Queen Elizabeth II had a magnificent reign, however she was not the longest reigning monarch to ever exist globally.

But there was another European monarch who reigned for even longer: King Louis XIV of France, whose reign lasted seventy-two years, from 1643 to 1715. Louis’s influence was vast, both at home ...

Louis XIV's reign of 72 years and 110 days was from 1643 to 1715. But he only started to rule personally in his 20s, in 1661. The Queen became monarch at the age of 25, following the death of her ...

“To faint was a fault past hope of pardon,” wrote the Duke of Saint-Simon in his Memoirs of Louis XIV, an insider’s ... bedroom assignations during the reign of the Sun King.

The resulting regime was then severely tested by the challenges of Louis XIV's late reign; its survival demonstrated how the king had brought a distinctly early modern state to the height of its ...