Politique, guerre et fortification au grand siècle, Lettres de Louvois à Louis XIV (1679-1691)

How did Louis XIV and his devoted servants work in the secrecy of the apartments at Versailles? How did instructions and information climb and descend different levels of the political and administrative pyramidal structure? How did the 'cabinet strategy,' which allowed the monarch to direct war operations from the Ile-de-Francethroughout Europe, work? The publication in full of the letters and essays sent to the king by the Marquis de Louvois between 1679 and 1691 sheds light on the methods and practices of the government of Louis XIV. These writings belong to a category of documents rarely present in the archives, as many did not survive the reign of the Sun King. Readingbetween the lines, a description of the sovereign also emerges from the correspondence he received from Louvois; the portrait of a bureaucratic king, like his minister, listener or reader of long detailed reports, an engineer and architect king, passionate about military things rather than a general or a leader of men. Louis XIV, therefore, differed greatly from his official description which glorified him as the “rex dux et miles”, the “captain and soldier king”.