* 1644 – Louise de La Vallière, French mistress of Louis XIV of France ( d. 1710 )

Upon the death of Louis XIV and the abandonment of Versailles, the Paris high society became the purveyors of style.

* 1672 – Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.

In 1650 the Minuet, originally a peasant dance of Poitou, was introduced into Paris and set to music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and danced by the King Louis XIV in public, and would continue to dominate ballroom from that time until the close of the 18th century.

Toward the latter half of the 17th century, Louis XIV founded his ' Académie Royale de Musique et de Danse ', where specific rules for the execution of every dance and the " five positions " of the feet were formulated for the first time by members of the Académie.

Louis XIV of France sought to knock Emperor Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement.

The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667 – 1714.

For the Grand Alliance – Austria, England, and the Dutch Republic – the battle had followed an indecisive campaign against the Bourbon armies of King Louis XIV of France in 1705.

Yet despite his opponents ' setbacks Louis XIV was desirous of peace – but he wanted it on reasonable terms.

Encouraged by these early gains Louis XIV urged Marshal Villeroi to go over to the offensive in the Spanish Netherlands and, with victory, gain a ' fair ' peace.

With Prince Eugene's subsequent success at the Battle of Turin in northern Italy, the Allies had imposed the greatest loss of territory and resources that Louis XIV would suffer during the war.

The Duke of Marlborough had intended the 1705 campaign – an invasion of France through the Moselle valley – to complete the work of Blenheim and persuade King Louis XIV to make peace, but the plan had been thwarted by both friend and foe alike.

Determined to show the Grand Alliance that France was still resolute, Louis XIV prepared to launch a double surprise in Alsace and northern Italy.

Although Louis XIV wanted peace he wanted it on reasonable terms ; for that, he needed victory in the field and to convince the Allies that his resources were by no means exhausted.

Following the successes in Italy and along the Rhine, Louis XIV was now hopeful of similar results in Flanders.

Far from standing on the defensive therefore – and unbeknown to Marlborough – Louis XIV was persistently goading his marshal into action.

Villeroi, posting himself near Offus, watched anxiously the redcoats ' advance, mindful of the counsel he had received on 6 May from Louis XIV – " Have particular care to that part of the line which will endure the first shock of the English troops.

But these French horsemen were amongst the best in Louis XIV ’ s army – the Maison du Roi, supported by four elite squadrons of Bavarian Cuirassiers.

What was left of Villeroi ’ s army was now broken in spirit ; the imbalance of the casualty figures amply demonstrates the extent of the disaster for Louis XIV ’ s army: ( see below ).

When Louis XIV learnt of the disaster he recalled Marshal Vendôme from northern Italy to take command in Flanders ; but it would be weeks before the command changed hands.

" Louis XIV was more forgiving to his old friend – " At our age, Marshal, we must no longer expect good fortune.

The Dutch, however, who had supplied the major share of the troops and money to secure the victory ( the Austrians had produced nothing of either ) claimed the government of the region till the war was over, and that after the peace they should continue to garrison Barrier Fortresses stronger than those which had fallen so easily to Louis XIV ’ s forces in 1701.

Only from Spain did Louis XIV receive any good news where Das Minas and Galway had been forced to retreat from Madrid towards Valencia, allowing Philip V to re-enter his capital on 4 October.

All in all though, the situation had changed considerably and Louis XIV began to look for ways to end what was fast becoming a ruinous war for France.

" Instead of continuing the momentum of victory, however, cracks in Allied unity would enable Louis XIV to reverse some of the major setbacks suffered at Turin and Ramillies.

Famous casuistic authors include Antonio Escobar y Mendoza, whose Summula casuum conscientiae ( 1627 ) enjoyed a great success, Thomas Sanchez, Vincenzo Filliucci ( Jesuit and penitentiary at St Peter's ), Antonino Diana, Paul Laymann ( Theologia Moralis, 1625 ), John Azor ( Institutiones Morales, 1600 ), Etienne Bauny, Louis Cellot, Valerius Reginaldus, Hermann Busembaum ( d. 1668 ), etc.

In the second half of 1945, Thomas began reading for the BBC Radio programme, Book of Verse, broadcast weekly to the Far East providing Thomas with a regular income and bringing him into contact with Louis MacNeice, a congenial drinking companion whose advice Thomas cherished.

