ABSTRACT
At Versailles Louis practised the art of government by spectacle and through ritual. Versailles meant a way of life of a privileged nobility. It was also the centre of royal government. The palace of Versailles and its artefacts were a deliberate working out of themes of his kingship in terms that could best be appreciated by its occupants and visitors. Louis XIV thought of Versailles as his creation. There is evidence for his constant and informed interest, and occasional interventions in its planning. Versailles was about service, often sacrificial, and loyalty to a master who set the highest example of conscientious work. It was also about uprooting, subservience, intrigue and scrounging. Louis was less emotional and intense in pious observance than was his mother, but he reflected her influence in his daily attendance at Mass.
