Q & A

What interested you about Louise de la Vallière??

A reader recently wrote:

“I enjoyed the book very much–you did the near impossible–you brought Louise Vallière to life and made her a comprehensible and touching character to modern eyes.

“Usually in most histories on Louis XIV, she is presented as crying ninny who goes off to a convent when Louis moves into Versailles, but you actually made her life interesting.”

For me it was the contrast of the conventional portrait of Louise as—as the reader says—a “crying ninny” and wall-flower, together with the accounts of her amazing ability on horseback and as a hunter that provoked my curiosity.

“What’s wrong with this picture?” I thought.

And thus began my consuming interest in her.