Louis XVIII

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Louis XVIII was the most European of the kings of France. A grandson of Louis XV, born in Versailles in 1755, he escaped from Paris in 1791, disguised as an Englishman. He spent the following twenty-three years in exile, in Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland and finally, for seven years, in England, before he was restored to the throne in 1814. As King he renounced French conquests and followed a policy of union with his fellow monarchs in what he called 'the European system'. The interests of France and Britain, in particular, he considered as one.Based on research throughout Europe, Louis XVIII describes not only the public figure, but also the private man who compensated for a loveless and childless marriage by lavishing affection on male and female favourites. It is the only English biography of this critical protagonist of the French Revolution and empire, the last French monarch to die on the throne.