betrayal and political maneuvering, revealing Versailles in all its glory and brutality.
3 Seasons Available · Click a season to browse episodes
Versailles, 1667. King Louis XIV is a 28-year-old monarch on the cusp of greatness. A ruthless leader, he will stop at nothing to achieve his vision of creating the most beautiful palace in Europe and seizing absolute control of France and his enemies. In order to rule over the nobility and to permanently impose his absolute power, he launches the construction of Versailles, like one sets a trap. Louis XIV is a young king haunted by childhood trauma, the Fronde, a rebellion of the nobility against his father Louis XIII… Outstanding political strategist, manipulator, Machiavellian, he will “invent” Versailles in order to keep the Nobles away from Paris and under control
Versailles, 1671. Louis has completed the first phase of his project the building far from Paris, of the most beautiful palace in Europe where he will effectively lock up the nobility to exercise absolute control over them. Unexpectedly, his project turns against him. Versailles is riddled with corruption. Louis has created a new civilization, where the courtesans are desperate to get close to the Sun. Behind the rules of etiquette imposed on the court, they dream of elevating their social status, wealth and power. Any and all means of doing so are utilized which inevitably results in the deterioration of morality and the spread of dangerous and poisonous behaviour… Blinded by the love for his favorite courtesan, Madame de Montespan, Louis remains deaf to the Church’s injunctions. The greatest enemy that stands before Louis is no longer the nobility, nor Guillaume d’Orange, it is God who now threatens the Sun King.
Louis XIV is ascendant after winning the war with Holland and solving the Affair of the Poisons -- but his angry citizens are fomenting rebellion.
