Palace of Versailles

On 5 September 1661, Louis XIV had his Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet, arrested by D'Artagnan in Nantes. It reads like an Alexandre Dumas novel because Dumas lifted it wholesale - but the real Sun King was far colder, pettier, and more ruthless than any romance.

On 6 May 1682, Louis XIV moved the French court permanently to Versailles. The palace was not a vanity project. It was the most sophisticated political trap ever built.