They also underpin the fact that Rossini himself was an outstanding pianist whose playing attracted high praise from people such as Franz Liszt, Sigismond Thalberg, Camille Saint-Saëns and Louis Diémer.

He chose Louis Van Lint, one of the most respected Belgian abstract painters at the time, whose work he liked a lot, to be his private teacher.

It was while she was being entertained by Louis, whose troops occupied Milan, that she offered asylum to Milanese refugees including Cecilia Gallerani, the refined mistress of her sister Beatrice's husband, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who had been forced to leave his duchy in the wake of French occupation.

( The most illustrious aristocratic youth to have been educated this way may have been Louis XVI, whose parents had him learn the skill of locksmithing.

One of Louis ' original plans had been to leave the kingdom of Poland to Mary, whose marriage with Sigismund was more relevant to this end as Sigismund was an heir in his own right to Poland and was intended to inherit Brandenburg, which was nearer to Poland than to Hungary.

At Worms in 829, Louis gave Charles Alemannia with the title of king or duke ( historians differ on this ), thus enraging his son and co-emperor Lothair, whose promised share was thereby diminished.

On 27 May 1234, Louis married Margaret of Provence ( 1221 – 21 December 1295 ), whose sister Eleanor later became the wife of Henry III of England.

Indeed, the official Latin title of the kings of France was Rex Francorum, i. e. " king of the Franks " ( until Louis ' grand-father's reign, Philip II whose seal reads Rex Franciae, i. e. " king of France "), and the kings of France were also known by the title " most Christian king " ( Rex Christianissimus ).

By the beginning of 1384, Mary was engaged to Louis of France, who had been destined to marry her older sister Catherine and whose uncle was the Duke of Anjou.

King Louis VI of France whose fight with the bishops of France forced Honorius to intervene to secure a measure of peace

After reaching adulthood, he was an unlikely candidate for holy orders: widowed and the father of two young women before taking orders, he was successively a soldier and a lawyer, and in the latter capacity had acted as secretary to King Louis IX, to whose influence he was chiefly indebted for his elevation to the cardinalate.

His father Charles was a staunch royalist and accomplished artist whose paintings were displayed and given prizes at the Parisian salon, at least in those years when he was not absent in protest of the rise to power of Louis Napoleon.

Guy's claim was challenged by Conrad of Montferrat, second husband of Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella: Conrad, whose defence of Tyre had saved the kingdom in 1187, was supported by Philip of France, son of his first cousin Louis VII of France, and by another cousin, Duke Leopold V of Austria.

Before leaving school, towards the end of 1855, he became assistant to the painter and professor Louis ( Lodewijk ) Jan de Taeye, whose courses in history and historical costume he had greatly enjoyed at the Academy.

The death of Louis II as he fled the battle marked the end of the Jagiellon dynasty in Hungary and Bohemia, whose dynastic claims were absorbed by the Habsburgs via the marriage of Louis ' sister.

Unlike Louis Antoine de Bougainville, whose reports from a journey to Tahiti a few years earlier had initiated uncritical noble savage romanticism, Forster had a very sophisticated picture of the societies of the South Pacific islands.

Marquise de Pompadour ( mistress of King Louis XV ), whose name became synonymous with Rococo art, was a great fan of Boucher's, and had the painter under her protection: it is particularly in his portraits of her that this style is clearly exemplified.

It was given to his nephew, Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, whose descendants still bear the surname.

The rosary also represents the Roman Catholic emphasis on " participation in the life of Mary, whose focus was Christ ," and the Mariological theme " to Christ through Mary ," taught by Saint Louis de Montfort.

Pope John Paul II ( whose pontificate had major Marian themes ) issued the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae which built on the " total Marian devotion " pioneered by Saint Louis de Montfort.

Eating fresh " garden " peas before they were matured was a luxurious innovation of the Early Modern period: by contrast with the coarse, traditional peasant fare of pease pottage, Potage Saint-Germain, made of fresh peas and other fresh greens braised in light stock and pureed, was an innovation sufficiently refined that it could be served to Louis XIV of France, for whose court at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye it was named, ca 1660-80.