Welcome to Versailles

S1 E1: Louis XIV is 28 years old. It is a year since the death of his mother. He is now alone in the seat of power. Haunted by the trauma of the nobles’ Fronde revolt, he needs to keep his rebellious aristocrats in check. He devises an elaborate Machiavellian plan. He will leave Paris and transform his father’s hunting lodge into the most magnificent château in Europe, the Palace of Versailles. As well as protecting him, and providing a lavish setting for romance, it will keep the nobility away from Paris and close to him. They will realise too late it is a gilded prison. His detractors are many, beginning with his younger brother, Philippe who has been humiliated since childhood. Louis is under threat from outside where a war looms, and beneath his own roof, where the Sun King’s power remains fragile.