ABSTRACT
Academics tend to regard Louis XIV's sex life as no fit subject for a serious historian. Yet while there is obviously a danger in sensationalism, Louis's mistresses and illegitimate brood played a significant role. His relationships with them throw revealing light on his personality. During the years when Athenais de Montespan was Louis XIV's official mistress, between 1668 and 1682, the Sun King shone brightly. These were the years in which Versailles was planned and built, when the French army invaded Holland, when the court flourished in all its splendour. According to the duchess of Orleans: La Montespan had a whiter complexion than La Valliere: she had a beautiful mouth and fine teeth, but her expression was always insolent. Louis's last mistress and his second wife, Mme de Maintenon, was an autumnal figure. He has been praised, for instance by Antonia Fraser, for being such a generous lover, both to his maitresses en titre and to more transient girlfriends.
