By the 18th century the number of possible identities kept increasing. Some said the man in the iron mask was a bastard son of Anne of Austria (Louis’s mother) and half brother to the king.

But his son, Louis XIV, ... "Versailles was the king's theatre," Vergé-Franceschi, said, adding that Louis XIV even wrote a book about the correct way to visit the gardens.

Video - The 'Code noir,' enacted in 1685 under King Louis XIV, defined the rules of slavery in France's colonies. Prime ...

The future Louis XIV was born in 1638 at the royal palace of his father, King Louis XIII, and his mother, Queen Anne. Born into ostentatious luxury and unlimited power, he wanted for nothing.

In 1661 the 23 year-old French king Louis the XIV had been on the throne for 18 years when his chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin, died. Louis is reported to have said to his ministers ...

It is the late 17th century, and King Louis XIV is at the pinnacle of his power. Versailles is the hub of the French aristocracy, a great beehive dripping with honey — and bristling with stingers.