Philip Mansel – författare

Winner of the Franco-British Society Book Prize 2019'The ultimate biography of the Sun King' Simon Sebag Montefiore Louis XIV dominated his age. He extended France's frontiers into Netherlands and Germany, and established colonies overseas. The stupendous palace he built at Versailles became the envy of monarchs all over Europe. In his palaces, Louis encouraged dancing, hunting, music and gambling. He loved conversation, especially with women: the power of women in Louis's life and reign is a particular theme of this book. Louis was obsessed by the details of government but the cost of building palaces and waging continuous wars devastated the country's finances and helped set it on the path to revolution. Nevertheless, by his death, he had helped make his grandson king of Spain, where his descendants still reign, and France had taken essentially the shape it has today.King of the World is the most comprehensive and up-to-date biography of this hypnotic, flawed figure in English. It draws on all the latest research to paint a convincing and compelling portrait of a man who, three hundred years after his death, still epitomises the idea of le grand monarque.

Throughout history rulers have used dress as a form of legitimisation and propaganda. While palaces, pictures and jewels might reflect the choice of a monarch's predecessors or advisers, clothes reflected the preferences of the monarch himself. Being both personal and visible, the right costume at the right time could transform and define a monarch's reputation. Many royal leaders have used dress as a weapon, from Louis XIV to Catherine the Great, and Napoleon I to Princess Diana. This intriguing book explores how rulers have sought to control their image through their appearance. Mansel shows how individual styles of dress throw light on the personalities of particular monarchs, on their court system, and on their ambitions. He looks also at the economics of the costume industry, at patronage, at the etiquette involved in mourning dress, and at the act of dressing itself. Fascinating glimpses into the lives of European monarchs and contemporary potentates reveal the intimate connection between power and the way it is packaged.

Underlining the achievements rather than the failures, of the French emigres in Europe from 1789 to 1814, different specialist essays in this work describe their impact from London to Hungary, from Lisbon to Prussia, and confirm their critical importance in the politics, ideology and culture of their time. The French emigres were more than refugees, they were active, and often remarkably successful, agents on the European struggle against the French Revolution.

This attractively illustrated volume describes the succession of courts and monarchies in France 1789-1830, from the revolutionary period to the fall of Charles X. It shows decisively that the revolution resulted in a stronger monarchy and a larger and more elitist series of courts than had existed previously. The book is based on many years of research in public and private archives throughout Europe. New light is thrown on the nature of the French revolution and on the character and policies of Louis XVI, Napoleon I, Louis XVIII and Charles X, who led their courts through periods of unprecedented formality and splendour.

Levant is a book of cities. It describes Smyrna, Alexandria and Beirut when they were windows on the world, escapes from nationality and tradition, centres of wealth, pleasure and freedom. Using unpublished family papers, Philip Mansel describes their colourful, contradictory history, from the beginning of the French alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century to their decline in the mid twentieth century. Smyrna was burnt; Alexandria Egyptianised; Beirut lacerated by civil war.

Philip Mansel's highly acclaimed history of Constantinople (formerly known as Byzantium) absorbingly charts the interaction between the vibrantly cosmopolitan capital - the city of the world's desire - and its ruling family. In 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople on a white horse, beginning an Ottoman love affair with the city that lasted until 1924, when the last Caliph hurriedly left on the Orient Express. For almost five centuries Constantinople, with its enormous racial and cultural diversity, was the centre of the dramatic and often depraved story of an extraordinary dynasty.

The definitive portrait of Napoleon's court from the unpublished papers of the Emperor's leading courtiers and his second Empress Marie Louise.Napoleon's military conquests changed the world and dominate most portraits of him, but it was through the splendour of his court - a world fashioned beyond the battlefield - that Napoleon governed his empire. The court of Napoleon I, in its grandeur and extravagance, surpassed even that of that the Sun King. Napoleon's palaces at Saint-Cloud and the Tuileries were the centres of his power, the dazzling reflection of the greatest empire in modern European history.The life of the court illuminates the life of Napoleon himself and the nature of a personality that conquered half the world. Yet, he was in the end abandoned by his dynasty and courtiers, his past glories fading into lonely and ignominious exile.Philip Mansel brings to life the intoxicated world of a court 'devoured by ambition', as Stendhal called it: its visual magnificence and rigid hierarchy, mistresses, artists and manipulators.

The French Émigrés in Europe and the Struggle against Revolution, 1789-1814 underlines, for the first time, the achievements rather than the failures, of the Émigrés. The French Émigrés were more than refugees, they were active, and often remarkably successful, agents on the European struggle against the French Revolution.

'Every time gardens welcomed us, we said to them,Aleppo is our aim and you are merely the route.' Al-Mutanabbi Aleppo lies in ruins. Its streets are plunged in darkness, most of its population has fled. But this was once a vibrant world city, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived and traded together in peace. Few places are as ancient and diverse as Aleppo - one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world - successively ruled by the Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman and French empires. Under the Ottomans, it became the empire's third largest city, after Constantinople and Cairo. It owed its wealth to its position at the end of the Silk Road, at a crossroads of world trade, where merchants from Venice, Isfahan and Agra gathered in the largest suq in the Middle East. Throughout the region, it was famous for its food and its music. For 400 years British and French consuls and merchants lived in Aleppo; many of their accounts are used here for the first time.In the first history of Aleppo in English, Dr Philip Mansel vividly describes its decline from a pinnacle of cultural and economic power, a poignant testament to a city shattered by Syria's civil war.

Revised and updated.A poignant testament to the city shattered by Syria's civil war.Aleppo lies in ruins, a casualty of Syria's brutal civil war. Its streets are cloaked in darkness, its population scattered, its memories ravaged. But this was once a vibrant world city, where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived and traded together in peace. Few places are as ancient and diverse. At the crossroads of global trade, Aleppo drew merchants from Venice, Isfahan and Agra to the largest souq in the Middle East and it was from here that some of the world's most enduring food, music and culture sprang.