You could call Fraser's new book, Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King, a sort of prequel. It was the Sun King (1638-1715) who set himself up as the all-powerful constellation ...

Louis was able to project an image of himself as the centre of gravity around which all of France revolved: it’s no accident that he became known as the Sun King. He centralized power to the ...

"King Louis XIV was the 'Sun King,' and so this would have been an emblem representing his power," Post says. "His colors were blue and gold, and so to have a blue diamond with a gold sun in the ...