Louis XIV, Andre le Notre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles
Warmonger, womaniser, and autocrat, Louis XIV, France's self-styled "Sun-King", was also history’s most fanatical gardener. At Versailles, twelve miles outside Paris, he created not only Europe’s most lavish palace, but, beginning in 1661, the most extensive gardens the Western world has ever seen. Assisting Louis in this enterprise was the low-born gardener André Le Nôtre, whose character and temperament were as...
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